Break Out the Pink Flamingoes – Find Friends for Life?

Break out the pink flamingoes?  Study says lawn decorations enhance friendliness, sense of community.

While some may look down at a neighbor whose lawn is bursting with pink flamingoes, garden gnomes and the like, a new study says that, for some, that whimsical decor is a key to feeling at home.

Researchers from the University at Buffalo studied 1,000 residents of nearby Elmwood Village, which in 2007 was named one of the 10 Great Neighborhoods in America, to get to the bottom of residents expressing themselves with their front lawns.

Long story short:  The livelier and more open the front yard, the more the resident felt content with, and connected to, their home, and their neighborhood as a whole.  The researchers call it a “sense of place.”

“The study concludes that most elements that residents place in their front yard positively influence their sense of place, but that especially elements that afford sociability of the public–private interface have an outsize positive influence.”

The latter part is a bit of a mouthful, but it boils down to this:  The more the residents express themselves with their front yards — from flower pots to sports flags — the more it opens social interaction with neighbors, which also strengthens the local community.

This was also found in a 1997 study, which showed that nearly 75% of friendships ,forged within neighborhoods, started on the front lawn.