Gardening is the process of growing plants for their
vegetable
Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...
s,
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
s,
flower
Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...
s,
herb
Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...
s, and appearances within a designated space.
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
s fulfill a wide assortment of purposes, notably the production of
aesthetically pleasing areas,
medicines
Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...
,
cosmetics
Cosmetics are substances that are intended for application to the body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering appearance. They are mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either Natural product, natural source ...
,
dye
Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical ele ...
s,
food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...
s,
poison
A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...
s, wildlife
habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
s, and saleable goods (see
market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to s ...
ing). People often partake in gardening for its
therapeutic
A therapy or medical treatment is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. Both words, ''treatment'' and ''therapy'', are often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx.
As a rule, each therapy has indications an ...
,
health
Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...
,
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
al,
cultural
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
,
philosophical
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
environmental
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
, and
religious
Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
benefits.

Gardening varies in scale from the 800 hectare
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
gardens down to
container garden
Container gardening or pot gardening/farming is the practice of growing plants, including edible plants, exclusively in containers instead of planting them in the ground. A container in gardening is a small, enclosed and usually portable object ...
s grown inside. Gardens take many forms; some only contain one type of plant, while others involve a complex assortment of plants with no particular order.
Gardening can be difficult to differentiate from
farming
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
. They are most easily differentiated based on their primary objectives. Farming prioritizes saleable goods and may include
livestock
Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...
production, whereas gardening often prioritizes aesthetics and
leisure
Leisure (, ) has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, Employment, work, job hunting, Housekeeping, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as ...
. As it pertains to food production, gardening generally happens on a much smaller scale with the intent of personal or
community consumption. There are cultures which do not differentiate between farming and gardening. This is primarily because
subsistence agriculture
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occu ...
has been the main method of farming throughout its 12,000 year history and is virtually indistinguishable from gardening.
Prehistory
Plant domestication is seen as the birth of agriculture. However, it is arguably preceded by a very long history of gardening wild plants. While the 12,000-year-old date is the commonly accepted timeline describing plant domestication, there is now evidence from the
Ohalo II
Ohalo II is an archaeological site in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District, Israel, near Kinneret (archaeological site), Kinneret, on the southwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is one of the best preserved hunter-gatherer archaeol ...
hunter-gatherer site showing earlier signs of disturbing the soil and cultivation of pre-domesticated crop species.
This evidence pushes early stage plant domestication to 23,000 years ago which aligns with research done by Allaby (2022) showing slight selection pressure of desirable traits in Southwest Asian
cereal
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...
s (einkorn, emmer, barley). Despite not qualifying as
plant domestication
Plant breeding started with sedentary agriculture, particularly the domestication of the first agricultural plants, a practice which is estimated to date back 9,000 to 11,000 years. Initially, early human farmers selected food plants with particul ...
, many archaeological studies are pushing the potential date of
hominin
The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...
selective
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...
disturbance back up to 125,000 years ago. Much of these early recorded ecosystem disturbances were made through
hominin use of fire, which dates back to 1.5 Mya (although at this time fire was not likely being wielded as a landscape-changing tool by hominids). This anthropogenic ecosystem disturbance may be the origin of gardening.
Every hunter-gatherer society has developed a niche of some sort, allowing them to thrive or even just survive amongst their environments. Many of these prehistoric hunter-gatherers had constructed a
niche allowing for easier access to, or a higher amount of, edible plant species. This shift from
hunting and gathering
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially wi ...
to increasingly modifying the environment in a way which produces an abundance of edible plant species marks the beginning of gardening.
One of the most documented hominin niches is the use of off-site fire. When done intentionally, this is often called
forest gardening
Agroforestry (also known as agro-sylviculture or forest farming) is a land use management system that integrates trees with crops or pasture. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies. As a polyculture system, an agroforestry system c ...
or
fire stick farming in Australia. The modern study of
fire ecology
Fire ecology is a scientific discipline concerned with the effects of fire on natural ecosystems. Many ecosystems, particularly prairie, savanna, chaparral and coniferous forests, have evolved with fire as an essential contributor to habitat vit ...
describes the many benefits that off-site fires may have granted these early humans. Some of these
agroecological practices have been well documented and studied during
colonial contact. However, they are vastly under represented in research done on early hominin fire use.
Based on current research, it is evident that these niches developed separately in different societies across different times and locations. Many of the Indigenous gardening methods were and still are often overlooked by colonizers due to the lack of resemblance to
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
gardens with well-defined borders and non-naturalized plant species.
The Americas
There are long traditions of gardening within
Indigenous societies spanning from the northernmost parts of
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
down to the southernmost tip of
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
and
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
.
The
Arctic
The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...
and
Subarctic
The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...
societies relied primarily on
hunting
Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
and
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...
due to the harsh climate, although they have been known to collectively use at least 311 different plants as foods or medicines. The substantial knowledge and use of these plants along with the communal harvesting sites and emphasis on
reciprocity between humans and plants indicates a basic level of gardening. Similarly, the
Fuegian
Fuegians are the indigenous inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America. The name has been credited to Captain James Weddell, who supposedly created the term in 1822.
The indigenous Fuegians belonged to several differ ...
Indigenous groups in South America had developed seemingly comparable niches due to a similar tundra ecosystem. While there are very few studies on the Fuegians,
Darwin mentioned wild edible plants such as
fungi
A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...
,
kelp
Kelps are large brown algae or seaweeds that make up the order (biology), order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genus, genera. Despite its appearance and use of photosynthesis in chloroplasts, kelp is technically not a plant but a str ...
, and wild
celery
Celery (''Apium graveolens'' Dulce Group or ''Apium graveolens'' var. ''dulce'') is a cultivated plant belonging to the species ''Apium graveolens'' in the family Apiaceae that has been used as a vegetable since ancient times.
The original wild ...
growing next to the various Fuegian shelters.

Horticulture plays a relatively small role in these northern and southern tundra inhabitants compared with Indigenous societies in
grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...
and
forest
A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...
ecosystems. From the
boreal forests
Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. In North Ame ...
of Canada to the temperate forests and grasslands of Chile and Argentina, different communities have developed food production niches. These include the use of fire for ecosystem maintenance and resetting
successional sequences, the sowing of wild annuals, the sowing of domesticated annuals (e.g.
three sisters,
New World crops), creating berry patches and orchards, manipulation of plants to encourage desired traits(e.g. increased nut, fruit, or root production), and landscape modification to encourage plant and animal growth (e.g. complex
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
,
sea gardens, or
terraces).
These modified landscapes as recorded by early American
philosophers
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on ...
such as
Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in nat ...
, and
Emmerson were described as exhibiting pristine beauty. Indigenous gardens such as forest gardens therefore do not only serve as a producer of foods, medicines, or materials, but also pleasant aesthetics.
Many popular crops originate from pre-colonial Indigenous agricultural societies. Some of these include
maize
Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...
,
quinoa
Quinoa (''Chenopodium quinoa''; , from Quechuan languages, Quechua ' or ') is a flowering plant in the Amaranthaceae, amaranth family. It is a herbaceous annual plant grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds; the seeds are high in prote ...
,
common bean
''Phaseolus vulgaris'', the common bean,, is a herbaceous annual plant grown worldwide for its edible dry seeds or green bean, green, unripe pods. Its leaf is also occasionally used as a Leaf vegetable, vegetable and the straw as fodder. Its Pla ...
