gardening

gardening (usually uncountable, plural gardenings)

1. The process or action of cultivating the soil, particularly in a garden; the care of a garden; horticulture.

   His hobby was gardening.

   • 1833, James Rennie, “The Word Gardening”, in Alphabet of Scientific Gardening for the Use of Beginners, London: William Orr, page 1:

     Gardening, then, is a sort of refined farming upon a limited scale.

   • 1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter XLVI, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC:

     Warm ambient air, loiterings abroad, gardenings, flowers to take about, and preserves to make, soothed the wicked imp to slumber in the parish of Hollingford in summer-time.

2. (by extension) Any process of care, maintenance, or curation, especially digitally.

   wiki gardening

   digital gardening

   • 2008, Mark S. Choate, Professional Wikis, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 171:

     Several special pages help with the wiki gardening task:¶ ❑ Uncategorized pages (Special:Uncategorizedpages): These are pages that do not have one or more categories assigned. Use this page to ensure that all pages are categorized.

   • 2020 September 3, Tanya Basu, “Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet”, in MIT Technology Review‎:

     Tom Critchlow, a consultant who has been cultivating his digital garden for years, spells out the main difference between old-school blogging and digital gardening.

3. (cricket) The act of a batsman prodding at the pitch with his bat, typically in order to flatten any bumps.
4. (RAF, slang, historical) The sowing of mines in water from low altitude.

gardening

1. present participle and gerund of garden

   He had been gardening all day.

• dangering, deranging, gandering, grenading