Nice to have some input on the forum from overseas :) You Brits have a much longer gardening tradition than us in America**, and I've seen some really interesting photos and ideas come out of British gardens, so the cultural exchange is more than welcome.

** -- As one example, when the Giant Sequoias were discovered in the US, Americans hardly even seemed to notice (apart from a few lumberjacks and naturalists). The British certainly did. If the name hadn't already been taken by another species, we'd be calling them "Wellingtonias" today -- the British gave them the first scientific name and spent as much as 100 pounds per seed to import them.

Ok. Back to the post at hand :)

Tiller means the same thing. Most people with gardens just use little gasoline or (less often) electric tillers -- nothing big -- or don't till. But tiller use is pretty common. People who till either do a spring tilling, a fall tilling, or both. A fall tilling is often associated with a mowing first to shred up the plant remains. Neighbors will sometimes share a tiller.

The logic behind tilling threefold. First, it is to get the plant material into the ground where it'll decompose faster and to get it out of the way. Secondly, it aerates the soil. Third, on spring tillings, it kills weeds.

Of course, it's not all good. You obviously can't till over perrenials. Also, tilling increases erosion. Lastly, yeah, it's a bit lazy (versus using a hoe or fork). Of course, remember, we are Americans you're talking to, for the most part ;) Part of our culture is coming up with inventive solutions to reduce the amount of work that we have to do.

You got the "garden" and "yard" terms right. "Permanent area", huh? I'll have to remember that term. One term that I heard an aussie use recently is "bottom of the garden". That confused me until they mentioned that it meant the "back of the garden". I was picturing a ravine or something.

Not everyone preps or amends it. I don't (apart from adding two-year-old compost from my house each spring), but many people around here do. There are all kinds of different gardening techniques that people use in the US. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason was the "back to the land" movement of the late 1960s when many people tried to reclaim a bit of that sense of contact with nature that had been lost. Some of the more interesting ones spread through books or word of mouth. Each has their own benefits and drawbacks.

Some common types you'll hear here are "raised bed" gardening, "square foot" gardening, and "lasagne bed" gardening. Common goals are to increase soil aeration and drainage (to reduce root rot) and to discourage weeds.

Is there a big debate in Britain over organic gardening versus use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers like there is here?

Here tilling means turning over the soil, either with machine or by hand. If you're adding manure or compost to your soil then you too are amending it. And yes our gardens are basically vegetable but flowers are included. The yard is another thing - that's grass. Actually, we're quite similar in our practices.

Tilling is using a rototiller, a machine that turns the soil. And yes many people have it. I have one but I also have a 2 acre vegetable garden. Before when I only had a small 25 ft x 25 ft plot I would rent one each spring to help loosen the soil.

And yard usually refers to the grassy areas around our homes. Garden usually is a plot of ground in our yard that is set aside specially for growing vegetables or flowers. And a bed could be either an area for growing vegetables or flowers; usually in the immediate area surrounding the house.

Not many people here incorporate flowers & vegetables into the whole landscape like you do. They are usually very structured; shrubs & flowers around the peremiter of the house. Trees in the yard and somewhere (if they do it at all) is an area that is left bare ground to plant some vegetables.

As far as ammending the soil, there are several reasons. Many people living in new houses have had dirt layed down for their yards and that dirt is not always the best for plants. Some people live in sandy areas and need some organic material to help add nutrients. There are lots of reasons since the US is such a large country, and the soil differs greatly from the north to south, east to west.

I myself live in Wisconsin and don't need to amend the soil except for occasional manure. I do use a rototiller to save time since I have a huge garden outside of town now. I plant directly in the soil for the most part, but do have some pots around my deck with tomatoes, peppers and flowes in them for decoration and eating. I have a grassy area behind my house which I call my yard and I have an small area near my house set aside for growing cutting flowers and salad vegetables called a garden. And I have a 2 acre plot outside of town that is my main vegetable garden.

I hope I helped a little bit with the confusion. I love your gardens in the UK. Got a chance to go to Ireland 2 yrs ago and thought it was just beautiful :-)

1. Tradionally tillers of the soil (farmers) loosen the soil before planting. Originally digging sticks, then later animal powered ploughs, finally tractors and plows. A backyard gardener may use a spade to fork in a small place, but particiularly when growing vegetables in a 3000 square foot or larger plot will use an egbine powered roto tiller. Large plots may use a version of Howard's Rotovator behind 2 35 - 90 HP. tractor. The tiny Mantis type rototillers are also popular here for very small plots.

2. Garden is somewhat of an ambiguous term here also, although few of us include trimmed grassy areas in the term. That term is lawn here although there are Brits here also who still use the term garden to include the entire space. Yard is basicly a term denoting a designated area around a home. For most folks today, that is defined by a building lot. It may include all types of gardens and lawns. Large scale and rural gardeners will have thier "garden" seperate and are usaully small field/plots not included in the "yard". differences are mostly in the choice of words.
3.Many folks today go to extraordinary efforts to garden intensively. Raised beds are a European import, so you are probably familiar with them. At any rate , rather than slowly enriching the soil, they bring in soil, compost, soiless mixes etc to build thier beds. We old still use traditional methods. Soil prep is adding som ecompost or manure, plowing. Then just before planting harrowing or rototilling to provide a smooth seedbed and planting. But I am only speaking for vegetable gardens, flowers especially perennials are treated quite differently.

