Weed
A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, a plant in the wrong place. Examples commonly are plants unwanted in human-controlled settings, such as fields, lawns. Many plants that people widely regard as weeds are grown in gardens and other cultivated settings. The term weed is applied to any plant that grows or reproduces aggressively, Weed control is important in agriculture. Methods include hand cultivation with hoes, powered cultivation with cultivators, smothering with mulch, lethal wilting with high heat, certain classes of weeds share adaptations to ruderal environments. The nature of the habitat and its disturbances will affect or even determine which types of weed communities become dominant. In contrast, perennial weeds often have underground stems that spread under the surface or, like ground ivy, have creeping stems that root. In locations where predation and mutually competitive relationships are absent, weeds have increased resources available for growth and these chemicals may limit the growth of established plants or the germination and growth of seeds and seedlings. A number of native or non-native plants are unwanted in a location for a number of reasons.
An important one is that they interfere with food and fiber production in agriculture, other important reasons are that they interfere with other cosmetic, decorative, or recreational goals, such as in lawns, landscape architecture, playing fields, and golf courses. Similarly, they can be of concern for environmental reasons whereby introduced species out-compete for resources or space with desired endemic plants, in weed ecology some authorities speak of the relationship between the three Ps, place, perception. These have been variously defined, but the weed traits listed by H. G. Baker are widely cited. Weeds have long been a concern, perhaps as long as humans have cultivated plants, and the Bible, Cursed is the ground because of you, through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, While the term weed generally has a negative connotation, many plants known as weeds can have beneficial properties.
A number of weeds, such as the dandelion and lambs quarter, are edible, burdock is common over much of the world, and is sometimes used to make soup and medicine in East Asia. Some weeds attract beneficial insects, which in turn can protect crops from harmful pests, Weeds can prevent pest insects from finding a crop, because their presence disrupts the incidence of positive cues which pests use to locate their food. Weeds may act as a mulch, providing ground cover that reduces moisture loss
Sustainable gardening
Sustainable gardening includes the more specific sustainable landscapes, sustainable landscape design, sustainable landscaping, sustainable landscape architecture, resulting in sustainable sites. Organic gardening and the use of plants are integral to sustainable gardening. On Sustainability in Horticulture and a Declaration for the 21st Century, the principles and objectives outlined at this conference were discussed in more practical terms at the following conference at Seoul in 2006. These practices were established as movements for self-sufficiency and small-scale farming based on a systems approach. Included here would be, biodynamic agriculture, no-till farming, Fukuoka farming, forest gardening, organic gardening and others. On a larger scale there is the more recent whole farm planning which was established in 1995, and ecoagriculture established in 2000, managing global biophysical cycles and ecosystem services for the benefit of humans, other organisms and future generations has now become a global human responsibility.
The method of applying sustainability to gardens and sites is still under development, there are a number of basic and common underlying biological and operational principles and practices in the sustainable sites literature. Sustainable management of man-made landscapes emulates the natural processes that sustain the biosphere and foremost is the harnessing the energy of the Sun and the cycling of materials thereby minimising waste and energy use. The use of plants in a garden or landscape can both preserve and protect natural ecosystems, and reduce the amount of care and energy required to maintain a healthy garden or landscape. Native plants are adapted to the climate and geology. Native plants support populations of birds and other animals that they coevolved with. Plants in a garden or maintained landscape often form a population from which plants can colonize new areas. Avoiding the use of invasive species helps to prevent such plants from establishing new populations, the use of native species can provide a valuable source to help these plants colonise new areas.
Some non-native species can form an ecological trap in which species are lured into an environment that appears attractive but is poorly suited to them. The findings were published in form in Ken Thompsons book No Nettles Required. He confirms the approach which Chris Baines had promoted in How to Make a Wildlife Garden, enhancement of ecosystem services is encouraged throughout the lifecycle of any site by providing clear design and management criteria. To be sustainable over the term requires environmental, social. Impacts of a site can be assessed and measured over any scale or context
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum, and a viticetum, a collection of vines, more commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study. An arboretum specializing in growing conifers is known as a pinetum, other specialist arboreta include saliceta and querceta. The term arboretum was first used in an English publication by John Claudius Loudon in 1833 in The Gardeners Magazine, egyptian Pharaohs planted exotic trees and cared for them, they brought ebony wood from the Sudan, and pine and cedar from Syria. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahri mortuary temple complex, Arboreta are special places for the cultivation and display of a wide variety of different kinds of trees and shrubs. Many tree collections have been claimed as the first arboretum, in most cases, Arboreta differ from pieces of woodland or plantations because they are botanically significant collections with a variety of examples rather than just a few kinds.
