Peter begged to know > But, please, what is the U.S.A. English term for the British back yard???? Most people wouldn't use a word for this because such spaces almost don't exist here. Most people in the US don't take care of any plants whatsoever, unless things planted in the landscape, and hiring a gardener to take care of that (generally poorly) is very common. For some reason landscape maintenance people here think every shrub has to be carved into a ball, pillow or marshmallow. One time in a bank landscape I saw a yucca whose leaf sphere had been carved into a cube. The faded bloom stalk was not removed at the base, but was part of the box. High-falutin' landscape designers, in the rare design for a client who actually would use such a space, call such areas "utility areas" or "potting areas", or they would specify a "potting shed." I would like to emphasize that even the most luxurious garden behind an immense mansion in the US would be called the back yard by almost all US natives, and people in general expect both front yard and back yard to look good, with nice plantings. On larger properties, or those with substantial native vegetation areas or portions that do not receive regular maintenance, people often refer to the wilder area with the colloquial expression "the back 40", as in 40 acres. An acre is an Anglo-Saxon unit of area denoting the land one man with one ox could plow in one day. There are 640 acres in a square mile, which in the US is referred to on maps as a township. I can't recall who mentioned that "garden" tends to be reserved for a specific area where vegetables are grown; people also have "flower gardens" where they grow decorative plants. I and other people here in metro Phoenix would be said by locals to have a large "cactus garden" as well as an orchard, which refers to a space planted mainly with fruiting trees. It's grapefruit season. Those of you who haven't tasted a tree-ripened grapefruit are terribly deprived. The difference between store-bought and tree-ripened grapefruit is about as big as the difference between canned and fresh Litchi chinensis. Our extremely hot summers and cool winters make for magnificent grapefruit. Leo Martin Phoenix Arizona USA