Gardening By The Yard Episodes

dianadc2103

Hello Everybody!

This is my first post in the English Only forum... I wanted to ask you a question referring to the usage of the terms "garden" and "yard". I have always used "garden" to describe a green area around my house, with a cobbled area, a lawn, many trees and lots of flowers around. Moreover, I saw on TV many animated children's songs entitled "In the garden", "I go down to the garden" etc. describing that kind of "garden". I am also familiar with the word "yard", especially when used to describe a back/front yard, but I thought it was is usually associated with a paved or cobbled area or a small lawn in the front/back of the house.
Well, my firm beliefs shattered yesterday, when an American friend of mine (from Connecticut) told me that in the USA they use the word "garden" only to describe a vegetable garden, otherwise they call it a "yard". The WR says that "garden" can both refer to a plot for growing vegetables and flowers. So now I am lost. Can anyone throw light on that? How are those two words actually used? Is my garden a "garden" or a "yard"? Is there maybe a difference between BE and AE ?

Thanks in advance for your help!

entangledbank

Yes, this is a BE/AE thing. For all of us, the group of beds of soil containing flowers is a garden. But as a major part of the land a house sits on (which may contain several gardens in the first sense, among other things), in BrE we have a front garden and back garden, whereas in AmE they're a front yard and a back yard.

For me, a garden (in the first sense, at least) contains flowers. If it had no flowers, only vegetables, it would be a vegetable garden, not a garden.

Welcome to EO, dianadc2103!

> Is there maybe a difference between BE and AE ?

There may be, let's wait and see. I'm with you on gardens, and for me, a yard would need to paved over. (Cross-posted)

Keith Bradford

Your childhood experience is similar to standard British usage.

As a child, my house had a back yard (floored with bricks or stone slabs) and

also

a back garden (grass, flower-beds, trees). The AE usage where yard = flower garden seems quite alien; though I've grown used to hearing it on film, I would

never

use it.

As for the vegetable area, in Britain this is a vegetable garden or (smaller) a kitchen garden or (away from the house, usually provided by the local authority) an allotment.

dianadc2103

Thanks a lot for your prompt responses (and your welcome, Beryl!)! The problem is that my mother was American (and I think she never used the word "yard") so I basically speak AE ... but, here in Italy, at school they usually teach BE: that's why I'm sometimes confused, especially now that I am teaching English to my two little ones ... nappy or diaper? trousers or pants? And now: garden or yard? Moreover,, if "garden" is not used in the USA meaning a green area with flower-beds and trees, how come they have beautiful parks called "gardens" like i.e. the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, CA? I wish I could also get the contribution of an AE mother tongue on this! Thanks again for your help, this forum is awesome!

sdgraham

We do, indeed , use "garden" as in "meaning a green area with flower-beds and trees"

The difference comes when referring to the area around a house, which we call a front or back "yard."

The yard might or might not contain a garden. Depending upon the nature of the occupants of the home, a "yard" might contain nothing but junk. (a condition encountered occasionally in the U.S., but something I never observed in the U.K.)

See: www.duckswild.com/junk1.jpg for an example.

Last edited: Apr 26, 2013

bluegiraffe

Depending upon the nature of the occupants, a "yard" might contain nothing but junk. (a condition all too common in the U.S., but something I never observed in the U.K.)
See: www.duckswild.com/junk1.jpg for an example.

Come round and see my next-door neighbours... unfortunately their yard is full of junk. I use the word yard as my back garden has no grass, flowers or anything growing at all. It is a small concrete area. Sometimes I call it a yard, sometimes a garden. If it had grass, I would not call it a yard.

JulianStuart

Come round and see my next-door neighbours... unfortunately their yard is full of junk. I use the word yard as my back garden has no grass, flowers or anything growing at all. It is a small concrete area. Sometimes I call it a yard, sometimes a garden. If it had grass, I would not call it a yard.

I have bolded what I think is the key difference in usage in the AE BE forms. In AE and BE, there may be many things referred to, singly or in combination, as "garden" - formal, tea, vegetable, flower, rose etc. However, in BE there is only one thing that qualifies as a yard - paved, cobbled, gravel etc., but NO vegetation (except perhaps weeds between stones or pavers).

dianadc2103

Thank you very much! You' have all been very kind and clear in your explanations. I really appreciate it!

Prairiefire

Here's one vote from the American Midwest telling you to trust your mother and ignore your Connecticut friend, who is too much of a stickler. If my husband tells me he is going out to the garden, I will not be surprised if I look out the window later and see him standing on the grass in the yard, rather than in the vegetable plot or the flower border.

Prairiefire

DianaDC, as a 14th-generation English-speaking American, I qualify as about as native an AE speaker as you are going to find. I'm again going to say "Trust your mother." You are correct about the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco or the Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama. Lots of grass and open space in both places.

If a yard has absolutely no shrubbery, flowers, vegetables or anything other than grass and a driveway, I would be surprised to hear someone call it a garden, but I wouldn't consider their aspirational terminology to be an error. But very few yards are so unadorned. I also notice that the section of my local hardware store that is now filled up with seasonal lawn seed, lawn mowers, flowering plants, and vegetable seeds is called the "Garden Center."

dianadc2103

Thanks to everybody for your useful contributions ! RM1 your pictures were really self-explaining. Just a last question for you: so in the USA (or at least in the Midwest) you would never use the word "garden", stand alone without further specifications (flower garden/vegetable garden), referring to a yard (as Prairiefire had suggested in post N.15?) ? But it is ok referring to city parks, right?

Well, I guess in AmE it is so: some "yard" (meaning the area around a house) isn't always a "garden", but some "garden" (meaning the area around a house) is always a "yard".

Keith Bradford

RM1 SS 's photos are absolutely clear -- for an American context.

But in Britain, a yard is this <dead link removed>

or else this

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dianadc2103

Well, thanks to you all, the theory now is perfectly clear .. in practice I'll just have to decide whether to use the word "garden" or "yard" with my kids. I think I'll make a Solomonic decision and … teach them both !

JulianStuart

Well, thanks to you all, the theory now is perfectly clear .. in practice I'll just have to decide whether to use the word "garden" or "yard" with my kids. I think I'll make a Solomonic decision and … teach them both !

No Solomon required - just teach them to use the word that is appropriate for country of their reader/listener.

natkretep

Interesting thread. And despite the differences, it's the Garden of Eden or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for all varieties of English. And we always talk about botanic(al) gardens.

Strange, that nobody here was thinking about "

vineyard

"? Because nobody, in BE nor AE will speak about a vinegarden, isn't it?
In Dutch the word Gaardenier <---> refers more to a yard with threes or bushes, rather than vegetables.
What's more, why nobody mentions "yardberries"?
In my opinion thus, the word with "-yard" refers more to fruit than to vegetables. Wether on trees, bushes or annual plants like strawberries, is not important. Conclusion is also that the origin of yard is much older, and rather dating from before people had vegetables and flowers in their

yard

.
A gardner was not busy with vegetables nor flowers, but managed(cultivating, training, a.s.o.:

fruit

< Non-English words removed. Cagey, moderator >

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<-----Off-topic comments removed by moderator (Florentia52)----->

Thanks for your warm welcome!

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In Britain, certainly in Kent where is was first planted and also East Sussex where I have lived most of my life, we have the Hop Garden, which was certainly called that for centuries since it was first imported in the 1500's.

Welcome!

Kent, the Garden of England (and Sussex is not to be sniffed at). Yes, a hop garden is (Wikipedia):