This is the art and act of growing and nurturing plants for landscape beautification purposes, for food (herbs, vegetables,fruits etc.) or just as a hobby. Gardening is now a craze in many parts of the world and the desire to grow food by individuals increases by the day. Many city dwellers wish to have a garden of some sort. Healthwise, it is of utmost importance to be gardening perodically as this exposes the physical body to the external environment, resulting in the body absorbing vitamin-D from the natural morning sun rays. Many people in cities of the advanced world live indoors for most of the time and walk from airconditioned cars straight into airconditioned homes or airconditioned office. It is most necessary to ocassionally expose the body to the outside conditions, and gardening performs that function perfectly.

In organic gardening, no chemicals are used. Pest control measures, fertilisers applications, weed control etc are done perfectly without the use of any chemicals. Many hours are spent handpicking weeds in organic gardens.

Gardening can be an indoor or an outdoor practice. Pot planting is an example of indoor gardening. Some gardens are on roofs, and these are called roof gardens. Container gardening is the act of planting in garden containers. These containers are in various shapes and sizes and are either placed in the outdoor environment or indoors. Some garden plants are annuals and grow for only one season. Perennial garden plants exist from year to year bearing fruits or flowers during favorabe seasons.

A lot of people find it difficult to clearly distinguish between the two terms Gardening and Farming. The difference is clear in this paragraph. A garden is on a much smaller scale and is usually for the purposes of relaxation, pleasure,exercising and health. On the other hand, farming is more business inclined, targeting mainly the profits. The business minded farmer may go a long way to use various health inflicting chemicals in their production practices. Some chemicals used as fertilisers or pesticides get into the tissues of farm produce and may cause varying degrees of sicknesses to the consumer. Organic farming/gardening has come to stay. This farming or gardening practice do not involve the use chemicals. In a nutshell, the difference lie in the scale of operation and also on the intent of the practice. Farming is mostly large scale with complicated machinery, whilse gardening is usually small scale with simple farm tools like the hoe, cutlass, shovel etc.

The practice of gardening is not for the lazy. It involves hard work and exercise. Some preliminary reading on subjects pertaining to gardening must be done. Research work on various plants is important. Good sources for the seeds should be found. The aim for gardening should be clear-either for subsistence or for serious business. It is important that hardworking office staff indulge in gardening as this will expose them to the healthy rays from the sun which provides the body with healthy vitamin D and also gardening will provide an interesting change from office routine work.

If the target is only for ornamental purposes, then it may not be necessary for the garden to be organic. It should be made known that many flowers are edible and some gardeners grow flowers for the restaurants.These gardeners may prefer to grow organic ornamental plants and need simple garden tools for their work.