ABSTRACT
Horticulture may be described as the practice of growing plants in a relatively intensive manner. This contrasts with agriculture, which, in most Western European countries, relies on a high level of machinery use over an extensive area of land, consequently involving few people in the production process. The boundary between the two is far from clear, especially when considering large-scale outdoor production . When vegetables, fruit and fl owers are grown on a smaller scale, especially in gardens or market gardens, the difference is clearer cut and is characterized by a large labour input and the grower’s use of technical manipulation of plant material. Protected culture is the more extreme form of this where the plants are grown under protective materials or in glasshouses.
