English Vocabulary: In the GARDEN

Help! I'm dead, and Ronnie's trying to kill me. Hi, guys. This is a... This was a plant.

It's definitely not my plant, because if I had a plant, it would be alive because I like

gardening. Do you like gardening? Do you like growing plants? I do. I think this plant died

because it didn't have water, so there's no hope for it now. I'm sorry, plant, you're

going to have to... Bye, Matilda. See you later.

All right, back on it. Today I'm going to teach you about gardening. One of my hobbies.

I like growing stuff. I like growing plants, and I like especially growing vegetables,

and hot peppers so when I eat them, my mouth goes on fire. And I can eat hotter food than

you can. I bet you. Habanero peppers, done, awesome, love them. What hot, spicy food can

you eat? Do you want to eat hot, spicy food in Toronto with me? I'm going to give you

some details about how you can do that, but let's get on to the gardening lesson.

I've broken down the lesson into tools, nouns, and verbs. Oh, what's this crazy thing? This

is a "watering can". So, it has a big spout, this is called a spout here. Oh, yeah, you

like that? Has a big spout so you can put water in it and reach the hard to reach flowers.

So "watering can" is very important because water's... Flowers and plants really, really

need water. If they don't have water, they're going to end up like Matilda, which is dead.

So, you need to water your plants.

The very first tool is called a "trowel". Now... Oh, that's a really good picture. So

a "trowel" is basically a little shovel that you use in your hand. This doesn't look like

a shovel, guys, does it? So, a "trowel" is a kind of gardening tool, and it helps you

dig holes or dig out soil, which is earth, in your garden. Or you can dig out weeds.

Weeds.

A "watering can", like I showed you, was a thing you can give water to with the plants.

A "spade" is also a kind of shovel. A trowel is a hand shovel, but a "spade" is much larger.

And the cool thing about a spade is that it's pointed at the end, so you can actually dig

a hole. You guys may know the name of a "shovel". Now, a shovel and a spade are different because

a spade is pointed so you can dig the hole, a shovel you just move things around with.

For example, in Canada, we have a snow shovel because we have a lot of snow. But a spade

is actually used to dig holes.

"Fork". What? Are you eating? Are you eating the plants already? They're not ready. A "fork",

it looks like a fork, but it's a garden fork, so... Or you might know it as a pitchfork.

Now, a pitchfork or a garden fork looks like this, and it's good to remove dead plants-oh,

Matilda-or dead trees that you don't want. Going to try to draw you a better picture

of a fork. This is also known, as I said, like a pitchfork.

"Pruners". Now, "pruners" are really, really big scissors that you can use to cut small

trees, also known as bushes. They have really long blades, and they're used... They've got

handles here, so you hold on to them, and you chop the top of your hedges or the top

of your bushes. Chop your bush.

And "shears". "Shears" are just a really fancy word for "scissors". I don't think I can draw

scissors. Can someone please give me art lessons? Those look like tongs, but scissors. Yeah,

good. So, shears are just really heavy-duty scissors that you can cut lots of really thick

plants with.

A "hose", also known as a garden hose. A "hose" is something like a plastic pipe where water's

going to run through, and you're able to put water on to your flowers. So this part is

the hose, this would be the head of the hose, and of course, the water would come out here.

We usually keep our garden hose spiralled like this.

Next word: "wheelbarrow". This is fun. Oh, I can't draw a wheelbarrow. I'll try. A wheelbarrow

has one or two wheels, and it's basically... Oh, this is good. Oh, wow, Ronnie, this is

amazing. A wheelbarrow is like a huge shovel on wheels, and you can put really heavy things

and wheel it around the garden. This guy's very happy because he's got his wheelbarrow.

And the next one, "vroom", you know this dance? Who's the lawnmower? So, let's say that you

have grass or lawn, you got to mow it. It's called a "lawnmower". You can have a gas one

or you can have an electric lawnmower. A "lawnmower" is a small machine that we use to cut or mow

the lawn, or cut the grass.

Let's go on to some nouns. "Plants" and "flowers". So, "plants" are basically anything that grows,

and a "flower"... Flowers are beautiful things that come out of them. Our good friend, Matilda,

here, was definitely a plant... Oh, and maybe had a flower or two in her day. This is definitely

a plant without a flower, so we'll just put Matilda back over here. Good example. Thank

you, Matilda.

Now, the interesting thing about plants or flowers is there are two different kinds of

plants or flowers in a big category. One is called "annual" and the other is "perennial".