,
peanut
The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...
,
pumpkin
A pumpkin is a cultivar, cultivated winter squash in the genus ''Cucurbita''. The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, but does not possess a scientific definition. It may be used in reference to many dif ...
,
squash,
pepper
Pepper(s) may refer to:
Food and spice
* Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plants
** Black pepper
** Long pepper
** Kampot pepper
* ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanacea ...
,
tomato
The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...
,
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...
,
potato
The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...
,
blueberry
Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' with the genus ''Vaccinium''. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) ...
,
cactus pear,
cashew
Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree ''Anacardium occidentale'', in the family Anacardiaceae. It is native to South America and is the source of the cashew nut and the cashew apple, an accessory fruit. The tree can grow as t ...
,
papaya
The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae, and also the name of its fruit. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within ...
,
pineapple
The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae.
The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...
,
strawberry
The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown Hybrid (biology), hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit ...
,
cacao,
sunflower
The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a species of large annual forb of the daisy family Asteraceae. The common sunflower is harvested for its edible oily seeds, which are often eaten as a snack food. They are also used in the pr ...
,
cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
,
Pará rubber, and
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
.
History
Ancient times
Forest gardening
Agroforestry (also known as agro-sylviculture or forest farming) is a land use management system that integrates trees with crops or pasture. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies. As a polyculture system, an agroforestry system c ...
, a forest-based food production system, is the world's oldest form of gardening.
After the emergence of the first
civilization
A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...
s, wealthy individuals began to create gardens for aesthetic purposes.
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
ian tomb paintings from the
New Kingdom
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995
* "New" (Daya song), 2017
* "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
(around 1500 BC) provide some of the earliest physical evidence of ornamental
horticulture
Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...
and landscape design; they depict
lotus ponds surrounded by symmetrical rows of
acacia
''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...
s and
palms. A notable example of ancient ornamental gardens was the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World listed by Hellenic culture. They were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of tree ...
—one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity, first established in the 1572 publication '' Octo Mundi M ...
—while
ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
had dozens of gardens.
Wealthy ancient Egyptians used gardens to provide shade. Egyptians associated trees and gardens with gods, believing that their deities were pleased by gardens. Gardens in ancient Egypt were often surrounded by walls with trees planted in rows. Among the most popular species planted were
date palms
''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across northern Africa, the Middle East, ...
, sycamores,
fig trees
''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending in ...
, nut trees, and
willows
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions.
Most species are known ...
. These gardens were a sign of higher socioeconomic status. In addition, wealthy ancient Egyptians grew vineyards, as wine was a sign of the higher social classes.
Rose
A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...
s, poppies,
daisies and
irises could all also be found in the gardens of the Egyptians.
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
was renowned for its beautiful gardens. These tended to be wide and large, some of them used for hunting game, rather like a game reserve today, and others as leisure gardens.
Cypresses and palms were some of the most frequently planted types of trees.
Gardens were also available in
Kush
KUSH 1600 AM is a radio station licensed to Cushing, Oklahoma. The station broadcasts a Full service format, consisting of local and national talk, sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, tha ...
. In
Musawwarat es-Sufra
Musawwarat es-Sufra (Arabic: , Meroitic: Aborepi, Old Egyptian: jbrp, jpbr-ˁnḫ), also known as Al-Musawarat Al-Sufra, is a large Meroitic temple complex in modern Sudan, dating back to the early Meroitic period of the 3rd century BC. It is ...
, the Great Enclosure, dated to the 3rd century BC, included splendid gardens.
Ancient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
gardens were laid out with hedges and vines and contained a wide variety of flowers—
acanthus,
cornflowers,
crocus
''Crocus'' (; plural: crocuses or croci) is a genus of seasonal flowering plants in the family Iridaceae (iris family) comprising about 100 species of perennial plant, perennials growing from corms. They are low growing plants, whose flower stem ...
,
cyclamen
''Cyclamen'' ( or ) is a genus of 23 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. In English, it is known by the common names sowbread or swinebread. ''Cyclamen'' species are native to Europe and the Mediterranean Basin ea ...
, hyacinth, iris, ivy,
lavender
''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...
, lilies, myrtle, narcissus, poppy,
rosemary
''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers. It is a member of the sage family, Lamiaceae.
The species is native to the Mediterranean r ...
and violets
—as well as statues and sculptures. Flower beds were popular in the courtyards of rich Romans.
The Middle Ages

The
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
represent a period of decline in gardens for aesthetic purposes. After the fall of Rome, gardening was done for the purpose of growing
medicinal herbs
Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including defense and protection ...
and/or decorating church
altars
An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in Christian ...
. Monasteries carried on a tradition of
garden design
Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting of garden, gardens and landscapes. Garden design may be done by the garden owner themselves, or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expe ...
and intense horticultural techniques during the medieval period in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
.
Generally, monastic garden types consisted of kitchen gardens, infirmary gardens, cemetery
orchard
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...
s, cloister garths and vineyards. Individual monasteries might also have had a "green court", a plot of grass and trees where horses could graze, as well as a cellarer's garden or private gardens for obedientiaries, monks who held specific posts within the monastery.
Islamic gardens were built after the model of
Persian gardens, and they were usually enclosed by walls and divided into four by watercourses. Commonly, the centre of the garden would have a
reflecting pool
A reflecting pool, also called a reflection pool, is a water feature found in gardens, parks and memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water with a reflective surface, undisturbed by fountain jets.
Design
Reflecting pools are o ...
or
pavilion
In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings;
* It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
. Specific to the Islamic gardens are the
mosaic
A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...
s and glazed tiles used to decorate the rills and
fountain
A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect.
Fountains were o ...
s that were built in these gardens.
By the late 13th century, rich Europeans began to grow gardens for leisure and medicinal herbs and vegetables.
They surrounded the gardens by walls to protect them from animals and to provide
seclusion
Seclusion is the act of secluding (i.e. isolating from society), the state of being secluded, or a place that facilitates it (a secluded place). A person, couple, or larger group may go to a secluded place for privacy or peace and quiet. The ...
. During the next two centuries, Europeans started planting lawns and raising flowerbeds and trellises of roses. Fruit trees were common in these gardens, and also in some, there were turf seats. At the same time, the gardens in the
monasteries
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...
were a place to grow flowers and medicinal herbs, but they were also a space where the
monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
s could enjoy nature and relax.
The gardens in the 16th and 17th centuries were
symmetric
Symmetry () in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations ...
, proportioned and balanced with a more classical appearance. Most of these gardens were built around a central axis, and they were divided into different parts by hedges. Commonly, gardens had flowerbeds laid out in squares and separated by gravel paths.
Gardens during the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
were adorned with sculptures,
topiary
Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...
and fountains. In the 17th century,
knot garden
A knot garden is a garden style that was popularized in 16th century England and is now considered an element of the formal English garden. A knot garden consists of a variety of aromatic and culinary herbs, or low hedges such as box, planted in ...
s became popular along with the
hedge maze
A hedge maze is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the "walls" or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges.
History
Hedge mazes evolved from the knot gardens of Renaissance Europe, and were first constructed during the mi ...
s. By this time, Europeans started planting new flowers such as
tulips
Tulips are spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes in the ''Tulipa'' genus. Their flowers are usually large, showy, and brightly coloured, generally red, orange, pink, yellow, or white. They often have a different coloure ...