My yard, to me, is the area of my property not already taken up by buildings, sidewalks, etc. In my yard, I've created gardens for flowers, fruits, or vegetables. In my case, raised beds for the vegetables and fruits. I tilled my garden last weekend until my arms and shoulders ached. I can't afford any kind of mechanical contrivance, so it's just me with a hoe, a rake, and a shovel, turning over dirt and hacking away at the weeds that took it over since last year.

Not only are Brits and Americans separated by a "common language" and a pond, in America we are separated by a common language without the pond. I have lived all over, and have visited England, so I have heard things called by many different names. I'm from the south so that New England term of "door yard" slays me.

I'd say 'tilling' means loosening the soil by any means.

It's odd that brits don't use the term 'yard' (in the sense of tended space near the house) anymore; they invented the word, afterall! "Orchard" comes from 'wort-yard' - 'wort' means plant.

M-W.org, a rather American dictionary says that "till" is: "to work by plowing, sowing, and raising crops : CULTIVATE "

I think that "tilling" with the machine is a rather recent term that has come into popular use as the machines have become smaller and more commonplace.

In America we have to be constantly reminded not to "over till" our soil because it breaks it down into dust. I am a bit guilty of this. I have a 6 ft wide tiller for the back of the tractor, a regular walk behind rotto tiller and for those hard to reach places... a Mantis. And I only have one hoe which rests comfortably in the shed about 360 days a year. I think nothing of using my rotto-tiller as a rotto-weeder up and down the rows.

Having grown up in a Greenhouse, I want my soil to be a fluffy and weed free as potting soil. Picture perfect like the day I planted everything. Ironically, just about the time that I achieve that perfect fluffy look in my garden, we get a day of rain and I can't even begin to walk out there without sinking to the tops of my Wellington boots! Which of course reminds me... don't over till the soil.

I plan on eventually abandoning my huge row style garden for a smaller structured Potager with raised beds and permanent walkways. This ought to completely cure me of my rottotiller addiction.

You grew up in a greenhouse? You must identify well with plants, they are like your family.

Yes I did. Our little house was attached to the end of a beautiful, glass, 1920's era greenhouse. The view out our windows was stunning (in the spring and summer at least)
Consequently, I spend at least 2 lunch hours a week at the local plant shops, even if I don't actually buy something!

Well thank you all for your replies.

Karenrei "Permanent area" is not a specific British term, it was just me trying to explain how we grow our vegetables.

You also ask if there is a big debate over organic gardening over here. Really the debate is pretty much over. Most people acknowledge that organic is probably best but not always practical for various reasons. Most gardening magazines, TV programmes and gurus now advocate organic methods first and then follow with, and if you use chemicals you could try this ... kind of comments.

We do still use the term yard, but it means a hard surfaced area usually outside a building eg a stable yard, timber yard boat yard etc. A back yard is a very small enclosed paved area behind a house that has no garden. The bottom of the garden is where the fairies live LOL

Flora,
I lived in Scotland for 1 year and experienced first hand seeing veggie gardens that people had in their homes. The gardens I saw were usually no bigger than 12 ft x 12 ft and all tending I saw was done with hand tools. As a little girl I lived in the suburbs and only used hand tools since we had small flower "beds" and did not need any type of machinery. My husband and I now have a home with 4 + acres and our veggie garden is 1/2 acre+. We use a tiller for cultivating, keeping weeds at bay and turning in manure and what we call plough down or green manure. We also till the garden completely in the Spring before we start planting. Over the winter we put a great deal of compost and Autumn leaves in the garden as compost that we till in in the Spring.

I envied the gardeners in Scotland, they grew the biggest veggies I ever saw. A neighbor there gave me an onion that was bigger than a soup bowl and I cooked off it for five meals. It was called a "Kelsey"onion. It was delicious.

Susan in NC

I was amazed at what Europeans did with small amounts of land--sometimes with NO Land but lots of containers and windowboxes. Even the smallest, humble house had beautiful flowers. I contrast this with the current American suburban trend of completely utilitarian, non-flowering, plastic-looking greenery for landscaping.

If it doesn't flower, it isn't in my garden (yard)!

I don't till with a machine either--it's my exercise. Beats paying a gym! I believe that if gas cost what it costs Brits we would ALL till by hand (except large farms, of course).

As for composting and amending--as you would guess, every possible soil type is found in this country so it would be unwise to answer one way. In my area, it's red clay. I amend by composting, manure and compost tea as that is the best way to achieve the perfect balance of PH.

My question for you. I read that the Queen likes gardens very much. Does she actually dig in the dirt? Has anyone photographed her doing this? I realize you don't know her personally (something Brits say Americans seem as though they believe), but perhaps you have seen this discussed in your media.