Horticulture in Context

The many faces f hortculture have much in common, each being concerned the growing of plants. Despite the wide range of the industry, embracing as it does activities from the preparation of a cricket square to the production of uniformly sized cucumbers, there are common principles which quide the succesful management of the palants involved. This chapter put the industry, the plant, the plant communities and ecology into perspective, and considers the aspects of conservation and organic growing and looks forward to the more detailed explanations of horticulturel practice in te following chapters.

Horticulture may be described as the practice of growing plants in a relatively intensive manner. This contrasts with agriculture,which, in most western European countries, relies on a high level of machinery use voe an extensive area of land, consequently involving few people in the production process. However, the boundary between the two is far from clear, especially when considering large-scale vegetable production. Horticulture often involves the manipulation of plant material by propagation, by changing the above ground environment. There is a fundamental difference between production horticulture, whether producing plants themselves or plant products, and service horticulture, the development and upkeep of gardens and land scape for their amenity, culture and recreational values. Increasingly, horticulture can be seen to be involved with social well-being and welfare through the impact of plants for human physical and mental health. It encompasses environmental protection and conservation through large and small scale landscape design and management. Where the tending of plants for leisure moves from being horticulture to countryside management is another moot point. In contrast, the change associated with replacing plants with alternative materials, as in the creation of artificial playing surfaces, tests what is means by horticulture in a quite difference way.