What makes a neighborhood a community? Is it holiday decorations, strollable sidewalks, or HOA-stipulated paint colors? Laughing children, knowing your neighbors and aesthetic beauty are all components of your surrounding neighborhood. But I think front porches create a neighborhood community.
Almost every TV decorator acknowledges the need for a front porch and two comfortable chairs. These three items, along with a cup of coffee, help to create community by connecting us. On these same shows, even homes without a porch receive a porch area with the two prescribed chairs, becoming part of the front yard.
Why is the front yard sitting area so important? How does it create neighborhood cohesiveness? Being friendly from your porch is far better than Gladys Kravitz peeking out from behind the curtains. Front porches are not just drop off points for zucchini. A beautiful, calm area entices people to respond with a friendly hello. Even Barbie the neighborhood cat will join porch parkers, waiting for a treat and a pet.
There are basics to a successful front porch. It must be sit-able with chairs and a small table to hold a glass of sweet tea. Just as with life, it must change to be interesting. There must be color. Add some twinkly lights and be ready for your neighbors to remark how warm and comforting those little lights are on a foggy drive home in the winter.
Now is the time for color. Bright colored geraniums, citronella fragrant plants, house plants that want to move outdoors in the spring all are ready to jump to the front porch. Begonias will bloom for three seasons and stop when Rudolph is ready to appear. Coral bells provide small, waving flowers over brightly colored leaves, happily living in a pot year-round. A show stopper of a plant will draw questioning walkers up to your porch. Coleus is a tender annual with colors that will knock everyone’s socks off. They are a must have on a “temptation-to-sit” front porch.
Have trouble imagining a new look? Ask your kids for help. A walk around the backyard may inspire a new idea. A large galvanized metal milk can, wrapped in twinkly lights and surrounded by potted plants, is a great start. How about an old wooden ladder? Create some wooden shelves for mosquito chasing candles and citronella gardenias. Old bricks stacked or old stumps at various heights will create eye appealing plant stands. Children think out of the box because they have not yet been put in a box. Childish whimsy is an attribute we all should cultivate.
Community grows with sharing. We all laugh about zucchini being ditched at the door but would that laughter fade when the delivery is the most delicious tomatoes you’ve ever tasted? Or how about the neighbor that cannot destroy those Japanese maple seedlings and has fifty in pots throughout their yard. Think about spreading those shade-producing fall color
generators. Just think, a neighborhood filled with Japanese maples at each home, all produced from one mother tree.
We humans flock together for many reasons. Our sense of community starts with a front porch full of flowers.
Julie Silva is a University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener of Tuolumne County.
