Gardening has a language all its own, and while many gardening and agriculture terms have passed into popular use, some remain more obscure. And in a way that’s a shame; there’s such a rich vocabulary and terminology woven into the world of plants and how we grow them. So, for today’s blog, let’s have a big of fun and dig into the world of gardening terms you might not know and learn a bit more about them!
Let’s start with something obvious but often misunderstood: the distinction between agriculture and horticulture. Agriculture is best defined as the cultivation of any life form—animal, plant, fungi, etc—that is used to sustain human life. Agriculture produces food, but it also produces plant and animal materials for use in textiles, construction, clothing, and various other things. Horticulture, by contrast, is restricted to the cultivation of plants for whatever purpose. This may seem like a small difference, but it’s an important one when we’re talking about the particulars.
But that’s not all—as it turns out horticulture can be further subdivided, with some interesting and occasionally beautiful terminology for the various categories within it. We’re particularly fond of the word pomology, which refers to the branches of both botany and horticulture that study, breed, and cultivate fruit. Originally applied only to pome fruits like apples and pears, pomology is now often used to refer to all fruit production. A related term—fruticulture—is sometimes used when describing growing fruit in orchards. Again, another small distinction but one that might matter if you’re reading up on gardening practices. As for the production of trees themselves, we have arboriculture, which is used for cultivation and management of trees and other woody-stemmed plants for various purposes from landscaping to timber production.
And of course there’s more. Viticulture is another wonderful word used for the growing of grapes for whatever purpose, generally food or wine production. Closely related due to the plants in question is the term ampelography, the area of botany which focuses on the identification and classification of different types of grapes and grapevines. This isn’t a word we had ever encountered before writing this blog, but it’s beautiful to say and fun to use, especially if you have a grapevine in your garden space.
The growing of flowers has its own language, of course. Beyond commonly used terms like “landscaping” and “flower gardening” we have the lovely word floriculture, which is the study and practice of cultivating plants for their foliage and flowers. Floriculture covers a wide variety of things, from the commercial production of flowering plants through the raising of houseplants at home and some aspects of landscaping and decorative gardening. So in addition to being beautiful to say, it’s also quite useful when describing a particular kind of garden that many of us have and enjoy.
But what about the veggie gardeners among us? Well, there’s good news! Whether you have a container garden, some raised beds, or a larger in-ground garden, we can describe your veggie-growing space with the word olericulture, which refers to the art and science of vegetable growing, specifically edible plants with herbaceous (non woody) stems. Most garden veggies fall under olericulture: melons, cucumbers, squash, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, beans and peas, and so many more. It’s a really robust and useful word for many garden spaces and we’re glad we found it.
There’s always more to talk about and there’s a lot more garden vocabulary and terminology to explore. If you’ve got a favorite gardening or agricultural term, please share it in the comments! We’re always happy to learn more and we’re definitely happy to hear from you!
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