One of many conundrums about gardens and balconies is the contrasting preferences of different households when they try to assess their need for private open space. Clearly many people make private open space an important factor in their choice of house or flat; some want more outside space and others less, while some don’t want any at all. Some have an acute need for privacy while for others getting as much sunlight as possible is the over-riding factor. Some, especially those with children between the ages of, say, three to eleven years, enjoy having access to a large shared garden while others consider that this type of increasingly prevalent ‘semi-private’ space is no compensation for not having a proper outdoor space of their own.