In this unit, we are going to explore the science underlying what you do in your garden, why your plants respond to your gardening, and how plants grow and reproduce. What we hope that you will gain, is a much clearer understanding of the fundamentals:

•how to identify plants - what the critical features are that enable you to recognise some of the more common plant families

•how plants grow - the relationship between the internal structure of plants and their use of water and light to grow

•what plants need from the soil – what are the properties of soil and its inhabitants that contribute to healthy growth of plants?

•how plants know when to grow – what are the signals that tell the plants when to germinate, when to flower, when to burst leaf buds and when to shed their leaves?

•how plants know ‘how’ to grow – what are the underlying controls that shape plants? How do plants respond to pruning, to espaliering, to cutting back and deadheading? and lastly

•how do we multiply plants – how does vegetative propagation work? How does grafting work? What are the differences between heirloom varieties and F1 seed? Why do some apple varieties need cross-pollination but others don’t, and why don’t fruit trees breed true from seed?

And perhaps even more importantly, we hope that you will gain an appreciation of the role of science in testing gardening lore, to dispel myths, and to learn more about the plants that make our lives possible and more enjoyable.