Gardening is the process of growing plants for their , , , , and appearances within a designated space.
Gardening can be difficult to differentiate from Agriculture. They are most easily differentiated based on their primary objectives. Farming prioritizes saleable goods and may include livestock production, whereas gardening often prioritizes aesthetics and leisure. As it pertains to food production, gardening generally happens on a much smaller scale with the intent of personal or community consumption.
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 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
(einkorn, emmer, barley).
Despite not qualifying as plant domestication, many archaeological studies are pushing the potential date of
Hominini selective
ecosystem 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.
The Americas
There are long traditions of gardening within Indigenous societies spanning from the northernmost parts of
Canada down to the southernmost tip of
Chile and
Argentina.
The
Arctic and
Subarctic societies relied primarily on
hunting and
fishing 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
Fuegians 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,
Charles Darwin mentioned wild edible plants such as
Fungus,
kelp, and wild
celery 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 and
forest ecosystems. From the boreal forests 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,
Clam garden, or terraces).
These modified landscapes as recorded by early American
Philosophy such as Thoreau, 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, quinoa, common bean, peanut, pumpkin, Cucurbita, Capsicum, tomato, cassava, potato, blueberry, Opuntia, cashew, papaya, pineapple, strawberry, Theobroma cacao, Common sunflower, cotton, Pará rubber, and tobacco.
History
Ancient times
Forest gardening, a forest-based food production system, is the world's oldest form of gardening.
After the emergence of the first , wealthy individuals began to create gardens for aesthetic purposes. tomb paintings from the New Kingdom (around 1500 BC) provide some of the earliest physical evidence of ornamental horticulture and landscape design; they depict Egyptian lotus ponds surrounded by symmetrical rows of and palm tree. A notable example of ancient ornamental gardens was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon—one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World —while ancient Rome 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, sycamores, Ficus, nut trees, and willows. 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. , poppies, Asteraceae and irises could all also be found in the gardens of the Egyptians.
Assyria 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. Cupressus and palms were some of the most frequently planted types of trees.
Gardens were also available in Kush. In Musawwarat es-Sufra, the Great Enclosure, dated to the 3rd century BC, included splendid gardens.
Ancient Roman gardens were laid out with hedges and vines and contained a wide variety of flowers—acanthus, cornflowers, crocus, cyclamen, hyacinth, iris, ivy, lavender, lilies, myrtle, narcissus, poppy, rosemary and violets
The Middle Ages
The
Middle Ages 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 and/or decorating church
altars. Monasteries carried on a tradition of
garden design and intense horticultural techniques during the medieval period in
Europe.
Generally, monastic garden types consisted of kitchen gardens, infirmary gardens, cemetery
, 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.
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 or pavilion. Specific to the Islamic gardens are the and glazed tiles used to decorate the rills and that were built in these gardens.
By the late 13th century, rich Europeans began to grow gardens for leisure and medicinal herbs and vegetables.
The gardens in the 16th and 17th centuries were symmetric, 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 were adorned with sculptures, topiary and fountains. In the 17th century, became popular along with the . By this time, Europeans started planting new flowers such as tulips, marigolds and sunflowers.
Cottage gardens
, 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 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,
[Anne Scott-James, The Cottage Garden (London: Lane) 1981, demythologised the origins of the English cottage garden, and its treasured topiary among the vegetables and flowers, popularly supposed to represent heirlooms from the seventeenth century.] 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.
Farmworker were provided with cottages that had architectural quality set in a small garden—about —where they could grow food and keep pigs and chickens.
[Colvin, Howard (2008). A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840, Yale University Press, , p. 659 ]
Authentic gardens of the yeoman cottager would have included a beehive and livestock, 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); and primula vulgaris were both attractive and used in cooking. Others, such as sweet William and , 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
England 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 usually included a lake, lawns set against groves of trees, and often contained shrubberies, grottoes, pavilions, bridges and
folly 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.
[Yves-Marie Allain and Janine Christiany, L'Art des jardins en Europe, Citadelles and Mazenod, Paris, 2006.] The English garden presented an idealized view of nature. They were often inspired by paintings of landscapes by
Claude Lorraine and
Nicolas Poussin, and some were Influenced by the classic
Chinese gardens of the East,
[ which had recently been described by European travelers.]
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. increased in popularity in the 19th century.
In ancient India, patterns from sacred geometry and 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 roof garden, in an atrium, on a balcony, in a window box, Patio or vivarium., San Francisco]]
in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire]]Gardening also takes place in non-residential green areas, such as parks, public or semi-public gardens ( or zoo), , along transportation corridors, and around tourist attractions and garden hotels. In these situations, a staff of gardeners or maintains the gardens.