Of course there are many tree collections that are older than the eighteenth century in different parts of the world. Loudons Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum,8 vols, Loudon urged that a national arboretum be created and called for arboreta and other systematic collections to be established in public parks, private gardens, country estates and other places. He regarded the Derby Arboretum as the most important landscape-gardening commission of the part of his career because it demonstrated the benefits of a public arboretum. The more lofty trees suffered from the high winds. We walked round the two spirals of this coil of trees and shrubs, viz. from Acer to Quercus. There is no garden scene about London so interesting, a plan of Loddiges arboretum was included in The Encyclopaedia of Gardening,1834 edition. One example of an early European tree collection is the Trsteno Arboretum, the date of its founding is unknown, but it was already in existence by 1492, when a 15 m span aqueduct to irrigate the arboretum was constructed, this aqueduct is still in use.
The garden was created by the prominent local Gučetić/Gozze family and it suffered two major disasters in the 1990s but its two unique and ancient Oriental Planes remained standing. Udhagamandalam Arboretum, The Nilgiris, India The arboretum at Ooty was established in 1992 with an aim of conserving native and indigenous trees and it was established during the year 1992 and maintained by Department of Horticulture with Hill Area Development Programme funds. The area is the natural habitats of indigenous and migratory birds. During the year 2005-2006, it was rehabilated with funds provided by the Hill Area Development Programme by providing permanent fencing, a foot path, and other infrastructure facilities. The arboretum is the realization of the dream of William Douglas Cook, the arboretum is now the National Arboretum of New Zealand, and holds some 4,000 different trees and climbers
Garden tool
A garden tool is any one of many tools made for gardens and gardening and overlaps with the range of tools made for agriculture and horticulture. Garden tools can be tools and power tools. The hand tools used by gardeners originated with the earliest agricultural implements used by humans. Examples include, Axe Sickle Pitchfork Spade Scythe Shovel Trowel Hoe Fork Rake In some places the machete may be used as a tool as well. The earliest tools were made of wood, metal, however, the development of metal working, first in copper and in iron and steel, enabled the manufacture of more durable tools. Industrial metalworking enabled the manufacture of efficient cutting tools, including pruning shears, grass shears and larger, modern tool design includes ergonomics considerations. Tools are being designed that induce ever less stress on the body when used. The most efficient tools keep the body in a position while being used. This helps to lessen the stress on joints and muscles, an advantage of this approach is that it requires gardeners to exert less energy whilst using the tools.
Some modern patents such as US7,832,125 show an example without hand stop provisions, the first power tool to become popular with gardeners was the lawn mower. US emission standards specifically limit emissions from small engines. Agricultural machinery Antique tool Cutting tool Diamond tool Groundskeeping equipment Hand tool Landscape products Mechanised agriculture Power tool Tool BBC How to be a gardener
Physic garden
A physic garden is a type of herb garden with medicinal plants. Modern botanical gardens were preceded by medieval physic gardens that originated at the time of Emperor Charlemagne, gardens of this time included various section including one for medicinal plants called the herbularis or hortus medicus. Certainly the founding of many early botanic gardens was instigated by members of the medical profession, the 1597 Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes by herbalist John Gerard was said to be the catalogue raisonné of physic gardens, both public and private, which were instituted throughout Europe. It listed 1,030 plants found in his garden at Holborn. The garden in Oxford, founded by Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby, with Jacob Bobart the Elder as Superintendent, dates to 1632. Begun in Westminster and moved to Chelsea, the Apothecaries founded the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1673, of which Philip Miller, by 1676, the position of Keeper of the Physic Garden was held by the Professor of Botany at the University of Edinburgh
Bedding (horticulture)
Bedding, in horticulture, refers to the temporary planting of fast-growing plants into flower beds to create colourful, seasonal displays, during spring, summer or winter. Plants used for bedding are generally annuals, biennials or tender perennials, some bedding plants are referred to as patio plants because they are widely used in pots and other containers positioned on patios, terraces and other areas around houses. Larger tender conservatory plants may be moved out from greenhouses or conservatories and planted out in borders for the warmer months, the modern bedding plant industry breeds and produces plants with a neat, dwarf habit, which flower uniformly and reliably. There exists a range of plants specifically grown to produce a period of flower colour throughout the spring and summer. Towns and cities are encouraged to produce impressive displays by campaigns such as Britain in bloom, plants used for spring bedding are often biennials, or hardy, but short-lived, perennials. Spring-flowering bulbs such as tulips are used, typically with forget-me-nots, winter pansies.
