Many of us enjoy gardening and French gardens are renowned to be beautiful. But how to talk about gardening in French?
Were is an essential list of French garden terms.
How do you say garden in French?
Garden in French is “le jardin”.
4 Tricky French gardening terms
Don’t mistake:
- un jardin – a garden
- jardiner – the verb to garden.
It’s a regular ER verb: je jardine, tu jardines, il/elle/on jardine, nous jardinons, vous jardinez, ils/elles jardinent. - un jardinier – a male gardener (professional or someone who enjoys gardening)
- une jardinière – both a woman gardener and a flower planter!
And now let’s study some French gardening terms.
18 French Garden Tools
This list French list of French gardening terms was put together with the help of French immersion teacher Eliane. Thank you Eliane!
- Un arrosoir = watering can
- Un tuyau d’arrosage = hose
- Une bêche = spade
- Une binette = hoe
- Une brouette = wheelbarrow
- Des cisailles = shears
- Une débroussailleuse = string trimmer
- Des gants de jardinage = gardening gloves
- Un motoculteur = cultivator
- Une pioche = pickaxe
- Une pelle = a shovel
- Une petite pelle de jardinage, une truelle, un transplantoir = trowel, hand shovel
- Un râteau = rake
- Un râteau à feuilles = lawn rake
- Un sécateur = pruner
- Un taille-haies = hedge trimmer
- Une tondeuse à gazon = lawnmower
- Un râteau à feuilles = lawn rake
More French tool vocabulary.
20 French Gardening Verbs
- Jardiner = to garden
- Planter = to plant
- Creuser = to dig
- Arroser = to water
- Biner, bêcher, retourner la terre = to hoe
- Aérer = to aerate
- Cultiver = to cultivate
- Désherber = to weed
- Tondre = to mow
- Elaguer = to prune a tree
- Tailler = to trim a tree
- Transplanter = to transplant
- Semer = to sow
- Mettre en pot = to put in a pot
- Cueillir (irr) = to pick (as in to pick a flower)
- Ramasser = to pick from the ground (as to pick a leaf)
- Ratisser = to rake
- Débroussailler = to weed (for smaller weeds we simply say “retirer les mauvaises-herbes”!)
- Fertiliser = apply fertiliser
- Récolter = to harvest
A new approach to learning both traditional and modern French logically structured for English speakers.
30 French Garden Vocabulary
- Une pépinière = flower nursery
- Une jardinerie = garden center
- Un jardin paysagé = landscaped garden
- Un paysagiste = landscaper
- Un parterre = flowerbed
- Une plate-bande = flowerbed
- Un pot = pot
- Une jardinière = planter (a long and narrow pot)
- Une allée = pathway, driveway
- Une haie = hedge
- Un potager = vegetable garden
- Un verger = fruit garden
- Une serre = greenhouse
- Un tas de compost = compost heap
- Des écorces (f) = mulch
- Un engrais = fertiliser
- Le sol = soil, dirt
- La terre = topsoil
- Une rocaille = rock garden
- Une pierre = rock (more French rock vocabulary)
- Du gravier = pebble
- Les mauvaises herbes = weeds
- Une herbe = herb
- L’herbe = grass
- Une graine = seed
- Un bulbe = bulb
- Une pelouse, un gazon = lawn
- Un arbre = tree
- Un arbuste = shrub
- À fleurs = flowering
- L’arrosage automatique = automatic watering system
13 French Plant Vocabulary
Here is how to describe the different kind of plants.
- Une plante = plant
- Une plante d’intérieur = indoor plant
- Une plante d’extérieur = outdoor plant
- Une plante tropicale = tropical plant
- Une plante vivace = perennial
- Une plante annuelle = annual
- Une plante à feuilles persistantes = evergreen
- Une plante feuilles caduques = deciduous
- Une plante grasse = succulent
- Une plante en pot = potted plant
- Une plante d’ombre = shade plant
- Une plante grimpante = climber
- Une plante rampante = creeper
What about French flower names? I’ve dedicated a whole free lesson to flowers: just follow the link…
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What’s the difference between a garden and a yard in French?
When I lived in the US, may people used the term yard. Sometimes just yard, or front yard, back yard. They translated it as “un jardin”, but when I went to visit them, I realized that that was far from being the case…
“Un jardin” in French involves the notion of some plants, trees, grass… It doesn’t need to be a fully landscaped garden, but the mental image is about a nice, green, natural outside space.
So the translation for yard in French can be a garden, but many time, yard would better translate as “une cour”.
Let’s take some examples.
Devant ma maison, il y a un petit jardin avec des platebandes fleuries, un érable japonais et une allée.
In front of my house, there’s a small yard with flower beds, a Japanese maple tree and a walkway.
Derrière ma maison il y a une jolie cour pavée dans laquelle nous avons une table et des chaises, un grand platane, et quelques plantes en pot.
Behind my house there’s a pretty paved yard where we have a table set, a large plane tree and a fee plants in pots.
How to say a deck in French?
A wooden deck in French would be “une terrasse en bois”.
In France, unless you lived by the sea, having a wooden deck around your house was not something typical. But it’s been changing lately, and more and more modern houses have one.
How to say a patio in French?
It’s rather common in France to have some kind of a stone patio, or sometimes tiles. We call all these “une terrasse” and then would specified the material used : “une terrasse en pierre”, “une terrasse en carrelage”…
Dans ma maison de Paimpol, je n’ai malheureusement pas de jardin, mais j’ai une toute petite terrasse en carrelage qui me permet de me mettre au soleil.
In my house in Paimpol, unfortunately I don’t have a garden, but I have a tiny tiled patio which allows me to sunbathe.
“Une terrasse” can be in front/ back / side of a house, but it’s a term we also use for an apartment building featuring a patio.
25 French garden structures
So to sum up, here are the names of garden structures in French.
- Une terrasse = deck, patio
- Un porche = porch
- Une galerie = open porch
- Une salle-à-manger d’été = closed porch, conservatory
- Une véranda = verandah
- Une serre = greenhouse
- Un mur = a wall
- Une marche = step, stair
- Une dalle = slab, stepping stone
- Un abris de jardin = shed
- Une pergola, une gloriette = pergola
- Un gazébo, un pavillon de jardin = gazebo
- Une pagode = pagoda
- Une décoration de jardin = a garden decor
- Une sculpture = sculpture
- Une statue = statue
- Un nain de jardin = garden dwarf
- Un bac à sable = sandbox
- Un portique = swing set (more French playground vocabulary)
- Un bassin = pond
- Une cascade = waterfall
- Une carpe japonaise = koi fish
- Des salon de jardin = garden furniture set
- Un parasol = sun umbrella
- Un barbecue = barbecue
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Et vous ? Vous avez un jardin ? Un balcon ? Vous aimez jardiner ? Quelle sortes de plantes avez-vous dans votre jardin ?
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