Backyard

Backyard is an urban web application that facilitates the sharing of expertise and workmanship in the maintenance and gardening of backyards. It consists of a social network that puts in contact people with a backyard that needs improvement or work (tenants) with people willing to do this work (gardeners). It then incorporates a user-friendly design tool that helps both tenants and gardeners outline design and improvement proposals for the backyard. This shall encourage exchange of ideas and building up of trust between the owners of land and work providers while linking the proposal to material suppliers. It then provides a payment system for work and materials. 

The proposal addresses aspects of home improvement, in this case backyards, more linked to recreational aspects. It is meant to provide a vital help for larger home improvements (repaving, landscaping, conservatories or garden sheds), more frequent maintenance tasks (garden upkeep, mowing the grass or similar) or even food production. 

The proposal builds up on existing web services that partially address the problem but are not currently integrated. On the one hand there are social networks for sharing land and workmanship which help to connect tenants with workers / gardeners. On the other there are garden planners or web-based toolkits that help individuals plan their garden improvements. What this proposal intends to do is combine these tools in an integrated application in such a way that the design aspect of the toolkit shall help build trust and enthusiasms in the users of the social network. It also intends to add an easy and safe payment method which may include schedule for long building works.