Horticulture and Gardening

Poppy | Mar 1, 2010 |

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Horticulture is defined as, "the art or science of cultivating gardens" (from Collins Dictionary), the word stem 'horti' being derived from the Greek word for grass. In practice, the term 'horticulture' is more often applied to formal study and professional work, and 'gardening' to the amateur or home environment.

There are many branches of horticultural study, covering all the principle commercial areas of interest, including arboriculture (trees), viticulture (grapes and vines), and floriculture (flowering plants) and so on. As scientific research expands, specialisation is becoming even more refined into a particular market sector or application, each branch being served by sections of organisations such as the Royal Horticultural Society in the UK and American Horticultural Society in the United States.

Topics covered in Horticulture and Gardening can include everything from detailed instructions on the propagation, care and use of individual decorative and edible plants, the design and arrangement of garden layouts, construction of hard-landscaping features and even information on adaptation to climate change.

Beyond the formal pursuit of a career in horticultural science, there are so many styles and trends in garden design, taste in plants and climatic conditions that gardening can become a life-long hobby. Many people find it therapeutic and relaxing to nurture highly demanding, specimen plants. Other people enjoy working with the prevailing conditions of soil and climate and grow a plant because it will thrive in its environment. For some people, having a vegetable garden is a means to provide tasty food for their family, to reduce their environmental impact, control exposure to chemical fertilizers, pesticides or genetic modification, and to simply save money.

Gardening dates back many to the earliest times, through 19th Century cottage gardens where flowers and vegetables were grown together, large-scale landscape gardens of 18th and 19th Century grand country houses, intricate designs of mediaeval knot gardens, Japanese and Chinese gardens, monastery gardens where medicinal herbs were grown, and back into antiquity to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Apart from the cottage garden, gardens were generally created for their owners by artisans, and required the labour of many people to construct and maintain them, with skills passed from master to apprentice. There are also surviving early instructional texts describing how to grow plants, such as John the Gardener's The Feate of Gardening (circa 1440 AD), although most of the historical gardens that can be visited today have been recreated from paintings and documents such as outline plans and bills for plants and labour.

Nowadays, most gardens are created for the pleasure of their owner, by their owner. For the modern gardener, whether with a small space on a balcony or window box, or with the space and time to dedicate to collections of the largest and most impressive specimens, gardening offers exercise and an escape from the pace and pressure of industrialised life.

Whatever the motivation for seeking information within this section, there are a myriad of 'How to...' guides, reviews of equipment and books, recommendations for flower and vegetable garden varieties and information on dealing with particular conditions.