Learn Hardcore Russian: В выходные я хочу поработать в саду. - On the weekend I want to work a bit in the garden.

Both can mean “on the weekend”.
на выходных is especially common in conversational Russian.
в выходные may sound a bit more neutral or “standard”, but it’s also fully conversational.

Meaning-wise, there’s no real difference in most contexts:

В выходные я хочу поработать в саду.
На выходных я хочу поработать в саду.

Both mean: “I want to do some work in the garden on the weekend.”

Why is it поработать and not just работать?

The verb работать is imperfective – it focuses on the process, not on completion or limited duration.

The verb поработать is perfective, formed with the prefix по-. In this case, по- often has a delimitative meaning:

to work for a while / for some time
to get some work done (but not necessarily finish a specific project)

So:

я хочу работать в саду – “I want to work in the garden” (focus on the activity in general)
я хочу поработать в саду – “I want to work a bit / for some time in the garden”

In English, we don’t mark this difference as clearly, but Russian does it with aspect and prefixes.

Is поработать future or present?

поработать is a perfective infinitive. Perfective verbs in Russian refer to a single, complete event and do not have a present tense.

With хочу + perfective infinitive, the action is understood as future:

я хочу поработать = I want to (at some point) work a bit → future-oriented intention

So grammatically it’s an infinitive, not a finite “future tense”, but in meaning it refers to a future action.

Could I say я буду работать в саду instead? What’s the difference from я хочу поработать в саду?

Yes, but the meaning and nuance will change:

Я буду работать в саду.
- буду + работать = future of the imperfective.
- Means: “I will be working in the garden” (a planned activity, focusing on the process or duration, not on “some work done”).
Я хочу поработать в саду.
- хочу + поработать (perfective)
- Means: “I want to do some work in the garden (for a while)”.
- Focuses on desire and on doing some amount of work, not necessarily a long process.

So:

буду работать = statement about a future plan / fact.
хочу поработать = statement about what I want to do, with a nuance of some, limited amount of work.

Why is it в саду and not в саде?

This is a special case of the prepositional (locative) case.

For many masculine nouns denoting locations, Russian has two possible prepositional forms:

в саде – regular prepositional
в саду – “second locative” form

With the meaning “in the garden”, Russian almost always uses:

в саду

Similarly:

в лесу (in the forest), not в лесе (in modern usage)
в шкафу (in the cupboard), not в шкафе (when meaning “inside”)

So в саду is simply the idiomatic and correct form for “in the garden” in the sense of physical location.

What case is в саду?

в саду is in the prepositional case (also called locative here).

Nominative: сад
Prepositional (regular): в саде
Prepositional (2nd/locative form, used with location): в саду

The preposition в + prepositional answers “где?” (where?):

в саду – where? in the garden
в школе – where? at school
в городе – where? in the city

What exactly can сад mean here? Is it only “vegetable garden”, or also “yard / garden / orchard / park”?

сад is quite flexible. It can mean:

garden (especially with trees, bushes, flowers)
orchard (fruit trees)
a decorative garden / yard around a house
in some contexts, even something like a small park (e.g. Летний сад in St. Petersburg is a historic park)

In this sentence, в саду could be:

working in a private garden/yard (weeding, planting, etc.)
working in an orchard
in some contexts, working in a public or community garden

If you specifically mean a vegetable garden, there’s also огород, and you’d say в огороде.

Why are there no words for “the” or “a” in this Russian sentence?

Russian has no articles (no equivalents of “a/an” or “the”). Definiteness and specificity are understood from context, word order, and common sense.

In English, we must choose:

“in the garden”
“in a garden”

In Russian в саду can mean either:

“in the garden” (the listener knows which one)
“in a garden” (not specific)

In this sentence, context usually suggests the speaker’s own garden / yard, so English naturally uses “the garden”, but Russian doesn’t need any extra word to show that.

Does выходные always mean “weekend”, or can it mean any days off?

выходные can mean both:

Weekend (most common everyday meaning)
- В выходные я обычно дома. – I’m usually at home on weekends.
Days off in general
- У меня выходные во вторник и среду. – My days off are on Tuesday and Wednesday.
  (Here it clearly can’t mean “weekend”, because the person’s job schedule is unusual.)

In your sentence, with no additional context, в выходные will normally be understood as “on the weekend”.

How would I say “this weekend I want to work in the garden”?

You can specify “this” with в эти выходные:

В эти выходные я хочу поработать в саду.
→ “This weekend I want to do some work in the garden.”

Literally:

в эти выходные – “on these days off” → “this weekend”.

How would I say “I like working in the garden on weekends (in general)”?

You’d switch to a general, habitual meaning, so use the imperfective verb работать and a plural time expression for “on weekends”:

Мне нравится работать в саду по выходным.

Explanation:

по выходным – on weekends (generally, habitually)
нравится работать – “like to work / like working” (imperfective fits general habits)
в саду – in the garden

So the whole sentence is: “I like working in the garden on weekends.”