Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants, animals and other life forms. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science.
Agriculture encompasses many subjects, including aquaculture, agronomy, animal husbandry, and horticulture. Each of these subjects can be further partitioned: for example, agronomy includes both sustainable agriculture and intensive farming, and animal husbandry includes ranching, herding, and intensive pig farming. Agricultural products include food (vegetables, fruits, and cereals), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine), and other useful materials such as resins. Recently, crops have been designed to produce plastic[1] as well as pharmaceuticals.The history of agriculture is a central element of human history, as agricultural progress has been a crucial factor in worldwide socio-economic change. Wealth-building and militaristic specializations rarely seen in hunter-gatherer cultures are commonplace in agricultural and agro-industrial societies—when farmers became capable of producing food beyond the needs of their own families, others in the tribe/village/City-state/nation/empire were freed to devote themselves to projects other than food acquisition. Jared Diamond, among others, has argued that the development of civilization required agriculture.
In 2007, an estimated 35 percent of the world's workers were employed in agriculture (from 42% in 1996). However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2003 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.Despite the fact that agriculture employs over one-third of the world's population, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products).
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Agriculture
Agricultural science
Agricultural science is a broad multidisciplinary field that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. (Veterinary science, but not animal science, is often excluded from the definition.)
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Organic horticulture
Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heritage-species preservation.The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. Horticulture is also sometimes defined simply as “agriculture minus the plough (or plow).” Instead of the plough, horticulture makes use of human labour and gardener’s cultivation tools, or of small machine tools like rotary tillers.
Horticulture
Horticulture is the art and science of the cultivation of plants.
Horticulturists work and conduct research in the fields of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, and plant physiology. The work particularly involves fruits, berries, nuts, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs, and turf. Horticulturalists work to improve crop yield, quality, nutritional value, and resistance to insects, diseases, and environmental stresses.
Friday, 27 June 2008
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Natural landscaping
Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of plants, including trees, shrubs, groundcover, grass which are indigenous to the geographical area in which the garden is located, as well as rocks and boulders in place of groomed lawns and planned planting beds to blend residential or commercial property into the natural surroundings of the particular area.
Friday, 16 May 2008
Flower garden
A flower garden is a form of garden usually grown for decorative
purposes, centering primarily on the kinds of flowers produced by the plants involved. Because flowers bloom at varying times of the year, and some plants are annual, dying each winter, the design of flower gardens can be sophisticated, taking such matters into consideration to keep blooms, even of specific color combinations, consistent or present through varying seasons.
Flower gardens combine plants of different heights, colors, textures, and fragances to create interest and delight the senses. Photo by Ashley Sheets, provided courtesy of Park Seed Company.
These have grown in complexity over the years, and are sometimes tied in function to other kinds of gardens, like knot gardens or herb gardens, many herbs also having decorative function, and some decorative flowers being edible.
One simpler solution to flower garden design, growing in popularity, is the pre-planned "wildflower" seed mix. Assortments of seeds are created which will create a bed that contains flowers of various blooming seasons, so that some portion of them should always be in bloom. The best mixtures even include combinations of perennial and biennials, which may not bloom until the following year, and also annuals that are "self-seeding", so they will return, creating a permanent flowerbed.
Another, even more recent trend is the "flower garden in a box", where the entire design of a flower garden is pre-packaged, with separate packets of each kind of flower, and a careful layout to be followed to create the proposed pattern of color in the garden-to-be.
Flower gardens combine plants of different heights, colors, textures, and fragances to create interest and delight the senses. Photo by Ashley Sheets, provided courtesy of Park Seed Company.
These have grown in complexity over the years, and are sometimes tied in function to other kinds of gardens, like knot gardens or herb gardens, many herbs also having decorative function, and some decorative flowers being edible.
One simpler solution to flower garden design, growing in popularity, is the pre-planned "wildflower" seed mix. Assortments of seeds are created which will create a bed that contains flowers of various blooming seasons, so that some portion of them should always be in bloom. The best mixtures even include combinations of perennial and biennials, which may not bloom until the following year, and also annuals that are "self-seeding", so they will return, creating a permanent flowerbed.
Another, even more recent trend is the "flower garden in a box", where the entire design of a flower garden is pre-packaged, with separate packets of each kind of flower, and a careful layout to be followed to create the proposed pattern of color in the garden-to-be.
