make garden

English

Verb

make garden (third-person singular simple present makes garden, present participle making garden, simple past and past participle made garden)

1. (idiomatic, dated, US, Canada) To plant or maintain a garden, especially a vegetable garden.

   Synonym: garden

   • 1852, Susanna Moodie, chapter 8, in Roughing it in the Bush; or, Life in Canada‎^[1], volume 2, London: Richard Bentley, page 142:

     As the spring advanced, and after Jacob left us, he seemed ashamed of sitting in the house doing nothing, and therefore undertook to make us a garden, or “to make garden” as the Canadians term preparing a few vegetables for the season.

   • 1877, John Habberton, chapter 3, in The Jericho Road; A Story of Western Life‎^[2], Chicago: Jansen, McClurg, page 32:

     “Can you take care of horses?”
     “Yes.”
     “Make garden?”
     “Yes—I always took care of mother’s.”

   • 1918, Willa Cather, chapter 18, in My Ántonia‎^[3], Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 146:

     […] Ántonia and her mother were making garden, off across the pond in the draw-head.

   • 1955, Julia Montgomery Street, chapter 8, in Fiddler’s Fancy‎^[4], New York: Follett, page 67:

     Crossing a ridge, he was happy to see that Miz’ Doanie and her three children were all out making garden.

   • 1972, Henry W. Clune, chapter 12, in The Rochester I Know‎^[5], Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 163:

     In the other century, and for a considerable number of years in this one, the solid citizenry of the town prided itself on home ownership [...]. One got a little place, planted a couple of fruit trees and a currant bush out back, made garden, seeded a lawn, and put a standing lamp on a center table in the living room.