Yard vs Garden

**C* T* E* <c*@gardenvista.com>**

    Interesting you brought this up, Daryl, because for years I've toyed 
with the idea of writing a piece about these terms.  I grew up in 
southern California calling any home landscape a "yard."  Then when I 
was fifteen I spent a month in London with my great aunt.  I referred to 
someone's outdoor landscaped space as their yard.  My great aunt got on 
my case (made a deep impression on me) and said it is a garden.  A yard, 
she told me, is the utility space where you store your rubbish bins 
(trash cans to Americans) and other unsightly utilitarian things.  Then 
a few years ago I got talking to the gardening experts at Colonial 
Williamsburg in Virginia, and they told me that in colonial days, the 
yard was the outdoor work space - where the laundry was done (open fires 
to boil the huge wash cauldron), things stored, etc.   Gardens would 
have been the cultivated space, either ornamental or vegetable (very 
high class to have an ornamental - or pleasure - garden in those 
days).   Clearly the British connections were still strongly felt, and 
the terminology came with them across the Atlantic.  I don't know when 
the vocabulary started to shift in this country. 
    So partly due to the influence of my great aunt in London (now 
deceased, but her legacy continues) and partly due to the fact that I 
think "yard" is an ugly word to describe something lovely, I always 
refer to cultivated space around a home as a garden, and I feel very 
peeved when an editor will occasionally - and arbitrarily - change the 
word to yard.
    Catriona

dp2413@comcast.net wrote:

>25 years ago, "garden" meant vegetables. Everything else was "yard"
>
>In my part of the south, "landscape" to too many is a boring blend of foundation shrubs and Bermudagrass Lawn. People with "landscapes" may have flower gardens, sometimes herbs, rarely vegetables. 
>
>The trend now is towards outdoor living and outdoor rooms, of course. While people might have a landscape designer, I don't think there's a consensus on the term. I think "landscape" will win out. 
>
>"Landscape" has remained the term for cohesive plantings and hardscape among many gardeners, but see pp 2 for how the suburbanites regard it. 
>
>Has this confused your confusion?  ;-)
>
>Daryl
>
>
> -------------- Original message ----------------------
>From: jo ellen meyers sharp <hoosiergardener@sbcglobal.net>
>  
>
>>What do southerners call their gardens? Does garden mean veggies or 
>>flowers or both? Do landscape and flower garden mean the same thing?
>>
>>Does 'southern' imply vegetable gardening in the south? Other 
>>comments? Thoughts?
>>
>>Thank you.
>>
>>jems
>>
>>    
>>
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