The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. Horticulture is also sometimes defined simply as “agriculture minus the plough (or plow).” Organic horticulture is horticulture practised by following the same essential principles of soil building and conservation, pest management, and heritage-species preservation as organic agriculture. Organic farming is a way of farming that avoids the use of synthetic chemicals and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and usually subscribes to the principles of sustainable agriculture. ...

Instead of the plough, horticulture makes use of human labour and gardener’s cultivation tools, or of small machine tools like rotary tillers. For the constellation known as The Plough see Ursa Major. ...

Mulches, cover crops, compost, manures, and ground-rock mineral supplements are soil-building mainstays. Through care and good soil condition, it is hoped that insect, fungal,or other porblems that sometimes plague plants can be avoided. However, pheremone traps, insecticidal soap sprays, and other pest-control methods available to organic farmers are also sometimes utilized by organic horticulturists. In agriculture and gardening, mulch is a protective cover placed over the soil, primarily to modify the effects of the local climate. ... In agriculture, a cover crop is grown to protect land from soil erosion and leaching of nutrients. ... Compost is the decomposed remnants of organic materials (those with plant and animal origins). ... Manure is the term used to refer to the droppings, dung, feces (faeces) or excrement of plant-eating mammals (herbivores) and poultry. ...

Horticulture involves five areas of study. These areas are floriculture (includes production and marketing of floral crops), landscape horticulture (includes production, marketing and maintenance of landscape plants), olericulture (includes production and marketing of vegetables), pomology (includes production and marketing of fruits), and postharvest physiology (involves maintaining quality and preventing spoilage of horticultural crops). All of these can be, and sometimes are, pursued according to the principles of organic cultivation. The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. ... Pomology (from Latin pomum (fruit) + -logy) is is branch of botany that studies and cultivates fruits. ... Postharvest physiology is a field which studies maintaining quality and preventing spoilage of horticultural crops. ...

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