Home and Garden

For other uses, see Home (disambiguation).

Home is a place where a person lives, perhaps spends much of the time, or where a person is comfortable to be. While a house (or other residential dwelling) is often referred to as a home, the concept of "home" is broader than a physical dwelling. Home is often a place of refuge and safety, where worldly cares fade, with things and people one loves becoming the focus.

It can be the place of one's birth, where you grew up, or maybe your first apartment or house.

The word "home" is used for various residential institutions which aspire to create a home-like atmosphere, such as a retirement home, a nursing home, a 'group home' (an orphanage for children or a retirement home for adults), a foster home, etc.

Sayings about a home include:

• "Home is where you hang your hat."
• "Home follows the family."
• "Home is where the heart is."
• "Love makes a house a home."
• "There's no place like home." (from the song "Home, Sweet Home", by John Howard Payne and later quoted by Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz)
• "You can't go home again." (Thomas Wolfe)
• "An Englishman's home is his castle"

Look up home in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The Garden can also refer to Madison Square Garden.

Part of a garden in Bristol, England

A flower bed in the gardens of Bristol Zoo, England

Checkered flower bed in Tours, France

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 zoölogical gardens. Some traditional types of eastern gardens, such as Zen gardens, use plants sparsely or not at all. Food-producing gardens are distinguished from farms by their smaller scale, more labor-intensive methods, and their purpose (enjoyment of a hobby rather than produce for sale); this distinction is not always clear-cut, however. The gardening article discusses the differences and similarities between gardens and farms in greater detail.

Gardening is the activity of growing and maintaining the garden. This work is done by an amateur or professional gardener. A gardener might also work in a non-garden setting, such as a park, a roadside embankment, or other public space. Landscape architecture is a related professional activity with landscape architects tending to specialise in design for public and corporate clients.

Relating to the garden

A garden can have many purposes— aesthetic, functional, and recreational. People develop a relationship with the space. That relationship can take many forms; among these are:

• Cooperation with nature
  • Plant cultivation
• Observance of nature
  • Bird- and insect-watching
  • Reflection on the changing seasons
• Relaxation
  • Family dinners on the terrace
  • Children playing in the yard
  • Reading and relaxing in the hammock
  • Maintaining the flowerbeds
  • Pottering in the shed
  • Basking in warm sunshine
• Growing useful produce
  • Flowers to cut and bring inside for indoor beauty
  • Fresh herbs and vegetables for cooking

Western Gardens are gardens with clean, flowing lines and simple, spacious landscaping. Generally, lawns are utilized in Western Gardens becasue these type of gardens tend to come with a lot of space. Lawns are a great way to fill this space while at the same time providing a treat for the eye.

Other similar spaces

Other outdoor spaces that are similar to gardens include:

• A landscape is an outdoor natural space of a larger scale, often considered from a distance.
• A park is a planned outdoor space, usually of a larger size, often for public use.
• An arboretum is a planned outdoor space, usually large, for the display and study of trees.
• A farm or orchard is for the production of food stuff.
• A botanical garden is a type of garden where a wide variety of plants are grown both for scientific purposes and for the enjoyment and education of visitors.
• A zoological garden, or zoo for short, is a place where wild animals are cared for and exhibited to the public.

Garden planning and design

Garden planning and garden design may be undertaken by a professional. A landscape architect is a trained, certified and registered professional who can plan and realise outdoor spaces. A garden designer is usually trained to plan and realise residential gardens.

The planner must give consideration to many factors:

• Purpose
• Existing conditions
• Financial constraints
• Maintenance implications

Elements of a garden

A flower garden

Zen garden at Ryōan-ji

The garden of a Japanese Buddhist temple

French formal garden in the Loire Valley

The elements of a garden consist of natural conditions and materials, as well as man-made elements:

Natural conditions and materials:

• Soil
• Rocks
• Light conditions
• Wind
• Precipitation
• Air quality
  • Pollution
  • Proximity to ocean (salinity)
• Plant materials

Man-made elements:

• Terrace, patio, deck
• Paths
• Lighting
• Raised beds
• Outdoor art/sculpture, such as Gazebos
• Pool, water garden, or other water elements

Types of gardens

Gardens may feature a particular plant or plant type:

• Cactus garden
• Fernery
• Herb garden
• Lawn
• Orchard
• Rose garden
• White garden
• Wildflower garden

Gardens may feature a particular style or aesthetic:

• Alpine or rock garden
• Bonsai or miniature garden
• Chinese garden
• Cottage garden
• Tropical garden
• Formal garden
• Geometric garden
• Informal garden
• Japanese garden
• Zen garden
• Naturalistic garden
• Water garden
• Wild garden

Gardens may function in a particular manner:

• Botanical garden
• Community garden
• Forest garden
• Raised bed gardening
• Residential garden
• Roof garden
• Vertical garden
• Water or soil-less gardening (hydroponics)
• Walled garden
• Windowbox
• Zoological garden

History of gardens

See history of gardens page.

Gardens in literature

• The Garden of Eden
• Romance of the Rose
• Nathaniel Hawthorne's short-story "Rappaccini's Daughter"
• Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera La Finta Giardiniera

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Garden

• List of botanical gardens
• List of public gardens
• List of notable historic gardens in the history of gardens article
• Garden design
• Paradise garden

External Links

• Classification of garden types