Plants used for bedding are generally annuals or tender perennials. They become available in nurseries and garden centres during spring, to be hardened off by the purchaser. Experienced gardeners keep an eye on the weather forecasts at that time of year and are on standby to protect their bedding displays overnight with horticultural fleece if frost threatens. Carpet bedding employs two or more contrasting plant cultivars with a neat, dwarf habit and distinct colouring to create geometric displays and it is often used to form such things as lettering, logos or trademarks, coats of arms, or floral clocks. Planted in autumn to give a display until early spring, the used for winter bedding are mainly hardy perennials. As it has to be planted at the time of year as spring bedding does, winter bedding tends to be less commonly seen. Some are short-lived and will be discarded after their first display, winter-hardy ornamental vegetables such as cultivars of kale and cabbage with coloured or variegated foliage are increasingly common.
Primula cultivars are used, as are winter-flowering heathers and Viola ×wittrockiana. Variegated evergreens such as cultivars of Vinca minor, Euonymus fortunei, horticulture Week – Weekly horticultural trade newspaper, available online
Herbaceous border
A herbaceous border is a collection of perennial herbaceous plants arranged closely together, usually to create a dramatic effect through colour, shape or large scale. The term herbaceous border is mostly in use in the United Kingdom, in North America, the term perennial border is normally used. Herbaceous borders as they are today were first popularly used in gardens in the Victorian era. Hybridization and new imported plant species revolutionized the form of British gardens in the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition, the works of Gertrude Jekyll, a British 20th-century garden designer and prolific writer, maintaining the herbaceous border is work-intensive, as the perennials had to be dug up every 3-4 years and divided to keep the bed clean-looking and prevent overgrowth of the plants. In World War I this type of border became less popular in Britain as there was a shortage of labour to keep the gardens maintained, there are still some celebrated examples in British gardens. The worlds longest herbaceous border at 215-metres, is according to the Guinness Book of Records at Dirleton Castle, East Lothian, Scotland
History of gardening
Forest gardening, a plant-based food pro-system, is the worlds oldest form of gardening. Forest gardens originated in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills of monsoon regions, in the gradual process of families improving their immediate environment, useful tree and vine species were identified and improved while undesirable species were eliminated. Eventually alien species were selected and incorporated into the gardens. The enclosure of outdoor space began in 10,000 BC, though no one knows the specific details of the first garden, historians imagine the first enclosure was a type of barrier for excluding animals and marauders. Garden construction and design was a precursor to landscape architecture. The modern words of garden and yard are descendants of the Old English geard, vitruvius, a Roman author and engineer, wrote the oldest extant design manual in 27 BC. De architectura libri decem addressed design theory, landscape architecture, water supply, vitruvius asserted that firmitas and venustas were the primary objectives of design.
Some still consider these elements essential to quality design of landscape, after the emergence of the first civilizations, wealthy persons began to create gardens for purely aesthetic purposes. Another ancient tradition is of Persia, Darius the Great was said to have had a paradise garden, Persian gardens were designed along a central axis of symmetry. Persian influences extended to Helenic Greece after Alexander the Great, C.350 BC there were gardens at the Academy of Athens, and Theophrastus, who wrote on botany, supposedly inherited a garden from Aristotle. Epicurus had a garden where he walked and taught, and he bequeathed it to Hermarchus of Mytilene, alciphron referenced private gardens in his writing. The most influential ancient gardens in the world were those of Ptolemy in Alexandria, Egypt. Wall paintings in Pompeii, Italy attest to elaborate development, the wealthiest Romans built extensive villa gardens with water features, including fountains and rivulets, topiary and shaded arcades.
Archeological evidence survives at sites such as Hadrians Villa and Moorish Spain continued horticultural traditions after the 4th century AD and the decline of Rome. In Europe, gardening revived in Languedoc and the Île-de-France in the 13th century, the rediscovery of descriptions of antique Roman villas and gardens led to the creation of a new form of garden, the Italian Renaissance garden in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Spanish Crown built the first public parks of this era in the 16th century, in the 19th century a welter of historical revivals and Romantic cottage-inspired gardening emerged. In England, William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll were influential proponents of the wild garden, andrew Jackson Downing and Frederick Law Olmsted adapted European forms for North America, especially influencing the design of public parks and suburban landscapes. Olmsteds influence extended well into the 20th century, the 20th century saw the influence of modernism in the garden, from the articulate clarity of Thomas Church to the bold colors and forms of the Brazilian Roberto Burle Marx
Prairie Public Television
Prairie Public Television is a state network of public television stations operated primarily by Prairie Public Broadcasting. It comprises all of the PBS member stations in the U. S. state of North Dakota, PPT is available on most satellite and cable television outlets. In 1959, North Central Educational Television, the organization to Prairie Public, was incorporated. On January 19,1964, KFME signed on from Fargo as North Dakotas first educational television station, the Prairie Public name was adopted in 1974, the same year the first satellite station, KGFE in Grand Forks signed on, marking the beginning of the statewide network. A year earlier, KFME had almost shut down due to lack of funding, KFME acquired a color video tape recorder in 1967, and color cameras in 1975. The FCC had allocated educational frequencies to Bismarck, Minot and Dickinson in the 1960s. While KFME was picked up on cable in Bismarck in the early 1970s and it would be 1977 before the state legislature granted Prairie Public funding to build a statewide public television network.
