Here are a few pictures of the yard

Here is a link that might be useful: Backyard

Not sure I'm getting the picture of your driveway in my head...

My favorite house growing up had a small backyard and a shared drive. The drive widened slightly to split with a fence between yards. We had the straight shot back to a covered carport. The carport was an extension of a shed.

What made the yard work in terms of privacy, child safety (we were youngsters at the time), and pets was fencing.

I would guess the dimensions of that backyard to be maybe 30 x 40?

There were 4 "destinations" in this little yard. First, an open lawn area with one columnar tree (a pear, yes, so not necessarily a recommendation). Second, in the back left corner of the yard was a secret "pocket" garden, probably no bigger than about 8' x 10'. This litttle garden had an arbor entrance and the only substantial tree grew right beside the inner leg of the arbor, marking the corner of an L-shaped low hedge around the third "destination", an outdoor utility area, between the pocket garden and the shed. That's where in those olden days there was a compost heap, an incinerator, and anything else that could be stored outside and out of view. And the fourth space was the shed, carport, driveway.

So this little yard had a faux "back" created by shrub, narrow arbor, medium-sized tree, and hedge. This line diminished the dominance of the shed which stood in the back right corner.

The plants? There was an incredible diversity in the relatively narrow perimeter borders. These borders were right at the fence line and often the fence was used to support a vine or an espalieried dwarf fruiting shrub. The border not on the driveway side was about 4 or 5 feet deep. The tiny border between fence and driveway was probably 12 inches, which I wouldn't normally recommend, but which worked very well in that climate.

Anyway, the key was the 5' wooden fencing. The enchantment came from the plants, so I sort of see a conflict between wanting next-to-no maintenance and wanting a child friendly space.
Wellspring

My first house had a shared driveway... I was the one that usually shoveled snow off it, so it wasn't totally shared as far as the chores. The neighbors were renters, and his groundscrew only shoveled the sidewalk in front of his house leaving his portion of the driveway unattended. But enough of my whinning! Like Wellsprings description and your photo, my driveway split into a "Y" for parking. The yard area between the "Y" was also jointly landscaped to give my yard and the other a unified appearance by sharing a tree and understory shrub bed. The rest of the yard (landscaped by the previous owner) carriend the same theme throuhout with similar border material and plant material. Just a thought considering your limited space. From the photo it looks like nobody their really has much room for plant material or has planted much at all, so you may be a trendsetter for the block.

Wellspring, I'll describe the photos for you.

The cement drive leads away from the street, passes between the two houses, then a few feet past the houses it curves to widen into a T shape. Cityguy parks one car at the top of the T, and a second car just to the right of the first car. (With our backs to the house and the street, the neighbor has the left-hand part of the T.) Alongside the length of the narrow driveway, on the side of the house, Cityguy has about 2' of grass between his house and the driveway; the neighbor's house is directly adjacent to the driveway.

At the top of the T, between the right-hand edge of the driveway (where the second car is parked) and the other neighbor's property line, is 20' of grass. That grass is continuous back to cityguy's house. The neighbor on that side has a wooden deck behind his house on cityguy's side; it's about a foot off the ground and has no railing. The two houses are about 8' apart, and that area is grass with a slight swale. (The backyard itself is flat.)

There are no fences or hedges on any of the property lines. No perimeter plantings at all. In fact, all of cityguy's back and side yards are grass, except for a cleared area maybe 6' by 12' at the far back of his lawn area, which was apparently formerly the veggie garden.

Cityguy's house is maybe 25' wide, apparently one story, with a sloping roof (no visible gable end). Pale bluish gray with white trim, a dark gray roof, and a reddish brick foundation. There is a door in the center of the straight back wall. Three steps down, no landing, then a narrow sidewalk slightly left of perpendicular from the house. This sidewalk meets up with the edge of the driveway where the second car is parked.

Between the house, the sidewalk and the curve where the driveway widens is more or less a quarter-circle; this area is also grass. The radius of the grassy area is about 8 or 10'.

If I am understanding Wellspring correctly, it would not look out of the ordinary to have a fence between my yard and my next door neighbors yard, but have shrubs along the back border of my yard. My wife and I were wondering if a fence would make sense if it wasn't enclosed on all four sides.

Would you happen to have some pictures of types of shrubs to use as the back border? Also are there any pictures you could direct me to on the web that show samples of a completed "tiny" backyard. I have a hard time visualizing things so if I could see something completed it would help me in deciding how to proceed with the yard.
Thank you!

Cityguy-

I can sometimes visualize things, but I can no longer see...hence I didn't pick up on the lack of fences and hedges in your situation. You mentioned that "My wife and I were wondering if a fence would make sense if it wasn't enclosed on all four sides."

The situation I described is from 35 years ago in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Houses and lot sizes tended to be smaller and always, always enclosed by fences, front yards as well as back. What I described partly worked because it was the norm for all the houses. We had fencing on all four sides, extending along the back property line then from the back corner all the way to the front sidewalk, along the sidewalk until interrupted by the driveway. It was not a gated entrance, but the fencing then continued on the other side of the drive -- the neighbor's front yard. The front entrance of our house was two steps down to the sloped driveway. The narrow drive split slightly behind the back line of our house with two gates, one for each homeowner. Again there was a fence between our back yard and the neighbor with whom we shared the drive up to the split.

The "hedge" I mentioned was about 8 or 9 feet from the back fence. It created space for a secret "pocket" garden in one corner, a utility area in the middle, and the shed in the other corner.

Wish I could show you a picture or draw one for you. There are a number of reasons why what I'm describing may not be at all useful for you to consider, although I still think that defining the perimeter of your property as much as possible will help create a greater sense of enclosure and privacy.

But it was really your desire for child and dog safe / friendly space that got me thinking fence. There simply isn't a better way to corral 2-legged and 4-legged critters. You can use "green" fencing instead of standard fencing, but of course, you know that if you don't enclose all 4 sides, the critters are free to roam.

With up to 4 cars backing up to leave daily I would sure put a fence around 1 area of yard. Would make it safer for child & dog & you probably will want some kind of swingset for your little one or playhouse etc. Your backdoor should be inside that fence so if the child gets out couldn't get out onto driveway. I remember at least 2 shared driveway accidents out here where little ones were killed. You can't be everywhere at once & if have another child older 1 could run out. The 1 case the little girl followed daddy out. You don't want that.Doesn't take kids long to figure out how to get out.

Hi,

Like you I also want to have privacy and here is what I have found from searching the web. I just hope this helps.

Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Living large in a small yard

Cityguy,
Be careful considering a fence too close to that telelphone pole.
If you bought the home you are in, check your deed, you have a utility easement in it, with the specific feet around that pole you can't place anything.
They will spray it with poision if they come out for maintainous and see you have planted a tree next to it.
Try to fence closer to your patio or walk, you can buy bamboo fence that is beautiul and easy to put up and just fence closer to your back door and put big green plants in front of it.
As to the shared drive, I need a pic to be able to picture what you are talking about.
Is your house a twin?

Thank you for the info on the telephone pole!
This is the best pic I have on the shared driveway (see link below)

The two cars shown in the picture are my cars. To the right of the cars is the other section of the driveway which is equal width to mine and belongs to my neighors. In the background, you will see the space between the two houses. This is the part of the driveway that is shared wheh we pull up to our respective parking spots. The house is not a twin.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shared Driveway