make garden

present singular third person makes garden · participle present making garden · participle past made garden · past made garden

1. CanadaUSdatedidiomaticTo plant or maintain a garden, especially a vegetable garden.

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

   1918, Willa Cather, chapter 18, in My Ántonia, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 146

   4 more examples

   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.

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

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

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

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

   1955, Julia Montgomery Street, chapter 8, in Fiddler’s Fancy, New York: Follett, page 67

   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.

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

   Synonyms: garden