I thought I would start my gardening blog on defining what a garden is. Scottish town gardens are traditionally called 'courts' and country/farm gardens as 'yards'. Both terms were and are used interchangeably, though the more generic garden term is now the most commonly used.

Court comes from the Greek root 'hortus' meaning an 'enclosed place to feed'. Orchard has exactly the same meaning.

Yard comes from early English 'geard' (though more often in Scotland 'Gart'). A number of place names in Scotland contain the gart term to this day. Yard also means enclosed feeding place and later became the word garden. Yard is used in the US as it was the most commonly used word at the time of settlement while garden, much later, became the most commonly used in the British isles.

So this starts my blog on gardening.