Re: Yard vs Garden

**"* S* <m*@gmail.com>**

I was raised in rural Maryland, back when there WAS a rural part of
Maryland. Except for pastures, barn yards, and crop fields, all outside
areas were the "yard." My mother ran a nursery, so she had gardens within
the various yards--front yard, side yard, back yard--and they were also
named--formal border, shrub border, daylily garden, alpine garden, bog
garden, iris patch, peony bed, and of course, vegetable garden, brambles,
and apples.  The hardy lime trees at the end of the strip of lawn between
the shrub border and the formal border were not named because they were for
home use only.

I must be giving various editors fits because I still consider all outdoor
space the "yard." Gardens are planned, planted, cultivated, and so on. Yards
are where all of this activity takes place. Ground covers are there to cut
down your work but certainly aren't considered "gardens" unless they are
integral to a larger planting. Mostly, we had them so there wasn't any need
to mow. We had only one area of grass--a small strip about 50 feet long by
30 feet wide. Other than that, everything was in gardens or ground
cover--which my mother was happy to dig and separate to sell to a customer
when asked.

It's hard for me to dignify lawn and foundation plantings with the term
"garden."

Miranda
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