Landscape garden
The term landscape garden is often used to describe the English garden design
style characteristic of the eighteenth century, particularly with the work of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. The term was not however used to any great extent during the eighteenth century. Its period of popularity was the nineteenth century at which time the classical style of serpentine curves and clumps had become unfashionable. In the twentieth century, the term 'landscape gardener' began to be used by garden contractors
Nursery (horticulture)
A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to usable size.
There are retail nurseries which sell to the general public, wholesale nurseries which sell only to other nurseries and to commercial landscape gardeners, and private nurseries which supply the needs of institutions or private estates. Some retail and wholesale nurseries sell by mail.
Nurseries grow annuals, perennials, and woody plants (trees and shrubs). These have a variety of uses: decorative plants for flower gardening and landscaping, garden vegetable plants, and agricultural plants.
Nurseries often grow plants in a greenhouse, a building of glass or in plastic tunnels, designed to protect young plants from harsh weather (especially frost), while allowing access to light and ventilation. Modern greenhouses allow automated control of temperature, ventilation and light and semi-automated watering and feeding. Some also have fold-back roofs to allow "hardening-off" of plants without the need for manual transfer to outdoor beds.
Some nurseries specialize in one phase of the process: propagation, growing out, or retail sale; or in one type of plant: groundcovers, shade plants, fruit trees, or rock garden plants.
Nurseries remain highly labour-intensive. Although some processes have been mechanised and automated, others have not. It remains highly unlikely that all plants treated in the same way at the same time will arrive at the same condition together, so plant care requires observation, judgement and manual dexterity; selection for sale requires comparison and judgement. A UK nurseryman has estimated that manpower accounts for 70% of his production costs.
Business is highly seasonal, concentrated in spring and autumn. There is no guarantee that there will be demand for the product - this will be affected by temperature, drought, cheaper foreign competition, fashion, etc. A nursery carries these risks and fluctuations.
Annuals are sold in trays (undivided containers with multiple plants), flats (trays with built-in cells), peat pots, or plastic pots. Perennials and woody plants are sold either in pots, bare-root or balled and burlaped and in a variety of sizes, from liners to mature trees.
Plants may be propagated by seeds, but often desirable cultivars are propagated asexually by budding, grafting, layering, or other nursery techniques.
Nurseries grow annuals, perennials, and woody plants (trees and shrubs). These have a variety of uses: decorative plants for flower gardening and landscaping, garden vegetable plants, and agricultural plants.
Nurseries often grow plants in a greenhouse, a building of glass or in plastic tunnels, designed to protect young plants from harsh weather (especially frost), while allowing access to light and ventilation. Modern greenhouses allow automated control of temperature, ventilation and light and semi-automated watering and feeding. Some also have fold-back roofs to allow "hardening-off" of plants without the need for manual transfer to outdoor beds.
Some nurseries specialize in one phase of the process: propagation, growing out, or retail sale; or in one type of plant: groundcovers, shade plants, fruit trees, or rock garden plants.
Nurseries remain highly labour-intensive. Although some processes have been mechanised and automated, others have not. It remains highly unlikely that all plants treated in the same way at the same time will arrive at the same condition together, so plant care requires observation, judgement and manual dexterity; selection for sale requires comparison and judgement. A UK nurseryman has estimated that manpower accounts for 70% of his production costs.
Business is highly seasonal, concentrated in spring and autumn. There is no guarantee that there will be demand for the product - this will be affected by temperature, drought, cheaper foreign competition, fashion, etc. A nursery carries these risks and fluctuations.
Annuals are sold in trays (undivided containers with multiple plants), flats (trays with built-in cells), peat pots, or plastic pots. Perennials and woody plants are sold either in pots, bare-root or balled and burlaped and in a variety of sizes, from liners to mature trees.
Plants may be propagated by seeds, but often desirable cultivars are propagated asexually by budding, grafting, layering, or other nursery techniques.
Organic horticulture
Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables,
flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heritage-species preservation.
The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. Horticulture is also sometimes defined simply as “agriculture minus the plough (or plow).” Instead of the plough, horticulture makes use of human labour and gardener’s cultivation tools, or of small machine tools like rotary tillers.
The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. Horticulture is also sometimes defined simply as “agriculture minus the plough (or plow).” Instead of the plough, horticulture makes use of human labour and gardener’s cultivation tools, or of small machine tools like rotary tillers.
Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea is a genus of flowering plants native to South America from Brazil west to Peru and south to southern Argentina (Chubut Province). Different authors accept between four and 18 species in the genus. The name comes from Louis Antoine de Bougainville, an admiral in the French Navy who encountered the plant in Brazil in 1768 and first described it to Europeans.