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Indoor gardening is concerned with the growing of within a residence or building, in a conservatory, or in a greenhouse. Indoor gardens are sometimes incorporated as part of air conditioning or heating systems. Indoor gardening extends the growing season in the fall and spring and can be used for winter gardening.
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Native plant gardening is concerned with the use of native plants with or without the intent of creating wildlife habitat. 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 interest.
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is concerned with growing plants adapted to pools and ponds. 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, a garden is created within an aquarium tank.
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is concerned with growing plants in any type of container, either indoors or outdoors. Common containers are pots, , and planters. Container gardening is usually used in atriums and on balconies, patios, and rooftops.
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Hügelkultur is concerned with growing plants on piles of rotting wood, as a form of raised bed gardening and in situ.
[.] Hugelkultur is practiced by Sepp Holzer as a method of forest gardening and agroforestry, and by Geoff Lawton as a method of dryland farming and desert greening.
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Community gardening 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.
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Garden sharing partners landowners with gardeners in need of land. These shared gardens, typically front or back yards, are usually used to produce food that is divided between the two parties.
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Organic gardening uses natural, sustainable methods, fertilizers and pesticides to grow non-genetically modified crops.
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Biodynamic gardening or biodynamic agriculture is similar to organic gardening, but includes various esoteric concepts drawn from the ideas of Rudolf Steiner, such as astrological sowing and planting calendar and particular field and compost preparations.
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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.
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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, Jean-Martin Fortier, Conor Crickmore, Jesse Frost, Elaine Ingham, and many other market gardeners. Minimal tillage has been documented to help with promoting diverse soil biology, 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 .
Plant Propagation
Plants may be propagated through many different methods. These methods are classified as either sexual or asexual propagation.
Asexual reproduction
Asexual reproduction occurs when plants produce Cloning. 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 and Heterosis.
Sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction occurs through the pollination of an ovule. This pollination must occur between the female and male parts of a single flower or between flowers. A plant may undergo Self-pollination 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 versus plants from cross-pollination.
Certain seeds may not sprout without certain environmental conditions. These seeds either require scarification or stratification.
Transplanting
Many gardeners, especially those who live in colder climates, will start seeds indoors prior to transplanting the young plants outside.
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, compost, and/or other seed-starting media), which may reduce transplant shock and stop root-binding because they allow air pruning of the roots.
Pests
Garden pests are generally , fungi, or (frequently ) 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. , , , , , , and even are commonly considered to be garden pests.
Throughout history, ecosystems that have undergone rapid changes are typically those that harbor the most 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 is often done through the use of and , which may be either organic or artificially synthesized. Pesticides may affect the ecology of a garden due to their effects on the populations of both target and non-target species. For example, unintended exposure to some neonicotinoid pesticides has been proposed as a factor in the recent decline in honey bee populations.
Garden guns
Garden guns are smooth-bore shotguns specifically made to fire .22 caliber snake shot, 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. They are also used for pest control at , , 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 as the debate over the "land ethic" that is to determine urban land use and whether hyper hygiene (e.g. weed control) should apply, or whether land should generally be allowed to exist in its natural wild state. In a famous Canadians Charter of Rights case, "Sandra Bell vs. City of Toronto",
Community gardening 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, Crataegus, beech, Taxus, Leyland Cypress, Tsuga, arborvitae, Berberis, Buxus, holly, Nerium oleander, forsythia, and lavender.
The Slow Food movement has sought in some countries to add an edible School garden and garden classrooms to schools, e.g. in Fergus, Ontario, where these were added to a public school to augment the kitchen classroom.[ Meet the urban sharecroppers The Guardian, 4 September 2008]
In US and British usage, the production of ornamental plantings around buildings is called landscaping, landscape maintenance, or Groundskeeping, while international usage uses the term gardening for these same activities.
Also gaining popularity is the concept of "Green Gardening"
Gardening can be a very pleasant and relaxing activity with rewarding results.
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.
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.
Waste management
Yard waste includes leaves, brush, grass clippings, and other organic materials. It can be chipped into a mulch or made into a finished compost 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.
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.
Gardening can also support good numbers and a wide range of , but worryingly and other pollinators are in decline. Gardeners can make a difference to help reverse this trend.
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.
Ornaments and accessories
There is a wide range of 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, clay, stained glass, concrete, or iron. Examples include trellis, garden furniture, Garden gnome, Garden sculpture, outdoor fireplaces, , , urns, and Bird feeder, , and garden lighting such as candle lanterns and oil lamps. 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, Wildlife garden, Japanese garden, Water garden, Tropical garden, or Shade garden gardens.
In Japan, Samurai and Zen monks were often required to build decorative gardens or practice related skills like flower arrangement known as ikebana. In 18th-century Europe, country estates were refashioned by landscape gardeners into formal gardens or landscaped park lands, such as at Versailles, France, or Stowe, England. Today, landscape architects and 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
External links
