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What is a species
The idea of a species is fundamental to gardening and botany, but what is a species? A dictionary will give you a definition but not one which allows you to say this group of plants forms a species, as opposed to say a subspecies. The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms describes a species as,…
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Castanea sativa
The Sweet (or Spanish) Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is probably most know for its edible nuts, traditionally eaten around Christmas time, but in fact it makes a very fine large tree. Clothed in thick glossy leaves, tolerant of a wide range of soil types and relatively free of disease it has been extensively planted through…
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New Year – New Vegetable Plot
The arrival of the New Year inevitably starts you thinking about next summer’s vegetable crop and what to grow. This will of course be influenced by how much space you have available to grow food in and how keen a vegetable gardener you are. The vast majority of us only have so much space available,…
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Types of garden walls
Free standing The simplest walls are free standing and these are normally used when boundaries are walled. In the UK garden walls above 2 metres high, unless they face the public highway when its 1 metre, require planning permission. That said this is only a basic guideline and local rules or covenants can often apply…
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Botany for Gardeners by Brian Capon
The danger with this book is that is title may well put off many potential readers. The vast majority of gardeners do not see themselves as botanist: but spending hours studying the plants they grow, can’t grow and aspire to grow. As a gardener you consider the plants shape, colour, needs development and reproduction; yet…
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Garden walls
The wall is one of the oldest manmade structures, and its use in gardens is as old as gardens themselves. The word comes from the West Saxon weall which in itself comes from the Latin vallum meaning a rampart and in the garden walls are used as a natural development of earth ramparts. Initially walls…
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Taxonomy
This is the process of classifying things into groups, and in biology placing them within a hieratical system of classification. It is the study of how living things fit into system of how we name them.
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Taxon
(plural taxa) is the individual levels of taxonomic rank. E.g. genus is one taxon and species is a second taxon.
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Family
This is a group of closely related genera and the names should be written in italics (or underlined) and start with a capital letter. The names of plant families should end in the letters –aceae; but some long established names which do not have this ending are still used, all be it with standardised alternatives…
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Utility areas
Most gardens end up with an area for the bits you would rather not show off; where pots, wheel barrows and the like need to be stored. These areas need to be kept clean and tidy, so the paving needs to be smooth and easy to clean. As this is the working part of the…
