GENESIS 2:8
The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. [Genesis 2:8 NKJV]
Then the Lord God planted a garden in the East, in a place called Eden. He put the man he had formed in that garden. [Genesis 2:8 ICB]
From the place where God formed the Man, due East was where God planted a Garden in Eden. Looking from where the man was formed, the Garden was in the East. And looking from the Garden to where the Man was formed, taken from the ground and where the Man was later driven away from the Garden to return, it was in the West by the Western Gate of the Garden.
"God planted a Garden" Eastward in Eden, and then took the man from where He formed him to the East and placed him inside the Garden.
The Hebrews understand "Garden" as a fenced city of Plants, Running water Fountain or River, Recreation and Ornaments. Basically, Gardens mean "Parks."
So God planted a Garden means God built some form of Fencing or Boundaries around the Garden, and introduced Gate(s) for access and for security, like a fortified city. Is not like God sowed an open forest or wood where anything comes or goes through it in any direction, and called that a garden. A Garden is not an open farm, and a garden has varieties and fortification.
In the scriptures, a bride or spinster who has kept her virginity and remained sexually undefiled to just one man is like an enclosed Garden with fence and fortification, while a spinster or bride that's not a virgin is like an exposed garden with broken walls or no fence at all that all manner strangers had accessed through. As it is written,
[Song 4:12-15] — "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon."
Vineyard is similar to Garden because both have "Yard" or an "Enclosure" around them, and Garden is "Court-Yard."
[Ecclesiastes 2:5-6] — "I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that brings forth trees:"
In the Bible verse above, God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden, and there He put the man He formed. Here are two key points to note about the Good-Works God was doing for the man here:
*1* Instead of building a Shelter or House for the man, He planted a Garden and put the man in there.
That was far better than a shelter or house for the man because there the Light and Glory of God were Shelter, and the ceiling was basically open screen into the presence of God in heaven where angels dwelt. There was no sun or no exposure to any threat from above that needs a shelter or roof to avert. Heaven and that Garden where connected as One, making the Garden - "Paradise"
It's like building walls but no roofing. The walls or fence mean to cut those in here from the rest of the world outside, while the open or no roofing is to connect those in here with the heavens above. Thus in that day, shelter was just vertical barrier and not horizontal barrier, to keep Mankind's Mind in things above in heaven and not things in the world around them. No hindrance to the Lights/Spirits from above, but hindrance to sides distractions.
However, there's coming a town where even walls will not be necessary because God's Glory would be the wall around as well as the roofing above or within it as dwelling place of God.
BSB'19 Berean Study Bible (BSB)
[Zechariah 2:4-5] — "and said to him, “Run and tell that young man: ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the multitude of men and livestock within it. For I will be a wall of fire around it, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory within it.’”"
*2* Instead of bringing the man through one of the Gate into the Gate, the Lord put the man into the Garden without recourse to the gate.
The man did not pass through gate when he was brought into the Garden, but the man passed through gate when he was sent out of the Garden.
So the Garden did not see the man as stranger or visitor come inside the Garden when the Man was put there, though God and the man knew the man was taken from somewhere in the west outside the Garden to be in there by a mysterious way.
The Lord God Himself will bring the Man back into that Garden without using the gates of the Garden. Cherub and flaming fire may be by the gate, but the Lord God has His hidden way of returning Mankind into the Garden and Paradise. As it is written,
[Luke 23:43] — "And Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, To day shall you be with Me in paradise."
Not like Paul was caught up into paradise, where he heard unspeakable words he could not utter or share us [2 Corinthians 12:4]. I don't even understand the benefits of Paul getting caught up into paradise when he could neither share with us what he saw or what he heard there, and he did not stay there long enough to bring something from there down to us, except to tell us the paradise is in third heaven. And he could not even tell us whether he was in the body or in spirit when he was caught up into paradise. What then could Paul tell or share with us about that experience?
Behold, Adam was caught up into paradise (Garden) of God, and that was with his body and soul, and not leaving any part of him behind when God took him into the Garden.