, marigolds and
sunflowers
''Helianthus'' () is a genus comprising around 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of ''Helianthus'' are native to ...
.
Cottage gardens
Cottage garden
The cottage garden is a distinct garden style that uses informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental plants, ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, it depends on grace and charm rather than grandeu ...
s, which emerged in
Elizabethan times, appear to have originated as a local source for herbs and fruits. One theory is that they arose out of the
Black Death
The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the list of epidemics, most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. ...
of the 1340s, when the death of so many laborers made land available for small cottages with personal gardens.
According to the late 19th-century legend of origin, These gardens were originally created by the workers who lived in the cottages of the villages to provide them with food and herbs, with flowers planted among them for decoration.
Farm workers
A farmworker, farmhand or agricultural worker is someone employed for labor in agriculture. In labor law, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including har ...
were provided with cottages that had architectural quality set in a small garden—about —where they could grow food and keep pigs and chickens.
Authentic gardens of the
yeoman
Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of Serfdom, servants in an Peerage of England, English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in Kingdom of England, mid-1 ...
cottager would have included a beehive and
livestock
Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...
, and frequently a pig and sty, along with a well. The peasant cottager of medieval times was more interested in meat than flowers, with herbs grown for medicinal use rather than for their beauty. By Elizabethan times, there was more prosperity, and thus more room to grow flowers. Even the early cottage garden flowers typically had their practical use—violets were spread on the floor (for their pleasant scent and keeping out vermin);
s and
primroses were both attractive and used in cooking. Others, such as
sweet William
Sweet William may refer to:
* '' Dianthus barbatus'', a species of flowering plant
* '' Mustelus antarcticus,'' a species of shark
* ''Sweet William'' (novel), a 1975 novel by Beryl Bainbridge
* ''Sweet William'' (film), a 1980 British drama fil ...
and
hollyhock
''Alcea'' is a genus of over 80 species of flowering plants in the mallow family Malvaceae, commonly known as the hollyhocks. They are native to Asia and Europe. The single species of hollyhock from the Americas, the Iliamna rivularis, streamban ...
s, were grown entirely for their beauty.
18th century
In the 18th century, gardens were laid out more naturally, without any walls. This style of smooth, undulating grass, which would run straight to the house, clumps, belts and scattering of trees and serpentine lakes formed by invisibly damming small rivers, was a new style within the
English landscape. This was a "gardenless" form of landscape gardening, which swept away almost all the remnants of previous, formally patterned styles. The
English landscape garden
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (, , , , ), is a style of "landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal ...
usually included a lake, lawns set against
groves of trees, and often contained shrubberies, grottoes, pavilions, bridges and
follies
''Follies'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman.
The plot centers on a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the ''Ziegfeld Follies ...
such as mock temples, Gothic ruins, bridges, and other picturesque architecture, designed to recreate an idyllic pastoral landscape. This new style emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical
garden à la française of the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe. The English garden presented an idealized view of nature. They were often inspired by paintings of landscapes by
Claude Lorraine and
Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter who was a leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythologic ...
, and some were Influenced by the classic
Chinese gardens
The Chinese garden is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. It includes both the vast gardens of the Chinese emperors and members of the imperial family, built for pleasure and to impress, and the more intimate ...
of the East,
[ which had recently been described by European travelers.] The work of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown
Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style.
Unlike other architects ...
was particularly influential. Also, in 1804, the Horticultural Society was formed.
Gardens of the 19th century contained plants such as the monkey puzzle or Chile pine. This is also the time when the so-called " gardenesque" style of gardens evolved. These gardens displayed a wide variety of flowers in a rather small space. Rock garden
A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small ...
s increased in popularity in the 19th century.
In ancient India, patterns from sacred geometry
Sacred geometry ascribes symbolic and sacred meanings to certain geometric shapes and certain geometric proportions. It is associated with the belief of a divine creator of the universal geometer. The geometry used in the design and constructi ...
and mandala
A mandala (, ) is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space and as an aid ...
s were used to design gardens. Distinct mandala patterns denoted specific deities, planets, or even constellations. Such a garden was also referred to as a 'Mandala Vaatika'. The word 'Vaatika' can mean garden, plantation or parterre.
Types
Residential gardening takes place near the home, in a space referred to as the garden. Although a garden typically is located on the land near a residence, it may also be located on a roof, in an atrium, on a balcony
A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...
, in a window box
A window box (sometimes called a window flower box or window box planter) is a type of flower container for live flowers or plants in the form of a box attached on or just below the sill of a window. It may also be used for growing herbs or ot ...
, on a patio or vivarium
A vivarium (; or vivariums) is an area, usually enclosed, for keeping and raising animals or plants for observation or research. Water-based vivaria may have open tops providing they are not connected to other water bodies. An animal enclosur ...
.
Gardening also takes place in non-residential green areas, such as parks, public or semi-public gardens (botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...
s or zoological gardens), amusement park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...
s, along transportation corridors, and around tourist attraction
A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement.
Types
Places of natural beaut ...
s and garden hotels. In these situations, a staff of gardeners or groundskeeper
Groundskeeping is the activity of tending an area of land for aesthetic or functional purposes, typically in an institutional setting. It includes mowing grass, trimming hedges, pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc. The United States Department o ...
s maintains the gardens.
* Indoor gardening is concerned with the growing of houseplant
A houseplant, also known as a pot plant, potted plant, or indoor plant, is an ornamental plant cultivated indoors. for aesthetic or practical purposes. These plants are commonly found in House, homes, Office, offices, and various indoor spaces, w ...
s within a residence or building, in a conservatory, or in a greenhouse
A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...
. Indoor gardens are sometimes incorporated as part of air conditioning
Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C (US) or air con (UK), is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior temperature, and in some cases, also controlling the humidity of internal air. Air c ...
or heating systems. Indoor gardening extends the growing season in the fall and spring and can be used for winter gardening.
* Native plant gardening
Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of native plants including trees, shrubs, groundcover, and grasses which are local to the geographic area of the garden.
Benefits
Maintenance
Natural landscaping is adapted to th ...
is concerned with the use of native plants
In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equi ...
with or without the intent of creating wildlife habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
. The goal is to create a garden in harmony with, and adapted to a given area. This type of gardening typically reduces water usage, maintenance, and fertilization costs, while increasing native faunal interest.
* Water garden
Water garden or aquatic garden, is a term sometimes used for gardens, or parts of gardens, where any type of water feature (particularly garden ponds) is a principal or dominant element. The primary focus is on plants, but they will sometimes ...
ing is concerned with growing plants adapted to pools and ponds. Bog garden
A bog garden is a type of garden that employs permanently moist (but not waterlogged) soil to create a habitat for plants and creatures which thrive in such conditions. It may exploit existing poor drainage in the garden, or it may be artificial ...
s are also considered a type of water garden. These all require special conditions and considerations. A simple water garden may consist solely of a tub containing the water and plant(s). In aquascaping
Aquascaping is the craft of arranging aquatic plants, as well as rocks, stones, cavework, or driftwood, in an aesthetically pleasing manner within an aquarium—in effect, gardening under water. Aquascape designs include a number of distinct styl ...
, a garden is created within an aquarium
An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...
tank.
