[Tagging] Green areas that are not parks (revisited)

[John F. Eldredge]

This is, at least in part, a difference between different dialects of English.  Your definition A below (place where plants are grown in a structured and decorative manner) would be classified in both Britain and the USA as a "flower garden".  Both places would also use the term "vegetable garden" or "kitchen garden" to mean a place where plants are grown for food.  A place where plants are grown for scientific purposes would be described in both places as a "botanical garden".

Definition B, "open, green area for recreation", is used in British English but not in American English.  Americans call that a "yard", not a "garden".

-------Original Email-------
Subject :Re: [Tagging] Green areas that are not parks (revisited)
From  :mailto:xificurk at gmail.com
Date  :Fri May 14 10:42:56 America/Chicago 2010


Roy Wallace napsal(a):
> On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 1:20 AM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> leisure=garden
>> garden=residential
> 
> Much better. This clearly means you are tagging a particular *type* of garden.

I don't see in what sense is this better - your own remark 'someone
lives in the garden?' applies here as well, and it's even worse, because
imho residential=garden suggest that this part of residential land is
garden, but garden=residential suggests that this garden is for
residential purposes.

And the added bonus of abusing leisure=garden tag... Let me one more
time explain what I think is wrong on this tag, so here is an example:

Step one: Take a look at this area:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=50.008617,15.799091&spn=0.000565,0.001706&z=20

Step two: Which one of these lines better describes the area?
A) Place where flowers and other plants are grown in a decorative and
structured manner or for scientific purposes.
B) Open, green area for recreation.

Step three: Take a look where did I get those descriptions:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:leisure%3Dgarden
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:leisure%3Dpark


Seems like recently the page about leisure=garden was significantly
changed by copying a text from wikipedia, which makes an impression that
almost any recreation ground can be called garden. Looking at the
original wikipedia page, it lacks any clear definition of a garden.
Second remark I have - is really definiton of OSM tag leisure=garden
equivalent to the explanation from wikipedia?

Regards,
Petr Morávek



-- 
John F. Eldredge -- john at jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria