Text: English Garden - Intermediate
English garden vocabulary
Gardening is one of the top ten hobbies in the UK. Here are some useful words and phrases to talk about your garden.
In many gardens you'll find a lawn – an area of grass which is regularly mown (cut). In other gardens you can find a vegetable patch, a herb garden, as well as fruit trees, ornamental trees, bushes and shrubs (large plants that may also grow flowers) and flower borders (the edge of the garden where people plant flowers.) Some people have a wooden fence around their garden (to separate it from other gardens, or the road), but you can also make a more natural border with a hedge – plants that grow to a height of between one and two metres.
Keeping your garden looking good takes a lot of time and effort! If you have a lawn, you'll need a lawnmower (an electric or petrol-powered machine that you push) to keep the grass short. If you have a hedge, you'll also need shears (like very large scissors) to trim and shape the hedge. Secateurs (which clip small branches) are also useful for cutting plant stems.
Gardeners also use other tools. A fork (like a large-size eating fork) is useful for digging up the earth. A spade (about the same size as a fork, but with a spoon-shape end, rather than a fork-shape) is good for lifting up quantities of earth. A rake (which has a horizontal piece of metal at the end of the pole, with prongs at intervals) is good for scraping up leaves on the ground. A hoe is good for scraping lines in the earth, because it's sharp. You can make lines either to plant vegetables, or to remove weeds from the earth. If you are working in a small area, a trowel (like a flat spoon) is useful for digging around plants or making small holes.
Gardeners have different jobs at different times of the year. In spring, fruit trees need to be pruned. Pruning means to cut back dead or diseased wood, and to limit the amount of branches in the trees. This is also the time of year that you might sow seeds, or seedlings (small plants grown from seeds) or take a cutting (cut off a part of a plant to make a second one) of your favourite plants. It's a good idea to keep seedlings (or plants that need a lot of light / warmth) in a greenhouse (shed made from glass) until the weather is warm enough to transplant them (move them into the open air).
In spring and summer, weeds (wild plants that you don't want in your garden) grow quickly, so weeding is one of the biggest jobs. Some gardeners spray plants with pesticide (to kill pests – bugs). And tall-growing plants (like tomatoes or peas) need to be tied to canes (long sticks, such as those made from bamboo) to give them support. In the summer months, plants will probably also need watering, to keep them alive.
Plants grow best when the soil conditions are right. To enrich the soil, you can use manure (animal waste) or compost (vegetable waste) which add nutrients to the soil.
Gardening is one of the top ten hobbies in the UK. Here are some useful words and phrases to talk about your garden.
In many gardens you'll find a lawn – an area of grass which is regularly mown (cut). In other gardens you can find a vegetable patch, a herb garden, as well as fruit trees, ornamental trees, bushes and shrubs (large plants that may also grow flowers) and flower borders (the edge of the garden where people plant flowers.) Some people have a wooden fence around their garden (to separate it from other gardens, or the road), but you can also make a more natural border with a hedge – plants that grow to a height of between one and two metres.
Keeping your garden looking good takes a lot of time and effort! If you have a lawn, you'll need a lawnmower (an electric or petrol-powered machine that you push) to keep the grass short. If you have a hedge, you'll also need shears (like very large scissors) to trim and shape the hedge. Secateurs (which clip small branches) are also useful for cutting plant stems.
Gardeners also use other tools. A fork (like a large-size eating fork) is useful for digging up the earth. A spade (about the same size as a fork, but with a spoon-shape end, rather than a fork-shape) is good for lifting up quantities of earth. A rake (which has a horizontal piece of metal at the end of the pole, with prongs at intervals) is good for scraping up leaves on the ground. A hoe is good for scraping lines in the earth, because it's sharp. You can make lines either to plant vegetables, or to remove weeds from the earth. If you are working in a small area, a trowel (like a flat spoon) is useful for digging around plants or making small holes.
Gardeners have different jobs at different times of the year. In spring, fruit trees need to be pruned. Pruning means to cut back dead or diseased wood, and to limit the amount of branches in the trees. This is also the time of year that you might sow seeds, or seedlings (small plants grown from seeds) or take a cutting (cut off a part of a plant to make a second one) of your favourite plants. It's a good idea to keep seedlings (or plants that need a lot of light / warmth) in a greenhouse (shed made from glass) until the weather is warm enough to transplant them (move them into the open air).
In spring and summer, weeds (wild plants that you don't want in your garden) grow quickly, so weeding is one of the biggest jobs. Some gardeners spray plants with pesticide (to kill pests – bugs). And tall-growing plants (like tomatoes or peas) need to be tied to canes (long sticks, such as those made from bamboo) to give them support. In the summer months, plants will probably also need watering, to keep them alive.
Plants grow best when the soil conditions are right. To enrich the soil, you can use manure (animal waste) or compost (vegetable waste) which add nutrients to the soil.
Posledná zmena: streda, 14 septembra 2011, 14:21