* Container garden
Container gardening or pot gardening/farming is the practice of growing plants, including edible plants, exclusively in containers instead of planting them in the ground. A container in gardening is a small, enclosed and usually portable object ...
ing is concerned with growing plants in any type of container, either indoors or outdoors. Common containers are pots, hanging basket
A hanging basket is a suspended container used for growing plants. The purpose of hanging baskets in ornamental horticulture is to display plants suspended in the air to add to the aesthetics of the environment. Hanging baskets can vary by the c ...
s, and planters. Container gardening is usually used in atriums and on balconies, patios, and rooftops.
* Hügelkultur is concerned with growing plants on piles of rotting wood, as a form of raised bed gardening
Raised-bed gardening is a form of gardening in which the soil is raised above ground level and usually enclosed in some way. Raised bed structures can be made of wood, rock, concrete or other materials, and can be of any size or shape. The soil i ...
and compost
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical, and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by Decomposition, decomposing plant and food waste, recycling organic materials, and man ...
ing in situ
is a Latin phrase meaning 'in place' or 'on site', derived from ' ('in') and ' ( ablative of ''situs'', ). The term typically refers to the examination or occurrence of a process within its original context, without relocation. The term is use ...
. An English loanword
A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
from German, it means "mound garden". Toby Hemenway
Toby Hemenway (April 23, 1952 – December 20, 2016) was an American author and educator who wrote extensively on permaculture and ecological issues. He was the author of ''Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture'' and ''The Permacultur ...
, noted permaculture
Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using Systems theory, whole-systems thinking. It applies t ...
author and teacher, considers wood buried in trenches to also be a form of hugelkultur referred to as a dead wood swale.[.] Hugelkultur is practiced by Sepp Holzer
260px, A rainwater harvesting landscape designed by Holzer in Tamera, Portugal
Josef "Sepp" Holzer (born July 24, 1942, in Ramingstein, State of Salzburg, Austria) is a farmer, an author, and an international consultant for natural agricultur ...
as a method of forest gardening
Agroforestry (also known as agro-sylviculture or forest farming) is a land use management system that integrates trees with crops or pasture. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies. As a polyculture system, an agroforestry system c ...
and agroforestry
Agroforestry (also known as agro-sylviculture or forest farming) is a land use management system that integrates trees with crops or pasture. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies. As a polyculture system, an agroforestry system c ...
, and by Geoff Lawton as a method of dryland farming
Drylands are defined by a scarcity of water. Drylands are zones where precipitation is balanced by evaporation from surfaces and by transpiration by plants (evapotranspiration). The United Nations Environment Program defines drylands as tropical ...
and desert greening
Desert greening is the process of afforestation or revegetation of deserts for ecological restoration (biodiversity), sustainable farming and forestry, but also for reclamation of natural water systems and other ecological systems that support l ...
. When used as a method of disposing of large volumes of waste wood and woody debris, hugelkultur accomplishes carbon sequestration
Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. It plays a crucial role in Climate change mitigation, limiting climate change by reducing the amount of Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, carbon dioxide in the atmosphe ...
. It is also a form of xeriscaping
Xeriscaping is the process of Garden design, landscaping, or gardening, that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation. It is promoted in regions that do not have accessible, plentiful, or reliable supplies of fresh water and has gained acce ...
.
* Community gardening
A community garden is a piece of land gardening, gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for thei ...
is a social activity in which an area of land is gardened by a group of people, providing access to fresh produce, herbs, flowers and plants as well as access to satisfying labor, neighborhood improvement, sense of community and connection to the environment. Community gardens are typically owned in trust by local governments or nonprofits.
* Garden sharing Garden sharing or urban horticulture sharing is a local food and urban farming arrangement where a landowner allows a gardener access to land, typically a front or back yard, in order to grow food.
This may be an informal, one-to-one relationshi ...
partners landowners with gardeners in need of land. These shared gardens, typically front or back yards
The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...
, are usually used to produce food that is divided between the two parties.
* Organic gardening
Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety pres ...
uses natural, sustainable methods, fertilizers and pesticides to grow non-genetically modified crops
Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of '' Agrobacterium'' for the delivery of ...
.
*Biodynamic gardening
Biodynamic agriculture is a form of alternative agriculture based on pseudoscientific and esoteric concepts initially developed in 1924 by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925). It was the first of the organic farming movements. It treats soil fertility, p ...
or biodynamic agriculture is similar to organic gardening, but includes various esoteric
Western esotericism, also known as the Western mystery tradition, is a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas and currents are united since they are largely distinct both from orthod ...
concepts drawn from the ideas of Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (; 27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century ...
, such as astrological sowing and planting calendar and particular field and compost preparations.
*Commercial gardening is a more intensive type of gardening that involves the production of vegetables, non-tropical fruits, and flowers by local farmers. Commercial gardening began because farmers would sell locally to stop food from spoiling faster due to the transportation of goods from a far distance. Mediterranean agriculture is also a common practice that commercial gardeners use. Mediterranean agriculture is the practice of cultivating animals such as sheep to help weed and provide manure for vine crops, grains, or citrus. Gardeners can easily train these animals not to eat the actual plant.
* No-dig gardening (or no-till gardening) is a method of gardening that avoids tillage as much as possible. This method of gardening is gaining popularity in part due to celebrated figures such as Charles Dowding, Masanobu Fukuoka
was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, herbicide and pesticide-free cultivation methods from which he created a particular method of agr ...
, Jean-Martin Fortier
Jean-Martin Fortier (born 1978) is a Québécois people, Québécois farmer, author, educator and advocate for ecological, human-scale, and economically viable sustainable agriculture. In 2004, he and his wife, Maude-Hélène Desroches, created Les ...
, Connor Crickmore, Jesse Frost, Elaine Ingham, and many other market gardeners. Minimal tillage has been documented to help with promoting diverse soil biology
Soil biology is the study of microbial and faunal activity and ecology in soil.
Soil life, soil biota, soil fauna, or edaphon is a collective term that encompasses all organisms that spend a significant portion of their life cycle within a so ...
, water retention and drainage, healthier vigorous plants, reduction in weed pressure, reduction in labor, increased fertility and nutrient availability, increase carbon sequestration, reduction in cost, reduction in soil erosion, and reduction in pollution.
Tools
Regardless of historical time period, location, scale, or type of garden, all gardening requires some basic tool
A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...
s. For the majority of human history, people have managed with significantly fewer resources compared to modern times. Agriculture was built on the use of hands, stones, sticks, human ingenuity, and fire. The essential tools used in pre-Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
gardening were non-metal (primarily stone, bone, wood, or copper) knives, axes, adzes, foot plough
The foot plough is a type of plough used like a spade with the foot in order to cultivate the ground.
New Zealand
Before the widespread use of metal farm tools from Europe, the Māori people used the , a version of the foot plough made entirely ...
s, sickles, hoes, baskets, pottery, digging sticks, animal-driven ploughs, animals, and fire for clearing land. Up until the green revolution
The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period during which technology transfer initiatives resulted in a significant increase in crop yields. These changes in agriculture initially emerged in Developed country , devel ...
, these simple tools, although continually improved upon, would continue to be the backbone of agricultural societies.
The industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
created a large increase in the availability and impact of agricultural tools. These tools include tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...
s with modern implements, manure spreaders, cultivator
A cultivator (also known as a rotavator) is a piece of agricultural machinery, agricultural equipment used for secondary tillage. One sense of the name refers to frames with ''teeth'' (also called ''shanks'') that pierce the soil as they ar ...
s, mowers, earth-moving machines, hedge trimmers, strimmer's, wood-chippers, two-wheel tractor
Two-wheel tractor or walking tractor (, , ) are generic terms understood in the US and in parts of Europe to represent a single-axle tractor, which is a tractor with one axle, self-powered and self-propelled, which can pull and power various f ...
s, complex irrigation systems, plastic mulch
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic materials composed primarily of polymers. Their defining characteristic, plasticity, allows them to be molded, extruded, or pressed into a diverse range of solid forms. This adaptabi ...
, plastic shelters, seeding trays, indoor grow light
A grow light is an electric light that can help plants grow. Grow lights either attempt to provide a light spectrum similar to that of the sun, or to provide a spectrum that is more tailored to the needs of the plants being cultivated (typically a ...
s, packaging, chemical fertilizer
A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...
s, pesticide
Pesticides are substances that are used to control pests. They include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and many others (see table). The most common of these are herbicides, which account for approximately 50% of all p ...
s, genetically modified seeds, and many more.
Plant Propagation
Plants may be propagated through many different methods. These methods are classified as either sexual or asexual propagation.
Asexual reproduction
Asexual reproduction
Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the f ...
occurs when plants produce clonal offspring. This method of reproduction is often more simplistic and provides rapid population growth. Cloning may result in highly vulnerable plant populations if they do not also reproduce sexually in order to create genetic diversity, thus allowing for certain levels of natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...
and hybrid vigor
Heterosis, hybrid vigor, or outbreeding enhancement is the improved or increased function of any biological quality in a Hybrid (biology), hybrid offspring. An offspring is heterotic if its trait (biology), traits are enhanced as a result of m ...
. There are various methods of asexual plant propagation taken advantage of by gardeners. These include vegetative propagation
Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is a form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or specializ ...
, which involves the growth of new plants from vegetative parts of the parent plant, such as roots, stems, and leaves. Certain plants such as strawberries and raspberries produce stolon
In biology, a stolon ( from Latin ''wikt:stolo, stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as a runner, is a horizontal connection between parts of an organism. It may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton. Typically, animal ...
s or rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...
s which are stems which grow horizontally above or below ground, developing new plants at nodes. Another common method of asexual reproduction in garden plants is fragmentation which involves a separation from the parent plant. This is common for shrubs, and trees such as willows which may shed their branches which is termed cladoptosis
Cladoptosis (Ancient Greek "branch", "falling" oun sometimes pronounced with the p silent) is the regular shedding of branches. It is the counterpart for branches of the familiar process of regular leaf shedding by deciduous trees. As in leaf ...
. Placing the shed limb into water or soil produces budding
Budding or blastogenesis is a type of asexual reproduction in which a new organism develops from an outgrowth or bud due to cell division at one particular site. For example, the small bulb-like projection coming out from the yeast cell is kno ...
and causes roots to form.
Perhaps the most commonly known method of asexual reproduction in gardening and farming is grafting
Grafting or graftage is a horticulture, horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion () while the lower part is called the roots ...
. A human may choose to graft an excellent fruit-producing cultivar on a selected rootstock
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to ...
cultivar of the same species. This involves cutting each plant and connecting the cuttings by mechanical means until they inosculate or fuse together. Grafting is done for many purposes. Firstly, the scion (portion of the plant above the graft site) can undergo artificial selection for specific desirable traits such as flavor while the rootstock can undergo selection for traits such as disease resistance or cold tolerance. This effectively allows for much more efficiency in the artificial selection process as certain traits such as fruit taste can be ignored altogether in the rootstock allowing for a focused selection with less backcrossing
Backcrossing is a crossing of a hybrid with one of its parents or an individual genetically similar to its parent, to achieve offspring with a genetic identity closer to that of the parent. It is used in horticulture, animal breeding, and produc ...
to a plant that had good tasting fruit. Secondly, grafting allows for plants that require cross-pollination for fruit generation, such as apples, to all grow together as one tree. Thirdly, this allows for quick reproduction where one mother plant can produce many semi-developed clones each year.
Sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that involves a complex life cycle in which a gamete ( haploid reproductive cells, such as a sperm or egg cell) with a single set of chromosomes combines with another gamete to produce a zygote tha ...
occurs through the pollination
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma (botany), stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, for example bees, beetles or bu ...
of an ovule
In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the sporangium, megasporangium), ...
. This pollination must occur between the female and male parts of a single flower or between flowers. A plant may undergo self pollination
Self-pollination is a form of pollination in which pollen arrives at the stigma of a flower (in flowering plants) or at the ovule (in gymnosperms) of the same plant. The term cross-pollination is used for the opposite case, where pollen from one ...
as a sexual means of reproduction, where the genes of the mother plant will not perfectly match those of the progeny. Progeny from self-pollination will, however, have less genetic diversity which may result in inbreeding depression
Inbreeding depression is the reduced biological fitness caused by loss of genetic diversity as a consequence of inbreeding, the breeding of individuals closely related genetically. This loss of genetic diversity results from small population siz ...
versus plants from cross-pollination
Xenogamy (Greek ''xenos''=stranger, ''gamos''=marriage) is the transfer of pollen grains from the anther to the stigma of a different plant. This is the only type of cross pollination which during pollination brings genetically different types of ...
. Pollen is typically carried by wind, insects, or animals to complete pollination. Some greenhouses may have to manually pollinate their plants to produce fruit and seeds due to a lack of these conditions. Sexual reproduction can only be done by members of the same species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
and this produces varying levels of genetic diversity
Genetic diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It ranges widely, from the number of species to differences within species, and can be correlated to the span of survival for a species. It is d ...
in the plants' offspring. This genetic diversity is responsible for the survival of every plant as we know it today. The diversity allows for disease resistance, adaptations to changing climate, changes in soil, changes in pollination methods, changes in animal grazing pressure, changes in weed pressure, and any other variations that arise in their growing conditions. Crossing plants, or hybridizing, results in hybrid vigor and increases the genetic diversity.
Many commercially grown plants are F1 hybrid
F1 hybrid (also known as filial 1 hybrid) is the first filial generation of offspring of distinctly different parental types. F1 hybrids are used in genetics, and in selective breeding, where the term F1 crossbreed may be used. The term is somet ...
s, which ensures certain desirable traits. A common alternative to growing hybrid plants is to grow heirloom
In popular usage, an heirloom is something that has been passed down for generations through family members. Examples are a family bible, antiques, weapons or jewellery.
The term originated with the historical principle of an heirloom in ...
or open-pollinated plants, which, unlike F1 hybrids, will produce viable seed with progeny similar to its parent. Many modern gardeners will save seeds from heirloom varieties but not hybrids due to the certainty of desirable traits heirloom seeds provide. Historically, a lack of plant breeding knowledge would have led to more hybridization and the creation of new genetically diverse landrace
A landrace is a Domestication, domesticated, locally adapted, often traditional variety of a species of animal or plant that has developed over time, through adaptation to its natural and cultural Environment (biophysical), environment of agric ...
s. Each plant varies in its likelihood of outcrossing
Out-crossing or out-breeding is the technique of crossing between different breeds. This is the practice of introducing distantly related genetic material into a breeding line, thereby increasing genetic diversity.
Outcrossing in animals
Out ...
