truck garden

English

Etymology

From truck (“to trade”).

Noun

truck garden (plural truck gardens)

1. (chiefly US) Synonym of market garden, a garden whose produce is mostly intended for sale.
   • 1792 November 4, George Washington, The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources: 1745-1799‎^[1], volume 32:

     As the home house people (the industrious part of them at least) might want ground for their truck patches, they might, for this purpose, cultivate what would be cleared. But I would have the ground from the cross fence by the Spring, quite round by the Wharf, first grubbed, before the (above mentioned) is attempted.

   • 1901, Booker T. Washington, chapter 14, in Up From Slavery: An Autobiography‎^[2]:

     it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden.

Related terms

• truck farm