VOA慢速英语2021--冬季如何欣赏园艺

How to Enjoy Gardening in Winter

From VOA Learning¹ English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

Last year, many people across the world looked to their gardens to find enjoyment² and peace during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gardens were established in communities and homes with vegetables, flowers and many other different kinds of plants.

Stores that sell gardening equipment and supplies experienced³ shortages⁴. Millions of people found happiness, release⁵ and a sense of safety outdoors with their hands in the dirt.

To many, the spring and summer of 2020 might seem like a very long time ago. And much of the gardening activity stopped once winter set in.

But as we look forward to a new spring and the hope that COVID-19 vaccines⁶ will bring lasting⁷ change, gardening offers another promise of light.

Katherine S. White, an American writer (and active gardener) once described three kinds of gardens that can fill our time during the winter months. White identified the three in a piece for The New Yorker: "the garden outdoors, the garden of pots and bowls in the house, and the garden of the mind's eye."

Here is a look at some possible ways to enjoy these three kinds of gardening.

The garden outdoors

To the eye, there is little in a winter garden that can compare to spring and summer's active life and colorful growth. Only the most serious gardeners (or those in warmer climates) can keep the growing going outside. This often involves building protective⁸ materials around plants to help them survive the cold.

But there are smaller joys to be had. The trees' empty branches can create beautiful silhouettes¹⁰, and better views of birds and sunsets. Landscape photographer Larry Lederman, author of the recent book "Garden Portraits," suggests getting to know your garden better in the winter, when "everything is bare and you can see the bones" of the land.

Gardens can also remind us that winter is just one stop on the path to other seasons. Death is everywhere in a garden, all year round, but it makes rebirth possible. A lot of plants keep going.

Winter can also be a good time to reexamine your own personal battles against climate change. We can start or continue composting. And we can research services, products and methods to help make next year's garden more sustainable.

The garden indoors¹¹

Houseplants are hot now and social media is full of plant photos.

New technologies make it easier to grow plants anywhere indoors, with or without soil. The plants offer not only beauty, but the rewards of caring for living things and seeing them grow.

Indoor vegetable gardening, too, has become especially popular both as a food source and as a family activity. For example, small, contained gardens can be bought and placed next to the window. Mushrooms can be grown in a cardboard¹² box or tomatoes can easily be grown in a bottle.

A rise in indoor gardening has driven up sales for greenhouses¹³, growing lights and seeds. One seed company in the northeastern state of Maine, Johnny's Selected Seeds, recently suspended¹⁴ orders from home gardeners temporarily. It said that because of COVID-19, the large number of orders it was receiving could not be effectively filled.

The garden of the mind's eye

The garden of the mind's eye is the one we imagine and plan.

Author and gardener Jamaica Kincaid once said: "I shall never have the garden I have in my mind, but that for me is the joy of it; certain things can never be realized and so all the more reason to attempt them."

Gardening companies promise that all of us can create better gardens with some work. Maybe that means removing grass and planting more flowers and vegetables. It could also mean choosing more native plants, reducing water use and adding paths and new water designs.

A garden is never finished. And the planning process can be creative and hopeful. And as our second pandemic spring nears, those hopes are being supported by the release of new vaccines.

The garden can be a metaphor¹⁵ for peace, safety, success and calm. Not a bad place for the mind's eye to rest, especially in this most unsettling of winters.

And that's the Health & Lifestyle report. I'm Anna Matteo.

Words in This Story

garden – n. an area of ground where plants (such as flowers or vegetables) are grown

silhouette⁹ – n. the shape or outline of something

bare – adj. not covered by leaves, grass, trees, or plants

composting – n. to change plant materials into decayed¹⁶ organic¹⁷ material (as of leaves and grass) used to improve soil especially for growing crops

sustainable – adj. involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy natural resources

cardboard – n. a stiff¹⁸ and thick kind of paper that is used especially for making boxes

metaphor – n. an object, activity, or idea that is used as a symbol of something else

1 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

2 enjoyment   

n.乐趣；享有；享用

参考例句：

• Your company adds to the enjoyment of our visit. 有您的陪同，我们这次访问更加愉快了。
• After each joke the old man cackled his enjoyment.每逢讲完一个笑话，这老人就呵呵笑着表示他的高兴。

3 experienced   

adj.有经验的；经验丰富的，熟练的

参考例句：

• Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather.有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
• Perhaps you and I had better change over;you are more experienced.也许我们的工作还是对换一下好，你比我更有经验。

4 shortages   

n.不足( shortage的名词复数 )；缺少；缺少量；不足额

参考例句：

• Food shortages often occur in time of war. 在战争期间常常发生粮食短缺的情形。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• At the same time, worldwide food and fuel shortages eased. 同时，世界性粮食和石油短缺的现象终止了。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

5 release   

vt.发布，发表，发行；释放，放开

参考例句：

• After my examination I had a feeling of release.考完试后我有如释重负之感。
• This medicine will give you release from pain.这药吃后会解除你的疼痛。

6 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

7 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

8 protective   

adj.防护的，保护的

参考例句：

• A mother naturally feels protective towards her children.做母亲的天生要保护自己的孩子。
• We feel safe with a protective device in the house.我们因为家里有了防护装置而感到安全。

9 silhouette   

n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓

参考例句：

• I could see its black silhouette against the evening sky.我能看到夜幕下它黑色的轮廓。
• I could see the silhouette of the woman in the pickup.我可以见到小卡车的女人黑色半身侧面影。

10 silhouettes   

轮廓( silhouette的名词复数 )； （人的）体形； （事物的）形状； 剪影

参考例句：

• Now that darkness was falling, only their silhouettes were outlined against the faintly glimmering sky. 这时节两山只剩余一抹深黑，赖天空微明为画出一个轮廓。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
• They could see silhouettes. 他们能看得见影子的。

11 indoors   

adv.(在)室内，(在)户内

参考例句：

• Because of the coldness of the weather we stayed indoors.我们因天气寒冷呆在家里。
• It is very cold outside,you'd better come indoors across the board.外面很冷，你们所有人最好都进屋。

12 cardboard   

n.硬纸板，卡纸板

参考例句：

• She brought the shopping home in a cardboard box.她将买的东西放在纸箱里带回家。
• There is a sheet of stiff cardboard in the drawer.在那个抽屉里有块硬纸板。

13 greenhouses   

温室，花房( greenhouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Cypress and redwood are seldom used in the superstructure of commercial greenhouses. 扁柏和美州红松很少用于商用温室的上部结构。
• They grew tomatoes in two greenhouses, each with a CD-player inside. 他们在两个温室里种西红柿，每个里面都有一个CD播放机。

14 suspended   

a.被暂时搁置的

参考例句：

• A lamp was suspended from the ceiling. 一盏吊灯悬在天花板上。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area. 英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

15 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

16 decayed   

a.腐败的，被蛀的

参考例句：

• New Shoreham, now sadly decayed, has barely 100 inhabitants. 如今已经衰落的新肖勒姆仅有100 名居民，很令人伤感。
• The place stank of decayed fish. 那地方有烂鱼的臭味。

17 organic   

adj.有机的，有机物的；有组织的

参考例句：

• Organic farming is expanding everywhere.有机农业正在各地迅速发展起来。
• The organic fertilizer shall keep the soil in good heart.这有机肥一定会使土壤保持肥沃。

18 stiff   

adj.严厉的，激烈的，硬的，僵直的，不灵活的

参考例句：

• There is a sheet of stiff cardboard in the drawer.在那个抽屉里有块硬纸板。
• You have to push on the handle to turn it,becanse it's very stiff.手柄很不灵活，你必须用力推才能转动它。