. Highly outcrossing plants such as spinach are more likely to create landraces. Many landraces and heirloom varieties along with their genetics are being lost due to the decrease in seed saving by modern farmers. This leads plant geneticist
A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic process ...
s to search for desirable genetics in wild ancestral varieties of commonly grown plants. Plants have been artificially selected and bred since at least 7800 BCE. Despite the decrease in farmer seed saving, many landraces are also being created through artificial selection and genetic modification
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including th ...
. Gardeners remain vital in the preservation of diverse genetics whether they maintain a family heirloom variety bred to fit conditions from the distant past, or they breed new landraces with traits matching their modern climate and growing condition.
Certain seeds may not sprout without certain environmental conditions. These seeds either require scarification
Scarification involves scratching, etching, burning/ branding, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification or body art. The body modification can take roughly 6–12 months to heal. In t ...
or stratification. Gardeners may grow frustrated if they lack this crucial knowledge before attempting to propagate certain plants such as hard neck garlic (asexual reproduction), which requires a cold dormant period to sprout, or saskatoon berries
''Amelanchier alnifolia'', the saskatoon berry, Pacific serviceberry, western serviceberry, western shadbush, or western juneberry, is a shrub native to North America. It is a member of the rose family, and bears an edible berry-like fruit.
De ...
which have improved germination after being digested by bears through a process called endozoochory
In spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant.
Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors, ...
.
Transplanting
Many gardeners, especially those who live in colder climates, will start seeds indoors prior to transplanting the young plants outside. This provides many benefits such as elongating the growing season, ensuring adequate quantities and quality of light, ensuring seedlings have adequate nutrients in the seed starting mix, ensuring seeds stay at correct humidity, heat, and moisture level for germination, and saving space in the garden. Many crops will not be harvestable unless they are started inside so if a gardener wants to plant these crops in their garden without starting the plants themselves, they will need to purchase transplants which are commonly available at garden centers, plant nurseries
A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry, or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which sell to the general ...
, and big-box store
A big-box store, a hyperstore, a supercenter, a superstore, or a megastore is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The ...
s. It is crucial that transplanting is done correctly. This generally implies providing the plants with enough soil so they do not become root-bound (roots wrapping in circles around transplant container), providing a hardening-off period (slow exposure to sun, wind, and cold), providing sufficient light, water, and nutrients, and choosing the correct plants to start indoors as some plants do not do well with the transplanting process.
There are varying methods of starting your seeds. The most prevalent method would be to start seeds in transplant (plug) trays or in planters/pots. Another method is starting seeds in soil blocks (small cubes of compressed potting soil
Potting soil or growing media, also known as potting mix or potting compost (UK), is a substrate used to grow plants in containers. The first recorded use of the term is from an 1861 issue of the ''American Agriculturist''. Despite its name, lit ...
, compost
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical, and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by Decomposition, decomposing plant and food waste, recycling organic materials, and man ...
, and/or other seed-starting media), which may reduce transplant shock and stop root-binding because they allow air pruning of the roots. Some plants such as onions and various herbs may be efficiently started by scattering their seeds on top of soil in a large tray where the seedlings will later be teased apart from each other and replanted in the garden or pots.
Pests
Garden pests are generally plant
Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...
s, fungi
A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...
, or animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, ...
s (frequently insect
Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...
s) that engage in activity that the gardener considers undesirable. A pest may crowd out desirable plants, disturb soil, stunt the growth of young seedlings, steal or damage fruit, or otherwise kill plants, hamper their growth, damage their appearance, or reduce the quality of the edible or ornamental portions of the plant. Aphid
Aphids are small sap-sucking insects in the Taxonomic rank, family Aphididae. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white Eriosomatinae, woolly ...
s, spider mite
Spider mites are members of the family Tetranychidae, which includes about 1,200 species. They are part of the subclass Acari (mites). Spider mites generally live on the undersides of leaves of plants, where they may spin protective silk webs, a ...
s, slug
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced ...
s, snail
A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...
s, ant
Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
s, bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
s, and even cat
The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...
s are commonly considered to be garden pests.
Throughout history, ecosystems that have undergone rapid changes are typically those that harbor the most pests. For example, a highly and rapidly altered landscape such as modern canola
file:CanolaBlooms.JPG, Close-up of canola blooms
file:Canola Flower.jpg, Canola flower
Rapeseed oil is one of the oldest known vegetable oils. There are both Edible oil, edible and industrial forms produced from rapeseed, the seed of several ...
fields in the Americas can be a breeding ground for pests of the Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae () or (the older but equally valid) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important Family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous pla ...
family. A natural ecosystem will typically regulate pest levels through many biological means whether that be the natural introduction of a disease or an increase in the population of a predator species of animal.
Because gardeners may have different goals, organisms considered "garden pests" vary from gardener to gardener. '' Tropaeolum speciosum'', for example, may be considered a desirable and ornamental garden plant, or it may be considered a pest if its seed
In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...
s and starts to grow where it is not wanted. As another example, in lawn
A lawn () is an area of soil-covered land planted with Poaceae, grasses and other durable plants such as clover lawn, clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawn mower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic an ...
s, moss can become dominant and be impossible to eradicate. In some lawns, lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...
s, especially very damp lawn lichens such as ''Peltigera
''Peltigera'' is a genus of approximately 100 species of foliose lichens in the family Peltigeraceae. Commonly known as the dog or pelt lichens, species of ''Peltigera'' are often terricolous (growing on soil), but can also occur on moss, trees ...
lactucfolia'' and ''P. membranacea'', can become difficult to control and are considered pests.
Pest control
There are many ways by which unwanted pests are removed from a garden. The techniques vary depending on the pest, the gardener's goals, and the gardener's philosophy. For example, snails may be dealt with through the use of a chemical pesticide, an organic pesticide, hand-picking, barriers, or simply growing snail-resistant plants.
On a large scale, pest control
Pest control is the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest (organism), pest; such as any animal, plant or fungus that impacts adversely on human activities or environment. The human response depends on the importance of the da ...
is often done through the use of pesticide
Pesticides are substances that are used to control pests. They include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and many others (see table). The most common of these are herbicides, which account for approximately 50% of all p ...
s and herbicide
Herbicides (, ), also commonly known as weed killers, are substances used to control undesired plants, also known as weeds.EPA. February 201Pesticides Industry. Sales and Usage 2006 and 2007: Market Estimates. Summary in press releasMain page f ...
s, which may be either organic or artificially synthesized. Pesticides may affect the ecology
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...
of a garden due to their effects on the populations of both target and non-target species. For example, unintended exposure to some neonicotinoid
Neonicotinoids (sometimes shortened to neonics ) are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine, developed by scientists at Royal Dutch Shell, Shell and Bayer in the 1980s.
Neonicotinoids are among the widest-used insecti ...
pesticides has been proposed as a factor in the recent decline in honey bee
A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the ...
populations. Pesticides and herbicides are also known to cause medical issues, typically to those in proximity during their application. While farm workers are by far the most affected by the use of pesticides and herbicides, they are often under-informed or accept the consequences due to financial necessity. Fungicide
Fungicides are pesticides used to kill parasitic fungi or their spores. Fungi can cause serious damage in agriculture, resulting in losses of yield and quality. Fungicides are used both in agriculture and to fight fungal infections in animals, ...
s may be applied to the seed coat to reduce mortality of germinating seedlings. The improper use of pesticides often leads to pesticide resistance
Pesticide resistance describes the decreased susceptibility of a pest population to a pesticide that was previously effective at controlling the pest. Pest species evolve pesticide resistance via natural selection: the most resistant specimens su ...
which poses a risk in global food security. With climate change affecting the distribution of pests, a global increase in pesticide usage has been observed which in turn has caused an increase of human health risks due to exposure. Creating new pesticides in order to manage resistant organisms is an immense expense and is often heavily criticized as an ineffective method of pest control.
