Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
Though cultivation of plants for food long predates history, the earliest evidence for ornamental gardens is seen in Egyptian tomb paintings of the 1500s BC; they depict lotus ponds surrounded by rows of acacias and palms. The other ancient gardening tradition is of Persia: Darius the Great was said to have had a "paradise garden" and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were renowned as a Wonder of the World. Persian influences extended to post-Alexander's Greece: around 350 BC there were gardens at the Academy of Athens, and Theophrastus, who wrote on botany, was supposed to have inherited a garden from Aristotle. Epicurus also had a garden where he walked and taught, and bequeathed it to Hermarchus of Mytilene. Alciphron also mentions private gardens.
Source: Wikipedia
John Claudius Loudon (April 8, 1783 - 1843) was a Scottish botanist. Loudon was born in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland to a respectable farmer. Therefore as he was growing up, he developed a practical knowledge of plants and farming. As a young man, Loudon studied chemistry, botany and agriculture at the University of Edinburgh. When working on the layout of farms in South Scotland he described himself as a landscape planner. In 1832, Loudon established the design theory entitled Gardenesque. In this style, attention was given to the individual plant and placement in the best conditions for them to grow to their potential. 19th century thought was punctuated by the belief that gardens should not mimic nature, so Gardenesque offered a solution by introducing exotics into gardens and basing layouts on abstract shapes. Loudon was instrumental in the adoption of the term landscape architecture by the modern profession. He took up the term from Gilbert Laing Meason and gave it publicity in his Encyclopedias and in his 1840 book on the Landscape Gardening and Landscape Architecture of the Late Humphry Repton.
Source: Wikipedia
The Day of the Triffids (1962): directed by Steve Sekely, (screenplay) written by Bernard Gordon, based on the novel by John Wyndham, and starring Howard Keel, Nicole Maurey and Janette Scott. Tagline: Man eating plants! Spine chilling terror! Plot outline: A shower of meteorites produces a glow that blinds anyone that looks at it. As it was such a beautiful sight, most people were watching, and as a consequence, 99% of the population go blind. This chaos results in the escape of some Triffids: experimental plants that are capable of moving themselves around and attacking people.
Source: IMDb
The following are now accepted as the top five tallest reliably measured tree species:
1. Coast Redwood Sequoia sempervirens: 115.55 m (379.1 ft.), Redwood National Park, California, United States
2. Coast Douglas-fir Pseudotsuga menziesii: 100.3 m (329.1 ft.), Brummit Creek, Coos County, Oregon, United States
3. Australian Mountain-ash Eucalyptus regnans: 97.0 m (318.2 ft.), Styx Valley, Tasmania, Australia
4. Sitka Spruce Picea sitchensis: 96.7 m (317.3 ft.), Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California, United States
5. Giant Sequoia Sequoiadendron giganteum: 94.9 m (307.1 ft.), Redwood Mountain Grove, Kings Canyon National Park, California, United States
Source: Wikipedia
Leaf Chaps: According to our inventor; "Collecting and gathering leaves that have fallen to the ground has proven to be a time consuming lawn and yard chore, especially in the geographic locations that are characterized by a preponderance of deciduous trees and shrubs that drop their leaves in the fall season". Well, we think it's time for all deciduous owners to stand up and unite, to stand up and pull on a pair of fancy web laced Leaf Chaps! With the ingenious Leaf Chaps, now you can become the suburban leaf wrangler that you've always dreamed of, scooting along, shuffling your way to a clean yard.
Source: totallyabsurd.com
The Garden by Guns N' Roses
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Ents are a fictional race from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth. The term Ent in a fantasy context is very different from the Anglo-Saxon word Ent, as the former refers to a humanoid tree. They appear to have been inspired by the talking trees of many of the world's folklores. As of the War of the Ring, the race consists exclusively of male Ents.
Source: Wikipedia
Garden Special
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The following are all garden-related (an amusing use of a word or phrase which has several meanings or which sounds like another word):
Scarecrows are always garden their patch.
A gardener's work is a bed of roses.
She beat him to the garden by pre-seeding him.
She didn't marry the gardener. Too rough around the hedges.
Gardeners always know the ground rules.
The best gardening clubs are grass roots organizations.
There was a guy who played the organ in his garden to get organically grown food.
A gardener who moved back to his home town rediscovered his roots.
Source: http://punoftheday.com/
All gardening is landscape painting. (Alexander Pope)
Gardening is not a rational act. (Margaret Atwood)
God Almighty first planted a garden; and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures. (Francis Bacon)
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
In order to live off a garden, you practically have to live in it. (Kin Hubbard)
Nature does not complete things. She is chaotic. Man must finish, and he does so by making a garden and building a wall. (Robert Frost)
The trouble with gardening is that it does not remain an avocation. It becomes an obsession. (Phyllis McGinley)
To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds and watch their renewal of life - this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do. (Charles Dudley Warner)
Source: Creative Quotations
The verified oldest measured ages for trees are:
1. Great Basin Bristlecone Pine Pinus longaeva: 4844 years
2. Alerce Fitzroya cupressoides: 3622 years
3. Giant Sequoia Sequoiadendron giganteum: 3266 years
4. Huon-pine Lagarostrobos franklinii: 2500 years
5. Rocky Mountains Bristlecone Pine Pinus aristata: 2435 years
Source: Wikipedia
We have quite enough to do weeding our own garden. (Belgian)
All gardeners know better than other gardeners. (Chinese)
If you would be happy for a week, take a wife; if you would be happy for a month, kill a pig; but if you would be happy all your life, plant a garden. (Chinese)
Much more than you have sown will grow in your garden. (Croatian)
To one who knows no better, a small garden is a forest. (Ethiopian)
A prudent man does not make the goat his gardener. (Hungarian)
Don't try to sell pumpkins to a gardener. (Romanian)
If you throw nettles into your neighbors garden you will find them growing in your own. (Russian)
Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there. (Spanish)
Source: Creative Proverbs
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