A garden? I've been watching a British program called "Escape To The Country". There are several things that strike me, but one is the tendency to call everything around the houses a "garden". When you are looking at an acre and a half of land, that isn't a garden, that's a yard, and a freaken' big one at that! For all of us Americans, that's 65,340 sq. feet or 7260 sq. yards.
Yet all concerned happily term this a garden, even though this is a lawn with proper lawn grass. It may have flowers, usually around the borders, but us Americans would likely term it a backyard or maybe a lawn.
I've seen them call a two acre plot a garden, even when they are stabling and riding a couple of horses on it.
I won't mention the prices, except to call them palatially-priced by our standards. A high six figure price, in USD (converted from 2014 UK prices). An attached garage, particularly a two-car garage, is close to being non-existent. Not even a carport! Which, in the UK's climate, suggests an amazingly low imagination.
But the British horribly abuse the term "garden". ;-(
Comments
Two nations etc
...divided by a common language.
For me, living in the UK, the use of 'yard' by USians to describe the land surrounding a dwelling is not the way we would use it. In the UK, in my experience, a 'yard' is (usually) the rear land of a small house, often a terrace, which is almost completely paved over by some means: bricks, slabs, concrete or tarmac.
Yards are also, of course, used to describe commercial areas, such as where lorries (trucks) are kept, or goods are stored and sorted.
Conversely, a 'garden' is usually an area of land, small or large, which is mostly given over to grass and/or flower beds or other decorative planting. I think the land would only be called a 'lawn' if there was no border, although of course the grass part of a garden would be called a lawn!
Any land which is primarily used for keeping horses should properly be called a 'paddock'. Any other use is usually by Estate Agents (Real Estate Agents: Realtors?) who have no idea what they are talking about but want to make the property more attractive, ie earn them a bigger cut.
As for keeping cars in garages, almost nobody does that any more. Reason? Modern cars are just too big!
Penny
Or
The garage is just too small. ;-) Tear it down and replace it with something more normal-sized. The UK is far too attached to things just because they are old. That generally means they are not really useable or serviceable/suitable. Tear it down and replace it with something that actually can be used for the purpose needed. BTW, even here in Oklahoma, not everybody drives a vehicle you laughingly describe as a "Chelsea Tractor". A normal car these days easily fits into the smallest garages.
My yard may be a bit steep, but the only flowers are weeds, which I'm doing my best to eliminate. My front lawn has a few flowers, sensebly tucked up by the front door. The rest is grass and is easily mowed. Just think about how much more free time you'd have if you chucked all this garden nonsense and had a proper yard instead. Mow it twice a month and be done.
The house I grew up in had a 100' x 75' backyard because my father was one of the first to buy land there. Far larger than any other house in a 20 block area. Big enough for a small baseball diamond so us and the neighbor kids could play ball games. And a pain to mow! Not a flower to be seen either!
PS. I'm really not sure how common the language is anymore. The Brits are getting as bad as the French about refusing to accept changes and new words in their language. Come on, Britian, make the leap into the 20th century. Then perhaps you can consider joining us in the 21st.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Its the US
who haven't moved into the 21st century with language!
Much of common daily US word use is steeped in the 18th century, proper English on the other hand, continually develops with hundreds of new words/usages added to common use every year. I think you confirmed that with your one but last sentence, 'make the leap into the 20th century', we do at least know which century we are in! Of course some words like garden have remained in the same descriptive use for at least 1000 years, whether they are herb, kitchen, flower or just a patch of green around a house, they are still all gardens, vive la difference as we say in, er France. Just accept that we are right, you are wrong and leave it at that (lol).
As for the humble domestic garage, the standard UK garage as built until the last 10 years was 8ft wide, big enough for everything from an Austin 7 to a turn of the century family saloon. Several things have happened since then, new houses tend to be quite small so the garage became a storage space rather than somewhere to keep a car in the dry (lets face it, they get wet anyhow so inside parking is hardly a neccesity). Along with that, house plots, unless its a premier build with prices to match, are tiny so a garage is often eschewed in favour of, yep, a garden space! And then there's the cars themselves (it even applies to m/c's but with less impact, saw a '70's bike yesterday which was tiny compared to its current equivalent)), the original Mini from 60 years ago was fully 18" narrower than the behemoth that BMW produce today, family saloons have been surplanted by SUV's, people carriers etc all of which have grown wider and often taller than cars of yore, they have simply outgrown the traditional garage space - its not possible to 'tear down and rebuild bigger' because there simply isn't the space and its more use as a store anyway - who wants to keep getting the car in and out of the garage, if its on the drive or at the curb you just jump in and go.
