Vocabulary - Gardens

Here is some useful vocabulary related to gardens

Patio - this is an area of concrete in a garden close to a house where people can sit, drink tea or have barbecues.

Conservatory - this is a room with glass walls and a glass roof which is attached to the side of a house. It is the ideal place for enjoying the outdoors without getting wet or cold, although apparently it reduces the value of your house (useful Hot English fact!).

Greenhouse - this is a little building in the garden that is made of glass that is used for growing flowers, cucumbers, tomatoes and grapes (yes, the British do make wine, even though the British are the only people who drink it).

Flower bed - this is the area of land where flowers are grown. Unfortunately, these never quite look like they do on the packet of seeds.

Rockery - this is an artificial recreation of a typical Swiss mountain scene. Unfortunately there aren’t enough Swiss mountain rocks in Britain so they have to use bits of broken concrete.

Pond - this is the man-made area of water in the garden. It often contains goldfish, frogs and lilies. Children love to throw sand in it, and pick out the goldfish.

Lawn - this is the area of grass in the garden. A good lawn is flat, smooth and a beautiful green colour; a bad lawn is overgrown and hasn’t been mowed for three years.

Garden gnome - these are little plastic or porcelain men with funny pointed hats. They are used to decorate a garden and give it a mystical feel. Avoid people who have gnomes in their gardens: they are the sort of people who believe that Harry Potter is a true story.

Vegetable patch - this

is the area in the garden where vegetables are grown. Vegetables produced from this patch are normally eaten by slugs.

Allotments - these are government-owned minigardens where people in towns can practise all sorts of gardening skills such as digging holes and dumping fridges.

Veranda - this is a wooden construction around the side of a house that has plants growing up the sides.

Bench - this is a long seat made of wood or plastic. It is the place where the British can sit and enjoy their garden for a couple of minutes, before doing some more gardening work.

Soil (also known as “earth” and “dirt”) - this is the dark brown matter that is under the grass, plants and trees. It often turns into thick mud after a typically rainy English afternoon.

Compost - this is the rich soil that is produced by rotting vegetables, broken egg shells and festering socks. A good compost heap has steam coming off it. Only the keenest gardeners ever use their compost. Most just admire it from a distance.

Shed - this is the small building with one room where the British like to keep all their tools, broken plant pots and any other junk.

Garden tools

The spade - this is for digging holes The trowel - this is a small spade for digging small holes The lawn mower - this is the loud, noisy machine that cuts grass The hose - this is the object used for watering the garden, or spraying your neighbours/dog/children/Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc

G L O S S A R Y

a frog n a green amphibian. Kermit is one a lily n a small, round plant that floats on water to pick out phr vb to take something with your fingers from a container, etc overgrown adj if a garden is “overgrown”, plants are growing everywhere with no control or order to mow (the lawn) vb to cut the grass (the lawn) a slug n a small animal that eats plants. It is like a snail but without the shell on its back to own vb to possess to dig vb to make a hole in the ground to dump vb to throw something somewhere casually and with no care a fridge n a refrigerator. A large, white electrical “box” in the kitchen to keep food cold seeds n small things that you plant and that later grow into trees, etc mud n a mixture of water and earth rotting vegetables n vegetables that are very old and smell bad egg shells n the outside part of an egg festering socks n socks that are very dirty a compost heap n a mass of rotting vegetables, etc in a container that is producing compost steam n vapour that comes from something that is hot keen adj if you are “keen”, you are very excited and enthusiastic about something tools n objects you use to do manual jobs