Other means of control include the removal of infected plants, using fertilizer
A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...
s and bio stimulants to improve the health and vigor of plants so they better resist attack, practicing crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. This practice reduces the reliance of crops on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, along with the pro ...
to prevent pest build-up, using foliar sprays, companion planting
Companion planting in gardening and agriculture is the planting of different crops in proximity for any of a number of different reasons, including Weed control, weed suppression, pest control, pollination, providing habitat for beneficial ins ...
, and practicing good garden hygiene, such as disinfecting tools and clearing debris and weed
A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, growing where it conflicts with human preferences, needs, or goals.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. Pla ...
s which may harbor pests. Another common method of pest control, used frequently in market gardening, is using insect netting or plastic greenhouse covers. Gardeners may rely on one type of pest in order to eliminate another. Some examples of this are cats which hunt mice and rats, wild birds, bats, chickens, and ducks which hunt insects and slugs, or thorny hedges to deter deer and other creatures. Using these organisms to help control pests is called biological pest control
Biological control or biocontrol is a method of controlling pests, whether pest animals such as insects and mites, weeds, or pathogens affecting animals or plants by using other organisms. It relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or ot ...
. There are also targeted measures of animal pest control, such as a mole vibrator, which can deter mole activity in a garden, or automated gun shots to scare off birds.
Garden guns
Garden guns are smooth-bore shotguns specifically made to fire .22 caliber snake shot
Snake shot, rat shot, or dust shot, more formally known as shotshell (a name shared with the shotgun shell) or canister shot, refers to handgun and rifle cartridges loaded with lead shot canisters instead of bullets, intended for pest control ...
, and are commonly used by gardeners and farmers for pest control. Garden guns are short-range weapons that can do little harm past and are relatively quiet when fired with snake shot, compared to standard ammunition. These guns are especially effective inside barns and sheds, as the snake shot will not shoot holes in the roof or walls, or more importantly, injure livestock with a ricochet
A ricochet ( ; ) is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost ...
. They are also used for pest control at airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...
s, warehouse
A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, out ...
s, and stockyards.
Social aspects
People can express their political or social views in gardens, intentionally or not. The lawn vs. garden issue is played out in urban planning
Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...
as the debate over the "land ethic
A land ethic is a philosophy or theoretical framework about how, ethically, humans should regard the land. The term was coined by Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) in his '' A Sand County Almanac'' (1949), a classic text of the environmental movement. ...
" that is to determine urban land use
Land use is an umbrella term to describe what happens on a parcel of land. It concerns the benefits derived from using the land, and also the land management actions that humans carry out there. The following categories are used for land use: fo ...
and whether hyper hygienist
Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...
bylaw
A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authority. The higher authority, generally a legislature or some other ...
s (e.g. weed control
Weed control is a type of pest control, which attempts to stop or reduce growth of weeds, especially noxious weeds, with the aim of reducing their competition with desired flora and fauna including domesticated plants and livestock, and in natu ...
) should apply, or whether land should generally be allowed to exist in its natural wild state. In a famous Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
Charter of Rights case, "Sandra Bell vs. City of Toronto", 1997, the right to cultivate all native species, even most varieties deemed noxious or allergenic, was upheld as part of the right of free expression.
Community gardening
A community garden is a piece of land gardening, gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for thei ...
comprises a wide variety of approaches to sharing land and gardens.
People often surround their house and garden with a hedge. Common hedge plants are privet
A privet is a flowering plant in the genus ''Ligustrum''. The genus contains about 50 species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs or trees, with a native distribution from Europe to tropical and subtropical Asia, and with one species each ...
, hawthorn, beech
Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...
, yew
Yew is a common name given to various species of trees.
It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus '' Taxus'':
* European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'')
* Pacific yew or western yew ('' Taxus ...
, leyland cypress
The Leyland cypress, ''Cupressus'' × ''leylandii'', × ''Cuprocyparis leylandii'' or × ''Cupressocyparis leylandii'', often referred to simply as leylandii, is a fast-growing coniferous evergreen tree much used in horticulture, primarily for h ...
, hemlock, arborvitae
''Thuja'' ( ) is a genus of coniferous tree or shrub in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are five species in the genus, two native to North America and three native to eastern Asia. The genus is monophyletic and sister to ''Thujopsis''. M ...
, barberry, box
A box (plural: boxes) is a container with rigid sides used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides (typically rectangular prisms). Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or v ...
, holly
''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...
, oleander
''Nerium oleander'' ( ), commonly known as oleander or rosebay, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the genus ...
, forsythia
''Forsythia'' , is a genus of flowering plants in the olive family Oleaceae. There are about 11 species, mostly native to Eastern Asia, but one native to Southeastern Europe. ''Forsythia'' – also one of the plant's common names – is named ...
, and lavender
''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...
.
The Slow Food movement has sought in some countries to add an edible school yard and garden classrooms to schools, e.g. in Fergus, Ontario
Fergus is the largest community in Centre Wellington, a township within Wellington County, Ontario, Wellington County in Ontario, Canada. It lies on the Grand River (Ontario), Grand River about 18 km NNW of Guelph. The population of this com ...
, where these were added to a public school to augment the kitchen classroom. Garden sharing Garden sharing or urban horticulture sharing is a local food and urban farming arrangement where a landowner allows a gardener access to land, typically a front or back yard, in order to grow food.
This may be an informal, one-to-one relationshi ...
, where urban landowners allow gardeners to grow on their property in exchange for a share of the harvest, is associated with the desire to control the quality of one's food, and reconnect with soil and community.
In US and British usage, the production of ornamental plantings around buildings is called ''landscaping
Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including the following:
# Living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly called gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal ...
'', ''landscape maintenance
Landscape maintenance (or groundskeeping) is the art and vocation of keeping a landscape healthy, clean, safe and attractive, typically in a garden, yard, park, institutional setting or estate. Using tools, supplies, knowledge, physical exertion ...
,'' or '' grounds keeping'', while international usage uses the term ''gardening'' for these same activities.
Also gaining popularity is the concept of "Green Gardening" which involves growing plants using organic fertilizers and pesticides so that the gardening process – or the flowers and fruits produced thereby – doesn't adversely affect the environment or people's health in any manner.
Gardening can be a very pleasant and relaxing activity with rewarding results. It allows for a connection with nature and creating a green space that presents a vision of beauty but also contributes to the eco system. A thriving and flourishing garden can be created by understanding and adapting to the climate and environmental changes.
Plants and flowers grow in varying temperatures and weather conditions. Most plants thrive in temperatures between 18 and 24°C during the day and slightly cooler at night. This range allows for optimal photosynthesis and overall growth for many common plant species. Usually, there is a variety of plants in a garden, therefore, it is always best to learn about the best weather for your plants to have success with your planting.