KBME in Bismarck was established in 1979, bringing over-the-air public television to the portion of the state for the first time. KSRE in Minot followed suit in 1980 and KDSE in 1982, Prairie Public purchased the Fargo American Life Building in 1983 and moved its studios there in 1984. In 1989 KFME and cable feeds went to a 24-hour television broadcast schedule, the Prairie Satellite Network distance education state network, with 70 sites, was completed in 1994. Later, KWSE in Williston signed on in 1983, and KJRE in Ellendale/Jamestown signed on in 1992, Prairie Public became the first broadcaster in North Dakota to broadcast in high definition, with KFME-DT and KBME-DT debuting in 2002. Digital-only station KCGE-DT Crookston/Grand Forks signed on in 2003, with the rest of the Prairie Public stations broadcasting in HDTV by 2004. The transmitter for KGFE was damaged in May 2004, due to ice buildup on the tower and this caused water damage to the transmitters equipment, as well as damage to the roof of the transmitter site.
KGFE went back on the air in February 2005 at low power, kMDE-DT of Devils Lake signed on in 2005 to cover the western half of KGFEs viewing area, as KCGE covered the eastern half of KGFEs viewing area. Prairie Public Television is carried on most cable systems in southern Manitoba, Manitoba has historically been a significant supporter of Prairie Public Television. Indeed, the audience there is far larger than its American one. Prairie Public was first available in Manitoba in 1974, when KGFE signed on VHF channel 2 from the WDAZ TV Tower in Dahlen, Prairie Public has been carried on cable in Manitoba since 1975, when KGFE was picked up by cable systems in Winnipeg and Brandon, Manitoba. In 1986, Prairie Public was nearly dropped from cable in Winnipeg, after the crisis, Prairie Public set up a fixed microwave link to carry stronger signals into Winnipeg
Biennial plant
A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle. In the first year, the plant grows leaves, usually the stem remains very short and the leaves are low to the ground, forming a rosette. Many biennials require a treatment, or vernalization, before they will flower. During the next spring or summer, the stem of the biennial plant elongates greatly and this typically makes biennial vegetables such as spinach and lettuce unusable as food. The plant flowers, producing fruits and seeds before it finally dies, there are far fewer biennials than either perennial plants or annual plants. Under extreme climatic conditions, a plant may complete its life cycle rapidly. This is quite common in vegetable or flower seedlings that were vernalized before they were planted in the ground and this behavior leads to many normally biennial plants being treated as annuals in some areas. From a gardeners perspective, a status as annual, biennial. Biennials grown for flowers, fruits, or seeds need to be grown for two years, biennials that are grown for edible leaves or roots are grown for just one year.
Plant breeders have produced annual cultivars of several biennials that will flower the first year from seed, for example and stock
Great house
A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff, especially those of the turn of the 20th century. Examples include the English country house and the homes of various millionaires row in some U. S. cities such as Newport, in Ireland, the term big house is usual for the houses of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy. By some reports, the homes of the wealthy at Newport averaged four servants per family member. There was often an elaborate hierarchy among staff, domestic workers in particular and it was considered déclassé to refer to ones own townhouses, estates or villas as mansions and modern etiquette books still advise that the terms house, big house or great house be used instead. As in the past, todays great houses are limited to heads of state, the International Guild of Butlers estimates that the annual salaries of a 20-25 person household staff total in excess of US$1,000,000. In countries with supplies of cheap labour, the middle classes are still able to afford household help.
On large estates or in families with more than one residence, today, it is not uncommon for a couple to split the duties of management between them. The head of the household is not the butler, but the house manager, an estate manager manages more than one property, and usually has financial and managerial background. Among these are, English country house Manor house Luxury real estate Townhouse Villa House society The Domestic Staff Citizen
Shrub
A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized woody plant. It is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, plants of many species may grow either into shrubs or trees, depending on their growing conditions. Small, low shrubs, generally less than 2 m tall, such as lavender, periwinkle, an area of cultivated shrubs in a park or a garden is known as a shrubbery. When clipped as topiary, suitable species or varieties of shrubs develop dense foliage, many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a stool results in long new stems known as canes. Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their structure, shrubs in common garden practice are generally considered broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as mountain pine and common juniper are shrubby in structure. Species that grow into a shrubby habit may be deciduous or evergreen
