The word 'garden' comes from the Old English 'geard', meaning a fence or enclosure, and from 'garth' meaning a yard or a piece of enclosed ground. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology gives the meaning of garden as 'enclosed cultivated ground' and The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as 'an enclosed piece of ground devoted to the cultivation of flowers, fruit or vegetables'. Enclosure is essential to gardening, and this raises fundamental questions, such as who is doing the enclosing, who owns the land, and who is being kept out.