Gardening is the practice of growing plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, overall appearance, or for their dyes. Useful plants are grown for consumption (vegetables, fruits, herbs, and leaf vegetables) or for medicinal use. A gardener is someone who practices gardening.

Gardening ranges in scale from fruit orchards, to long boulevard 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 be very specialized, 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.

Main article: History of gardening

Gardening for food extends far back into prehistory. Ornamental gardens were known in ancient times, a famous example being the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, while ancient Rome had dozens of gardens.

The earliest forms of gardens emerged from the people's need to grow herbs and vegetables. And yet, many rich individuals in the past had gardens for the purely decorative purpose.

Ornamental gardens existed since ancient Egypt, when rich people used them as a means to relax in the shade of the trees. Egyptians associated trees and gardens with gods as they believed that gods liked gardens. Commonly, the gardens in ancient Egypt were surrounded by walls with trees planted in rows. Among the most popular species that used to be planted were date palms, sycamores, fig trees, nut trees, and willows. Rich people also grew vineyards, as wine being the beverage for the wealthy. Roses, poppies, daisies and irises did not miss from the gardens of the Egyptians.

The Assyrians were also popular for their beautiful gardens. These were situated in what we know today as Iraq and they tended to be wide and large, some of them used for hunting and others as leisure gardens. Cypresses and palms were some of the most planted types of trees. It is believed that when the Assyrian Empire was destroyed Babylon developed as an empire with its very famous hanging gardens.

The ancient Roman gardens are known by their statues and sculptures, never missing from the lives of Romans. These gardens were laid out with hedges and vines and they contained a wide variety of flowers, including acanthus, cornflowers and crocus, cyclamen, hyacinth, iris and ivy, lavender, lilies, myrtle, narcissus, poppy, rosemary and violet.[1] The beds of flowers were popular in the courtyards of the rich Romans.

The Middle Age represented a period of decline in what concerns gardening. After the fall of Rome gardening was only done with the purpose of growing medicinal herbs and decorating church altars.

Gardening