Backyard gardens, as important elements of suburban environments, could have significantly sustainable potential. This concept has already been written about in the academic literature, but is primarily aimed at the design of community gardens (Guitart, Pickering, & Bryne, 2012), rather than those in a backyard. Although my design is aimed at suburban backyards, the intention is for it to simply be a template for each separate site. The provision of a garden area, although diminishing, gives us the opportunity to implement thoughtful design to make it a productive and sustainable place. According to Thiele (2013), sustainability requires “meeting current needs without sacrificing future well-being through the balanced pursuit of ecological health, economic well-being, social empowerment, and cultural creativity.” Sustainable backyard garden design aims to achieve this on a local scale in newly built urban residences and, in doing so, introduce sustainability concepts to the average household. The impacts of increasing population growth and land conversions involved in urban development have created concerns about future global food demand and make sustainable community planning and resource efficiency necessary for the future (Ghosh, 2012). This makes designing a sustainable backyard garden critical to allowing a degree of home independence, low maintenance, and an attempt at self-sufficiency. Not only is design key to developing sustainability in our gardens, but it is also able to take into account current conditions to relate to surrounding landscapes (Cross and Spencer, 2012). In continuing this sustainable approach, we must first look at the design process, ...... middle of paper ......12. “Past Achievements and Future Directions in Urban Community Garden Research.” Urban Forestry and Urban Greening 11: 364-373 DOI: 10.1016/j.ufug.2012.06.007Lamba, Baldew and Grace Chapman. 2010. “Teaching Sustainable Design: A Practical Interdisciplinary Model.” Hort Technology 20(3): 487-494Sustainable Gardening Australia (SGA). 2014.Sinnamon, Liz. 2013. “Introduction to 'The Self-Sustaining Garden'.” Warm Earth 111: 8-9 Thiele, Leslie Paul. 2013. Sustainability. Politics PressTurner, Betaney. 2011. “Embodied Connections: Sustainability, Food Systems, and Community Gardens.” Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability 16(6): 509-522 DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2011.569537Tyrrell, Ian. 2008. “Environment, landscape and history: gardening in Australia”. Australian Historical Studies 38(130): 339-347 DOI: 10.1080/10314610708601252