View source for Gardener

{{short description|Person who tends gardens}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Abel Grimmer - Spring - WGA10683.jpg|thumb|260px|Gardeners at work, painting by [[Abel Grimmer]], [[Flemish people|Flemish]] painter, 1607]]
A '''gardener''' is someone who practices [[gardening]], either professionally or as a [[hobby]].

==Description==
[[File:gardening.jpg|thumb|180px|A gardener]]
[[File:Royal Gardener John Rose and King Charles II - Hendrick Danckerts 1675.jpeg|thumb|180px|[[Hendrick Danckerts]], Royal Gardener John Rose and [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]], 1675]]
[[File:Gardener on a stepladder collecting fruit (4881973053).jpg|thumb|180px|Gardener on a stepladder collecting fruit c.1910]]
A gardener is any person involved in gardening,<ref>{{cite web|title=Gardener|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gardener|publisher=[[The Free Dictionary]]|access-date=1 October 2013}}</ref> arguably the oldest occupation, from the [[hobby]]ist in a residential [[garden]], the home-owner supplementing the family food with a small [[Kitchen garden|vegetable garden]] or [[orchard]], to an employee in a [[plant nursery]] or the [[head gardener]] in a [[great house|large estate]].

==Garden design and maintenance==
The [[garden designer]] is someone who will design the garden, and the gardener is the person who will undertake the work to produce the desired outcome.

==Design==
The term gardener is also used to describe garden designers and [[landscape architect]]s, who are involved chiefly in the design of gardens, rather than the practical aspects of horticulture. [[Garden design]] is considered to be an art in most cultures, distinguished from gardening, which generally means ''garden maintenance''. [[Vita Sackville-West]], [[Gertrude Jekyll]] and [[William Robinson (gardener)|William Robinson]] were garden designers as well as gardeners.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Geoffrey Allan Jellicoe|author2=Susan Jellicoe|title=The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day|url=https://archive.org/details/landscapeofmansh01jell|url-access=registration|year=1987|publisher=[[Thames & Hudson]]|isbn=978-0-500-27431-6}}</ref>

Garden design is the creation of a plan for the construction of a garden, in a design process. The product is the garden, and the garden designers attempt to optimize the given general conditions of the soil, location and [[climate]], ecological, and geological conditions and processes to choose the right plants in corresponding conditions. The design can include different themes such as perennial, [[Butterfly gardening|butterfly]], [[Wildlife garden|wildlife]], [[Japanese garden|Japanese]], [[Water garden|water]], [[Tropical garden|tropical]], or [[Shade garden|shade]] gardens.  In 18th-century Europe, country estates were refashioned by landscape gardeners into [[Garden design|formal gardens]] or landscaped park lands, such as at [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]], France, or [[Stowe Gardens]], England. 

Today, landscape architects and garden designers continue to design both private garden spaces, residential estates and parkland, public parks and parkways to site planning for campuses and corporate office parks. Professional landscape designers are certified by the [[Association of Professional Landscape Designers]].<ref>{{cite web|title=APLD|url=http://www.apld.org/|publisher= [[Association of Professional Landscape Designers]]|access-date=1 October 2013}}</ref>

==Maintenance==
The designer also provides directions and supervision during construction, and the management of establishment and maintenance once the garden has been created. The gardener is the person who has the skill to maintain the garden's design.

The gardener's labor during the year include planting flowers and other plants, [[weeding]], [[pruning]], [[grafting]], [[Deadheading (flowers)|deadheading]], mixing and preparation of [[insecticides]] and other products for [[pest control]], and tending garden [[compost]]. Weeds tend to thrive at the expense of the more refined [[Edible plants|edible]] or [[ornamental plant]]s. Gardeners need to [[Weed control|control weeds]] using physical or [[herbicide|chemical]] methods to stop weeds from reaching a mature stage of growth when they could be harmful to domesticated plants. Early activities such as starting young plants from seeds for later [[Transplanting|transplantation]] are usually performed in early spring.

==See also==
{{portal|Gardening}}
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
*[[History of gardening]]
*[[Landscape architecture]]
*[[Celebrity gardener]]
*[[List of professional gardeners]]
*[[Garden centre]]
*[[Flower garden]]
*[[Order of Free Gardeners]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{commons category|Gardeners}}
{{reflist}}

{{Horticulture and Gardening|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Gardening| ]]
[[Category:Gardeners| ]]