In the US land is cheap, house plots bigger (outside of the 'old' cities at least), the UK is somewhat more crowded so land prices are higher which means unless you have a huge budget, houses are smaller - see above! Those TV shows never show the ordinary reality of most UK property - it wouldn't make good TV afterall, so you don't see the tiny newbuilds, half a dozen properties built where one was before or the streets of 'artisan' housing or even the century old semis of suburbia. The dream of home ownership was, until the 80's, the preserve of the white collar classes, successive governments have promoted it as a way to boost their coffers which has pushed prices upwards not just of private housing but of rented property too.
And there endeth the sermon on the mount, (apparently Gethsemane was a garden not a yard), until next time, that's all folks!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
You assume that “proper English” correctly describes……
What you speak. I would question just which version is actually proper, but I will grant that our American version is different. Our language is much more a conglomeration of multiple languages than your “proper English”.
Not to mention the fact that we are constantly creating new words that are totally disparate from those created on your little island. A simple road trip across our country will expose you to so many different versions of the spoken word that at times it becomes difficult to relate. We pronounce words and place names differently dependent on just what part of the country you happen to be standing in.
I once heard a line that has stuck with me to this day - just how smart you are depends on exactly where you are standing. The differences between British English and American English are obvious - look at things like “the tube”, which to us refers to a television, but to you is a subway. Or the even more funny “fanny” which you use to refer to the female sex organs, while to us it refers to a persons backside - not the front, lol.
But beyond that, we Americans can’t even agree on pronunciations between regions or states.
So, which is correct? Which is more up to date?
I would argue ours - but those of you on the east side of the Atlantic would probably argue the exact opposite.
Like I said, it all depends on just where you happen to be standing.
As to population density, that also depends on just where you stand. There are parts of our country which are more densely populated than England - and others which are basically empty.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
I never assume anything
as that just makes an ass (of) u and me!
I do know however from where i speak - currently about the only UK city/town without a stolen named US version!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Oh, how little you know city mouse…….
Have you ever even been here? I at least have been to both countries.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Replacing garages
You are assuming that it is, in fact, possible to replace a garage with a larger one.
If you have a modern house with a separate garage, built on a big enough plot, then that is sometimes done. Our own house, on the other hand, was built in 1971 and the garage is an integral part of the building. It is under the 2nd bedroom and projects enough to form part of the front porch to one side. On the other side of the garage is our side entry which is less than three feet wide, just enough to get a wheely bin down once a week, and that is the edge of the property.
No room for expansion. In fact, having that great big hole is a problem, since it is uninsulated and gets extreme temperatures in summer and winter which leak into the rest of the house. I'm thinking of having most of it bricked up and converted into a utility room; the washing machine is already in there.
Most of the rest is used as storage, including some boxes which still haven't been unpacked since we moved in in 2002 :( There are also a number of bikes in various stages of disassembly and a packed-up model railway.
Our car, by the way, is a 7-seater we bought when the family moved over from New York six years ago. It isn't a Chelsea Tractor but would never have fitted into the garage. Well, we could, possibly, have driven it in but we would never have been able to open the doors!
Penny
Garden is the correct term
in British English.
Consider the case of the stately home. A good number could have a 'garden' that is many tens of acres that was designed by people such as Capability Brown. He is a noted 'Garden Designer'. To call him a 'yard designer' is frankly an insult.
Here a 'yard' is also a place where Horses are kept. Each horse would have its own stable in a much larger 'Yard'.
I have a 100ft long rear garden. I have fruit trees(4 types of Plum, 3 types of Apple and 2 Cherry trees, a fruit cage and a number of raised beds where I grow veggies. There is also a garden shed and a greenhouse, four compost bins plus containers for almost 2000 litres of rainwater. That is most definitely not a 'yard'. That is a garden.
There are no rusting hulks of cars up on blocks, old boats etc which I see commonly in US 'Yards'.
About a mile from me there is a place called a 'Garden Centre' where you can buy plants and a plethora of other stuff including Koi Carp. It isn't called a 'Yard Centre'.
