diff --git a/t/Makefile b/t/Makefile
index 72d7884232fbb4ce04082a778f9f952395764bf6..c6a60ab165b504393d3ecd5db1ea9d241687be05 100644
--- a/t/Makefile
+++ b/t/Makefile
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ $(T):
 	@echo "*** $@ ***"; GIT_CONFIG=.git/config '$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' $@ $(GIT_TEST_OPTS)
 
 clean:
-	$(RM) -r trash
+	$(RM) -r 'trash directory'
 
 # we can test NO_OPTIMIZE_COMMITS independently of LC_ALL
 full-svn-test:
diff --git a/t/README b/t/README
index 73ed11bfe24edf56879d90a43c8df0813332fb08..70841a4645b2469d8263553a7ba41d4f953774f7 100644
--- a/t/README
+++ b/t/README
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ This test harness library does the following things:
    (or -h), it shows the test_description and exits.
 
  - Creates an empty test directory with an empty .git/objects
-   database and chdir(2) into it.  This directory is 't/trash'
+   database and chdir(2) into it.  This directory is 't/trash directory'
    if you must know, but I do not think you care.
 
  - Defines standard test helper functions for your scripts to
diff --git a/t/test-lib.sh b/t/test-lib.sh
index d1018c99c6b58ab9cbfc4fec053fa797fdc8432a..3bf570b068dd56c802e7bdcef0384aa8e1209985 100644
--- a/t/test-lib.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib.sh
@@ -368,7 +368,7 @@ test_done () {
 	case "$test_failure" in
 	0)
 		# We could:
-		# cd .. && rm -fr trash
+		# cd .. && rm -fr 'trash directory'
 		# but that means we forbid any tests that use their own
 		# subdirectory from calling test_done without coming back
 		# to where they started from.