[DrunkSmurf]

Hi when you talk about your garden or the garden fence, do you mean what we Americans call the "backyard" or do you literally mean like a flower garden?

In the United States, our style of aesthetics appears to be huge tracts of featureless, mowed grass. I don't completely understand. It's like a green desert.

Maybe that style is dying out. Around here, at least, people's front yards look like true gardens with short trees around the front of the house, stonework, and bushes. Our backyards tend to have more trees--especially flowering trees--than what I remember growing up in a different region. My neighbors have flowering plum and redbud trees, and I planted a Japanese cherry in my front yard (sigh, now I can get soused and view the cherry blossoms in my own front yard).

As a kid, I remember neighborhoods being grass deserts with occasional maple trees to break the monotony.

[FlamingO]

Hi Drunksmurf.

I call the area enclosed by a fence at the back of the house our garden.
It has a lawn, flowerbeds, bushes etc.

We tend to describe it as a yard if it is all flagstones or concrete.

Of course the average garden in the UK is quite small, and new houses in towns or cities these days are built with very little accompanying land.

[Tojo]

Yes for me too a garden encompasses everything that isn't paved. It could also be subdivided into a vegetable garden (or plot), herb garden & flower garden (with flower beds - not for lying on ). The grassy bit is the lawn.

My garden has all of the above as well as lots of trees, some huge ones & some fruit ones (apple, plum, mirabel) as well as some hazelnut trees. Having 100sq.metres to look after I'm always very busy (er, except in winter where I avoid leaving the warmth of the hearth )

[Bunno Smurf]

We tend to alternate between the two. Sometimes Mr Bunno says I'm going out to work in the garden and sometimes he says I'll be in the backyard. Both mean the same thing really.

We're on a 700+sq metre block and about 2/3 of the block would be garden/backyard, the house taking up the rest. The front yard is just grass with a flower garden border and a council required tree bang smack in the middle surrounded by a rosemary border. The back yard is mostly grass/weeds with a vegie patch down the back and a couple of sad looking fruit trees.

[Rachel]

Interesting topic Tim.

I would agree with Flamingo

Everything within your boundries is your garden, so this can include lawn, flower beds, vegetable plots, patio and even the drive way.

Like others here, I do love gardening and am looking forward to the spring when I can get back out there.

[DrunkSmurf]

Hi thanks for all the responses. I like the sound of "garden" better than "yard".

My back garden is slowly returning to jungle. I had/have a problem with spidermites making my bushes look like they have dandruff, and slowly losing leaves, then dying. "spidermite" Poison hasn't solved the problem. Amputating the worst affected branches (and letting more sunshine reach the inside of the bushes) slowed the death process down. I think the problem began during a drout a few years back when I didn't sufficiently water the bushes and they grew more susceptible to the spider attacks. I'm tempted to let them die and start over again fresh. Maybe scorched earth measures are needed, but the wife would get mad if I burned down the house.

[ChunkMasterMC]

In Australia we call a garden the parts of dirt that have plants in them. The lawn is the grass. The yard is everything inside your fence line including gardens, lawn, and any pavers of cement. For example:

I have a massive yard...with a few trees...a garden with weeds...and a dead lawn

Ahhhh...Sounds like an oasis!!!!

[SA Smurfette]

I have a massive yard...with a few trees...a garden with weeds...and a dead lawn

Ahhhh...Sounds like an oasis!!!!

Sounds like mine Renee, except for the MASSIVE part.

With water restricions in place it's hard to keep the lawn alive

[SMURFYSTEVE1]

Of course the average garden in the UK is quite small, and new houses in towns or cities these days are built with very little accompanying land.

Not necessarily true as my nan's first house had a very large garden area and it was divided into three sections. one for the dogs, one for the veg and the other for the pigeon lofts......

She had it all in together, grass, concrete and flowered.....


Smurfy regards
Steve

[southernyacht]

There are days when I wish our garden was small!!

We live on a corner plot on a hill so have 5 separate lawns - all on different levels. It makes mowing the lawn a nightmare .

...which is probably why we tend to leave mowing the lawns until the only part of the cat we can see is his tail

Cathy x

[Tojo]

Oh how I hate mowing the lawn. I need between 1 & 2 hours to mow everything as there are so many trees, hedges, bushes, paths, a swing, slide & sandpit & other obstacles to simple forwards & backwards mowing. I'm usually knackered by the time I'm finished especially when the temperature is in the upper 30's.

Part of our lawn almost died off completely last summer as it was so hot & dry that the pine trees drained the surface of the ground of all the water. Where the deep rooted trees are the grass remained really lush.

[SA Smurfette]

I need between 1 & 2 hours to mow everything

Wow, how big is your yard, Tojo?
If it takes that long I bet you don't look forward to mowing it then

[SA Smurfette]

It's ok, I just read your post above...100sq metres

[Tojo]

Hi Raelene,

actually our piece of land is 1100 sq.m. The house & outbuildings take up about 100 sq.m. , the driveway is around 60 sq.m. & the vegetable patch is another 30 sq.m. but that still leaves a lot of garden much of it being grass (not the smoking sort unfortunately ) At least this time of year the grass sort of goes to sleep & doesn't need mowing. Phew!!

[SA Smurfette]

Hi Raelene,

actually our piece of land is 1100 sq.m.

I can understand why it takes so long now
Still, it would be great to have that much garden Not like my yard, we live next to a laneway and have every man and his dog looking over our fence or into the house as they wonder past

When I look out my kitchen window I would say our negihbours house on the other side is probably only 3 metres away !

[DrunkSmurf]

Hi Raelene,

actually our piece of land is 1100 sq.m.

In the good old days, we could "hire a boy" to take care of the lawn matter. In the US, at least, lawn care charges US$40 or more per hour.

*I'm estimating that based on quotes for my yard, US$20, which takes a half-hour to mow. The local kids have all been incorporated by the lawn mafia, which blows out the kneecaps of any youngster who agrees to mow for $10 and a glass of lemonade. Seriously, there really is a sort of lawn mafia. A pair of burly guys drive around the city in a pickup truck, towing their riding mower and push mower. They have about 10 burly sons between them (presumably a woman or pair of women contributed to this situation; the pair of mowers don't seem to be the sorts to embrace alternative lifestyle bolstered by adoptions).

[Syd Smurf]

I went for a walk with Tojo around his garden.....it's really quite huge....lots of apples....but I didn't have time to sit on any of them

Dyar

[eggie smurf]

I went for a walk with Tojo around his garden.....it's really quite huge....lots of apples....but I didn't have time to sit on any of them

I'm sure Tojo and the apples all had a huge sigh of relief

[Tojo]

I'm not sure the kids would have wanted to drink the juice afterwards

If you'd asked Dyar you could have taken some with you & sat on them in private or on the train Next time perhaps

[DrunkSmurf]

Is sitting on apples an inside joke?