Samantha
He is a noted 'Garden Designer'.
Probably why nobody has ever really heard of him in the USA.
In the US, except for those with vegetable gardens, most garden centers consist of telling dinks what flowers to plant on which side of the house. Formal gardens are pretty much confined to museums and universities. Designing gardens for a living is a quick way to go broke.
We have horticulturists. From Google: "Horticulturist jobs focus on agricultural science - that is improving fruits, vegetables, trees, and plants. Horticulturists also breed new varieties of plants and trees for disease resistance, increased crop yield, improved climate tolerance or esthetics." https://www.environmentalscience.org
So flowers and such are covered under esthetics. But it's hardly how one earns their living.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Crossed in translation?
It seems that something was lost in the translation of terms. It seems that Mr Lancelot "Capability" Brown was a renowned landscape architect. The title may vary but whether the person is a designer, engineer or architect; landscape designing is still a job where many people are employed.
Your garden
Your garden fits in quite well with what many of us in US would consider a garden, i.e. it grows something besides grass.
An area of grass is a lawn whether it is 200 sq. feet or 10 acres.
Front yard or backyard was used to indicate location relative to the house and barnyard, of course, is next to the barn
Mr Brown would be a landscape designer or landscaping engineer.
A Garden Centre is a Garden Center. Sometimes it is part of another business such as a big box hardware store.
What kind of "redneck" areas did you travel through while in the US? Many suburban areas are not like that at all.
What 'redneck' areas?
Oh... I've visited only 48 of the 50 states. (only OK and Alaska to go).
On the southern tip of Big Island (Hawaii), I took a photo of a tree growing out of the engine bay of a 1950's Caddy. It did very well in photographic competitions. I called it 'tree powered caddy'.
I've seen all sorts of vegetation reclaiming cars mostly in the Rockies but some were in the Albany area of NY and one of my near neighbours from where I lived just outside Nashua N.H. had a wonderful collection of VW Beetles. Most were slowly rusting away. It seems that lots of rural homes come complete with car wrecks.
As for Garden Centres as part of Big Box stores... I don't visit them simply because the staff have no idea about how to look after plants. I'm lucky in that I have 3 nurseries within 5 miles of me that are my first port of call when looking for plants. But, I get most of my seeds and corms from the trusty seed catalogue.
Samantha
I predict...
...the next big television genre on pudding island will be a flurry of 'Escape from the Country' programs as thousands of townies lured there by the current wave of television programs you have been watching discover for themselves there is nothing to see or do in the country. Even if you are lucky enough to have a country park within an hour or two drive it will be choked with townies in their designer hiking uniforms every weekend.
One pretty country lane with hedgerows each side is the same as a million others. They go nowhere and each and every one of them is narrow enough for the hedgerow to scrape the side of a shiny brand new Mercedes to bare metal within hours.
Each sunny summer day will be preceded by the smell of fermented cow shit as every industrialised dairy farm within tractor driving distance sprays an ocean of slurry over every up-wind field.
Fancy going out a bit en-fem? That pretty country pub in the village will either be full of old people who hate incomers and bear grudges over events that happened 500 years ago or 17 year olds busy getting drunk enough to begin drifting around blind bends along the narrow lanes in their exhaustless hatchback without a care in the world.
Soon enough townies will be flooding back to their polluted cities full of museums, art galleries, restaurants, schools and public transport where everyone minds their own business.
アンその他
British TV helps embiggen our vocabulary
Even here in the States there are words and phrases that vary in meaning according to regional usage.
Right here in Boston, if you talk about "the Garden" -- or even "the Boston Garden" -- you could be referring to the park adjacent to the Common, or to the sports arena near North Station, and there are plenty of people who are only aware of one but not the other.
On top of all that, neither fits the OP's definition of garden, and this in the very cradle of American culture.
- io
ROFL Fantastic leg-pulling
I laugh at the reactions at Karen's hilarious over-the-top parody of the stereotypical insular and arrogant American.
Well done Karen!
Love
Mary Q
...
nevermind.
i should know better by now
What borders on pure insanity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
A final word?
Of course there is always the real outlier - Madison Square Garden.
It isn't a garden and it isn't even in Madison Square!
And it's round!
Not square.
To say nothing of the Knot Garden
... is it, or is it not?