Do you know the word "annual"? It means like yearly. So, example are vegetables. I told

you I like to grow vegetables, so habanero peppers, or jalapeno peppers. I buy one plant,

they're going to grow for the season or the year, and then they die. So a "perennial",

you buy it once, it flowers, it does its magic, and then it dies. A "perennial", on the other

hand, is a plant that you're going to buy and it maybe will last three years. So, it

will go through the process of growing, flowering, producing the fruits or producing the vegetables,

dying, germinating-which means making seeds-and then going through the lifecycle three times.

So, an example of a perennial would be roses. Everyone loves roses. Roses, if you have a

rosebush or a rose plant, it will die, but it will magically come back to life. So that's

an example of a perennial.

A "pot" is the place that we put, if you're an indoor gardener, the flowers. Let's get

Matilda again out, here. A "pot" is this brown thing here. This is a pot.

"Soil" or also known as "earth" is the black or the brown stuff. It's really dry. It looks

like this. And this is really important for the plant. If your soil is really, really,

really dry, this is what happens, so we have to be careful that we get really good soil.

You're going to get dirty when you garden, too. Mm-hmm. Your pants, you're going to be

covered in dirt, and people are going to go: "You were gardening." So you're going to get

dirty with the soil or the earth.

The... Another word that you... It's important for gardening is a "root". Now, a "root" is

the bottom of the plant. The thing that's important about the root is it must be grounded

or it must be very stable in the soil. So, if this is our pot, we would put in the plant,

the root would be at the bottom, we'd put in soil here, and it would grow up.

How do we get a plant? We have these tiny, little thing called "seeds" or "seed". Now,

what happens is we put the seed in the soil. With our watering can, we give it lots of

water and love. And eventually, the seed is going to sprout, and it's going to grow a

plant.

But we got to watch out for "weeds". "Weeds" are very, very bad. Bad, bad plants. Actually,

any unwanted plant in your garden is a weed. Most people think of weeds as very specific

plants, like for example, a dandelion. Now, a dandelion is a beautiful yellow flower.

It's just a small, little flower. It grows in a lot of places. When the dandelion dies,

the pedals become this beautiful white, fluffy cloud. What we did as children was we took

the dandelions [blows] and we blew them. We blew the dandelions, and we would make a wish.

A lot of people think dandelions are weeds. Dandelions are flowers, too. Maybe you call

them "lion's teeth", if you translate it.

But any unwanted plant or flower is actually a weed.

What we have to do because we don't want the weed is we have to "pull out the weeds". So,

if this is my rose garden, and this is a dandelion, I pull it out, and I stomp it and kill it.

Bye, dandelion. Not having any of you. So, a weed, we have to pull out the weeds in the

garden.

Like I said earlier, we have to "water the plants". Hold on, hold on, hold on, Ronnie.

You have got a noun of "water", and then you've got "plants". Check this out. This is my list

of verbs, so "water" is a noun and a verb. So with my watering can, I'm going to-verb-water

the floor. The floor needs to grow. Woo. I'm going to water the plants. If you're using

your spade, you're going to dig a hole. Or you can also dig a hole with a trowel. This

is your little hand shovel.

And what you're going to do is you're going to "plant a tree" or you can plant any plant.

This is a verb, too. You're going to plant a plant. Wow. English is crazy, but really,

you're going to plant a plant. So, if I wanted to plant a plant, first of all, I would dig

a hole in the soil or in the earth with my spade or I could use my trowel. Okay?

Then I would, after I've grown the seed... So I "grow the seed", the seed will turn into

a plant, and I put the plants in the earth, and it'll grow into a lovely tomato. Yeah,

it's going to be a tomato plant.

Another problem that we have is if you have a lawn. Now, "a lawn" means the grass in your

yard. In British English, people call the yard a garden. This is different in Canadian

and American English. When we talk about a garden, it's a place to grow plants and flowers.

But the grassy part is called a lawn or a yard. Both of the names are the same. So you

could say: "Mow the lawn", or you could say: "Mow the yard". But this is definitely a lawnmower,

and not a yardmower. Oh, English, craziness again.

So, if you hear... If you think of a British person that says: "Gardening", they're probably

meaning their whole outside area; whereas we just mean the area that grows plants and

flowers. So be careful about that; that might confuse you. So, you mow the lawn with your

lawnmower so it looks all green and beautiful.

If you like gardening, we have some beautiful gardens you can see in Toronto. Come hang

out. We can go see them. Talk to you soon.