The Definition of 'Garden'

The word 'Garden'

The word 'garden' comes from the Old English 'geard', meaning a fence or enclosure, 
and from 'garth' meaning a yard or a piece of enclosed ground.  The Oxford Dictionary
of English Etymology gives the meaning of garden as 'enclosed cultivated ground' and
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as 'an enclosed piece of ground devoted to the
cultivation of flowers, fruit or vegetables'.   Enclosure is essential to gardening, and
this raises fundamental questions, such as who is doing the enclosing, who owns the
land, and who is being kept out.

-   Martin Hoyles,  The Story of Gardening, 1991, p. 1.