Meaning & use
market gardening
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Meanings
noununcountable
Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers on a fairly small scale in order to sell them locally.
Grammar: No plural: market gardening is hard work.
Patterns
- go into market gardening
- a market gardening business
After retiring, he took up market gardening and sold his tomatoes at the local stall.
Market gardening works well near towns where customers can buy fresh produce.
She runs a small market gardening business selling salad leaves to restaurants.
noununcountabletechnical
A kind of farming that uses intensive methods on a small plot to produce a high yield of crops for market.
Grammar: Used about the method: intensive market gardening.
Patterns
- intensive market gardening
Intensive market gardening can produce a lot of food from a small plot.
The college offers a course in organic market gardening.
Market gardening differs from large-scale farming because the plots are small.
Common combinations
- organic market gardening
- Organic market gardening avoids chemical sprays.
- small-scale market gardening
- Small-scale market gardening can support a family.
- market gardening business
- They started a market gardening business on a half-acre.
- commercial market gardening
- Commercial market gardening serves supermarkets as well as stalls.
- take up market gardening
- She decided to take up market gardening after leaving her job.
Synonyms and how they differ
- truck farming
- Truck farming is the American term for growing vegetables for market, and it sounds more commercial and larger than market gardening.
- horticulture
- Horticulture is the wider science of growing plants and gardens, not necessarily for sale.
- vegetable growing
- This is a plain description, while market gardening stresses that the produce is sold.
- smallholding
- A smallholding is a small farm that may keep animals, while market gardening focuses on crops.
Word family
Commonly confused: market gardening or gardening?
market gardening vs gardening
Gardening can be a hobby for your own pleasure, while market gardening is done to sell what you grow.
Practice
What is the main aim of market gardening?
Choose one answer.
Market gardening means growing vegetables, fruit or flowers to sell, usually on a small plot. Growing only for decoration describes ordinary gardening, not market gardening.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “market gardening”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.