They are thorny, woody, vines growing anywhere from 1-12 meters tall, scrambling over other plants with their hooked thorns. The thorns are tipped with a black, waxy substance that is easily left in the flesh of an unsuspecting victim. They are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season. The leaves are alternate, simple ovate-acuminate, 4-13 cm long and 2-6 cm broad. The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colors associated with the plant, including pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, or yellow. Bougainvillea glabra is sometimes referred to as "paper flower" because the bracts are thin and papery. The fruit is a narrow five-lobed achene.
Bougainvillea are relatively pest-free plants, but may suffer from worms and aphids. The larvae of some Lepidoptera species also use them as food plants, for example the Giant Leopard Moth.
Cultivation and uses
Bougainvilleas are popular ornamental plants in most areas with warm climates, including Indonesia, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, the Mediterranea region, the Caribbean, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, South Africa, and the United States in Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, and southern Texas, France - Greece - Turkey - Italy - Netherlands. Numerous cultivars and hybrids have been selected, including nearly thornless shrubs. Some Bougainvillea cultivars are sterile, and are propagated from cuttings.
Bougainvillea are rapid growing and flower all year in warm climates, especially when pinched or pruned. They grow best in moist fertile soil. Bloom cycles are typically four to six weeks. Bougainvillea grow best in very bright full sun and with frequent fertilization, but the plant requires little water to flower. As indoor houseplants in temperate regions, they can be kept small by bonsai techniques. If overwatered, Bougainvillea will not flower and may lose leaves or wilt, or even die from root decay.
Because of the aggressive growth of hardened thorns and prolific branches, this plant is ideal as a natural barrier for security applications.
Symbolism
Various species of bougainvillea are the official flowers of the island of Grenada, the island of Guam, of Lienchiang and Pingtung Counties in Taiwan; Ipoh, Malaysia; and of the cities of Tagbilaran, Philippines; Camarill, California; Laguna Niguel, California; and San Clemente, California.
Monday, 28 April 2008
Acacia
Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus in 1773.
Acacias are also known as thorntrees or wattles, including the yellow-fever acacia and umbrella acacias. There are roughly 1300 species of Acacia worldwide, about 960 of them native to Australia, with the remainder spread around the tropical to warm-temperate regions of both hemispheres, including Africa, southern Asia, and the Americas.
Organic horticulture
Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heritage-species preservation.
The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. Horticulture is also sometimes defined simply as “agriculture minus the plough (or plow).” Instead of the plough, horticulture makes use of human labour and gardener’s cultivation tools, or of small machine tools like rotary tillers.
Fertilizer
Fertilizers (also spelled fertilisers) are compounds given to plants to promote growth; they are usually applied either through the soil, for uptake by plant roots, or by foliar feeding, for uptake through leaves. Fertilizers can be organic (composed of organic matter), or inorganic (made of simple, inorganic chemicals or minerals). They can be naturally occurring compounds such as peat or mineral deposits, or manufactured through natural processes (such as composting) or chemical processes (such as the Haber process).
They typically provide, in varying proportions, the three major plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium: N-P-K), the secondary plant nutrients (calcium, sulfur, magnesium), and sometimes trace elements (or micronutrients) with a role in plant nutrition: boron, chlorine, manganese, iron, zinc, copper, and molybdenum.
Both organic and inorganic fertilizers were called "manures" derived from the French expression for manual tillage, but this term is now mostly restricted to organic manure.
Though nitrogen is plentiful in the earth's atmosphere, relatively few plants engage in nitrogen fixation (conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to a biologically useful form). Most plants thus require nitrogen compounds to be present in the soil in which they grow.
Friday, 18 April 2008
Arboriculture
Arboriculture is the cultivation of trees and shrubs. The discipline includes the study of how they grow and respond to cultural practices and the environment as well as aspects of cultivation such as selection, planting, care, and removal.
The purpose is generally to manage amenity trees. That is trees where their value to the landscape is greater than that of their wood content. Trees offer environmental benefits as well as cultural, heritage and habitat for fauna. The combined value including aesthetics exceeds the value of a trees worth from a forestry wood perspective. Amenity trees are usually in a garden or urban setting, and arboriculture is the management of them for plant health and longevity, pest and pathogen resistance, risk management and ornamental or aesthetic reasons. In this, it needs to be distinguished from forestry, which is the commercial production and use of timber and other forest products from plantations and forests. Some definitions of the term arboriculture extend it only to the care of trees. "Arboriculture" is not synonymous with Arborsculpture.
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