Laws and restrictions
In some parts of the world, particularly the United States, gardening can be restricted by law or by rules and regulations imposed by a Homeowners Association. In the United States, such rules may prohibit homeowners from growing vegetable gardens, prohibit xeriscaping
Xeriscaping is the process of Garden design, landscaping, or gardening, that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation. It is promoted in regions that do not have accessible, plentiful, or reliable supplies of fresh water and has gained acce ...
or meadow gardens, or require garden plants to be chosen from a pre-approved list, to preserve the aesthetics of the neighborhood. Numerous challenges to these laws, ordinances and regulations have emerged in recent years, with some resulting in legislation protecting a homeowner's right to cultivate native plants or grow vegetables. Laws protecting a homeowner's right to grow food plants have been termed "right to garden" laws.
Waste management
Yard waste includes leaves, brush, grass clippings, and other organic materials. It can be chipped into a mulch
A mulch is a layer of material applied to the surface of soil. Reasons for applying mulch include conservation of soil moisture, improving soil fertility, fertility and health of the soil, reducing Weed control, weed growth, and enhancing the v ...
or made into a finished compost
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical, and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by Decomposition, decomposing plant and food waste, recycling organic materials, and man ...
that can be sold.
Benefits
Gardening is considered by many people to be a relaxing activity. There are also many studies about the positive effects on mental and physical health in relation to gardening. Specifically, gardening is thought to increase self-esteem
Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth, abilities, or morals. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself (for example, "I am loved", "I am worthy") as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Macki ...
and reduce stress. As writer and former teacher Sarah Biddle notes, one's garden may become a "tiny oasis to relax and recharge ne'sbatteries." Involving in gardening activities aids in creativity, observational skills, learning, planning and physical movement.
Others consider gardening to be a good hedge against supply chain disruptions, with increased worries that the public cannot always trust that the grocery store shelves will be fully stocked. In April 2022, about 31% of grocery products were out of stock which is an 11% increase from November 2021.
Gardening can also support good numbers and a wide range of pollinator
A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female carpel, stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains.
Insects are ...
s, but worryingly bee
Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...
s and other pollinators are in decline. Gardeners can make a difference to help reverse this trend. The main thing that matters is that they get their share of nectar
Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...
to fuel their busy lifestyles, and this is where gardening can help them.
A way to both positively impact humans and pollinators is to implement pollinator gardens. Including native flowers has been shown to increase pollinators, and even protects bee populations against urbanization and landscapes that do not include flowers. Small patches in urban landscapes that are diverse in flowers have been noted to match or even exceed wild landscapes when it comes to bees pollinating. Areas like golf courses, cemeteries, community gardens as well as residential gardens are all areas in urban settings that could benefit pollinator diversity by implementing native flowers to the landscape.
Ornaments and accessories
There is a wide range of garden ornament
A garden ornament or lawn ornament is a non-plant item used for garden, landscape, and park enhancement and decoration.
History
Early examples of the use of garden ornaments in western culture were seen in Ancient Roman gardens such as th ...
s and accessories available in the market for both the professional gardener and the amateur to exercise their creativity, for example, sculptures, lights or fountains. These are used to add decoration or functionality, and may be made from a wide range of materials such as copper, stone, wood, bamboo, stainless steel
Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...
, clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
, stained glass
Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
, concrete, or iron. Examples include trellis, garden furniture
Garden furniture, also called patio furniture or outdoor furniture, is a type of furniture specifically designed for outdoor use. It is typically made of weather-resistant materials such as aluminium which is rust-proof.
History
The oldes ...
, gnomes
A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...
, statues
A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size. A sculpture ...
, outdoor fireplace
An outdoor fireplace is a place for building fires outside of the home. Similar in construction to an indoor fireplace, an outdoor fireplace is usually added to a stone, brick, or concrete patio. It often consists of a Firebox (architecture) ...
s, fountain
A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect.
Fountains were o ...
s, rain chain
Rain chains (, or ', literally "chain-gutter") are alternatives to a downspout. They are widely used in Japan. Their purpose is largely decorative, to make a water feature out of the transport of rainwater from the guttering downwards to a drain ...
s, urns
An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape ...
, bird bath
A bird bath (or birdbath) is an artificial puddle or small shallow pond, created with a water-filled basin, in which birds may drink, bathe, and cool themselves. A bird bath can be a garden ornament, small reflecting pool, outdoor sculpture, and ...
s and feeders, wind chime
Wind chimes are a type of percussion instrument constructed from suspended tubes, rods, bells, or other objects that are often made of metal or wood. The tubes or rods are suspended along with some type of weight or surface which the tubes or ro ...
s, and garden lighting such as candle lanterns
A lantern is a source of lighting, often portable. It typically features a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle, a wick in oil, or a thermoluminescent mesh, and often a battery-powered light in modern timesto ...
and oil lamps
An oil lamp is a lamp used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and continues to this day, although their use is less common in modern times. The ...
. The use of these items can be part of the expression of a gardener's gardening personality.
As art
Garden design is considered to be an art in most cultures, distinguished from gardening, which generally means ''garden maintenance''. Garden design can include different themes such as perennial, butterfly
Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...
, wildlife
Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...
, Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, water
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
, tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...
, or shade
Shade, Shades or Shading may refer to:
* Shade (color), a mixture of a color with black (often generalized as any variety of a color)
* Shade (shadow), the blocking of sunlight
* Shades or sunglasses
* Shading, a process used in art and graphic ...
gardens.
In Japan, Samurai
The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
and Zen
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
monks were often required to build decorative gardens or practice related skills like flower arrangement known as ''ikebana
is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. It is also known as . The origin of ikebana can be traced back to the ancient Japanese custom of erecting Evergreen, evergreen trees and decorating them with flowers as yorishiro () to invite the go ...
''. In 18th-century Europe, country estates were refashioned by landscape gardeners into formal gardens or landscaped park lands, such as at Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
, France, or Stowe, England. Today, landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...
s and garden designer
A garden designer is someone who designs the plan and features of gardens, either as an amateur or professional. The compositional elements of garden design and landscape design are: terrain, water, planting, constructed elements and buildings, ...
s continue to produce artistically creative designs for private garden spaces. In the US, professional landscape designers are certified by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers.
See also
* Arboretum
An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...
* Bonsai
Bonsai (; , ) is the Japanese art of Horticulture, growing and shaping miniature trees in containers, with a long documented history of influences and native Japanese development over a thousand years, and with unique aesthetics, cultural hist ...
* Cultigen
A cultigen (), or cultivated plant, is a plant that has been deliberately altered or selected by humans, by means of genetic modification, graft-chimaeras, plant breeding, or wild or cultivated plant selection. These plants have commercial val ...
* Eyecatchers
* Garden writing
Writing about gardens takes a variety of Literary genre, literary forms, ranging from instructional manuals on horticulture and garden design, to essays on gardening, to novels. Garden writing has been published in English since at least the 16th ...
* Growbag
* Introduced species
An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...
* Impact gardening
Impact may refer to:
* Impact (mechanics), a large force or mechanical shock over a short period of time
* Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US
Science and technology
* Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event
* Im ...
* List of gardening topics
* List of horticulture and gardening books
* List of professional gardeners
This is a list of people noted for their contribution to gardening, either by working as gardeners or garden designers, or by commissioning famous gardens.
It does not include the innumerable people who count gardening among their hobbies.
Notab ...
* Master gardener program
Master Gardener programs (also known as Extension Master Gardener Programs) are volunteer programs that train individuals in the science and art of gardening. These individuals pass on the information they learned during their training, as volu ...
* No-dig gardening
References
External links
National Gardening Association
(USA)
Manual of Gardening
(1910)
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