From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Pagoda at
Kew Gardens, London, England
Gardening
is the practice of growing
plants
for their attractive flowers or foliage, and
vegetables
or
fruits
for consumption. Gardening is a human activity used to produce edible foods and use plants to beautify their local
environmental
conditions. Its scale ranges: from fruit orchards, to long boulevards plantings with one or more different types of shrubs, trees and
herbaceous
plants, to residential yards including lawns and foundation plantings, to large or small containers grown inside or outside. Gardening may often be very specific, with only one type of plant grown, or involve a large number of different plants in mixed plantings. It involves an active participation in the growing of plants and tends to be labor intensive, which differentiates it from
farming
or
forestry
.
A
garden
is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of
plants
and other forms of
nature
. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form is known as a
residential garden
. Western gardens are almost universally based around plants.
Zoos
, which display wild animals in simulated natural habitats, were formerly called
zoological gardens
. Some traditional types of eastern gardens, such as
Zen gardens
, use plants sparsely or not at all.
Xeriscape
gardens use local native plants that do not require irrigation or extensive use of other resources while still providing the benefits of a garden environment.