181 - 5-Minute English: Yard Work (+ Gardening Tools)
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Hi, everybody. My name is Shawna, and this is the American English Podcast. My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States. Through common expressions, pronunciation tips, and interesting cultural snippets or stories, I hope to keep this fun, useful, and interesting. Let's do it. Hello, and welcome back. Today, we'll be talking about yard work.

First off, what's a yard? Well, you can think about a yard when we're talking about measurement. A yard is three feet. Each foot is 12 inches. But today, we are not talking about yards in terms of measurement. We're talking about yards as in an outdoor space, typically in front of or behind one's property.

So if you live in a house, you might have a front yard with a driveway where you might park your car, a walkway where you walk, and in front of it, there might be a sidewalk with your mailbox. You also might have a backyard behind your house. Now, lots of people in my neighborhood have a deck in their backyard with a grill. That might be where they host their barbecues.

where people can sit down on lounge chairs and just relax. Lots of backyards also have sheds, which is sort of a tiny house or storage space where people keep their lawnmower and other gardening tools. Today, you'll hear a lot about the tools you'll need to do work in your yard, and we'll also talk about how yard work changes by the season.

If you live in a city or in an apartment, you may rely on parks or public gardens for green space and maybe even gardening. But let me tell you, the vocabulary you'll hear today is basic, essential vocabulary you'll need to talk about this topic. I'm not a gardener. I'm not a landscaper.

I'm just an English teacher with a front yard and a backyard. And so these terms you'll hear today are just the common ones. So what inspired a talk about yard work? For the past few weeks, the weather in North Carolina has been frigid. In other words, extremely cold. The other day, I was at Trader Joe's, which is a popular supermarket here.

And I was putting my cart back after shopping and a gust of wind blew my direction. A gust is a very strong wind. Now, once I got in my car, I was thinking, oh my gosh, it's so cold outside. So I checked the temperature. It was 10 degrees, 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

In Fahrenheit, 32 is freezing. So it was 22 below freezing. Of course, I checked the temperature in Alaska afterwards, just out of curiosity. And in Alaska, which is up in Canada pretty much, it was significantly warmer. So needless to say, we've had a very cold winter here, and I'm not used to it. I'm not acclimated.

So acclimated means used to. A lot of times we use it in terms of weather. I'm not acclimated to the weather in North Carolina. In California, our winters are mild. It rains. In the mountains, we get snow. But generally speaking, it's nothing to complain about.

So the point is, this week, it's heated up a bit, and all I can think about is spring, when I'll put on a light sweater instead of my ski jacket, and maybe even go for a run outside. I can't wait to see leaves sprout on the trees and colorful flowers blooming.

We definitely need it after the hurricane that happened in September. The trees are bare. It's kind of sad. So here we are. I'm sitting by my window, looking out in my front yard, imagining how it will change this year. I hope you enjoy this personal story.

If you would like the premium content with the definitions, PDF transcript so you can read along, a pronunciation video with images and more, be sure to sign up at AmericanEnglishPodcast.com. You'll also find the link in the episode notes. One last piece of news before I get started.

I've recently made a page on my website where you can share your thoughts on various topics. Now, by sharing, you not only get the chance to practice expressing yourself in English, but you also get the chance to have your ideas and experiences read on this podcast. So topics on there will range from au pairing in the United States to studying abroad and living here,

So much more. I would love to hear about your guys' experiences here. I think others would like to hear them too. So I hope to hear from you. Once again, the website is AmericanEnglishPodcast.com. Without further ado, let's begin today's episode. I've never thought of myself as someone with a green thumb.

But after spending a full year taking care of my yard, I've definitely grown to love it. There's something about the rhythm of the seasons, the smell of fresh grass, and the feel of soil while gardening that's kind of addictive. Spring is when the yard truly comes alive. After months of seeing dead grass and bare trees...

I grab my shovel, rake, and wheelbarrow to get to work. There's always mulch to spread around the flower beds and weeds to yank from every corner. Yank is just a dramatic way to say pull. You can pull weeds or you might yank them. It's not as bad as it sounds, though. There's a certain satisfaction in seeing a freshly weeded flower bed. I'll toss some fertilizer down.

I'll water the soil with my watering can or with my garden hose. And depending on my mood, I'll plant some seeds or fresh flowers. Either way, it requires digging a small hole, which you can do with your hand, or you can use a garden shovel, which we commonly refer to as a trowel.

Afterwards, every time I'm done gardening, I always stand back to admire my work. And then, of course, I need to eagerly await the day when the flowers bloom or when the seeds sprout. In my area of North Carolina, which is in the West, there are a lot of black bears. And they can smell food from miles away.

That's why it's important to have a greenhouse or a planter box with a lock on top to lessen the scent of fresh fruit and vegetables wafting their direction. Growing produce in the Appalachians is not for the faint of heart. In other words, it's for people who are up for a challenge. Bears like to feast on apples and peaches at local orchards and chow down on berries from berry bushes.

They'll even eat corn and carrots. It's hard to prevent them. And their neighbors, the squirrels. They're everywhere. When summer comes and my neighbors spend more time outside walking about, we try to make our yard presentable. The grass grows faster than I can keep up with. So for a season, the lawnmower is my best friend.

I never expected to love mowing the lawn, and I don't. But there is something refreshing about stepping outside early in the morning and smelling freshly cut grass. Do you know what I'm talking about? Maybe you know that from playing sports when someone else mowed the lawn. Our yard is fairly large, and it's full of oak trees. Near their roots, we get a fair share of mushrooms.

White ones, gray ones, red ones. I don't know if they're edible, if they can be eaten, or if they'll send me on a trip, but we never risk it. When pulling weeds, we always discard of them. With gloves, of course. Nobody in my family wants to eat a poisonous mushroom. And when I was a kid, I remember watching my grandpa take care of his yard.

He cared so much about how it looked. They had a maple tree and hedges. A hedge is a dense row of shrubs or small trees planted closely together, and they often form a boundary or a fence around a property, garden, or walkway.

My grandpa's hedges blocked a direct view of the house, and he liked that they provided privacy and were somewhat decorative. He trimmed his hedges constantly with hedge trimmers to keep those shrubs in line, and it also helped clear the pathway to his front door.

We don't have shrubs or bushes in our yard, but as I said, it's covered in oak trees. And so when fall rolls around, also known as autumn, our yard work is intense. The leaves on our trees change from green to yellow, then orange to red. Eventually they fall onto the lawn and they create a vibrant blanket of leaves for us to deal with.

In autumn, I trade my hose for a leaf blower. And at least once a week, I blow leaves into heaps or big piles. I often need a rake also to gather small twigs that are left behind. Raking is a workout. But there's nothing quite like jumping into a big pile of leaves after you're done. My daughters definitely love it.

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Every now and then, snow falls in Asheville, and we watch with admiration as our yard turns white. My family goes out to make snow angels and snowmen. We even go sledding down our driveway, which seems crazy having grown up in sunny California. We used to have to travel to visit the snow.

Now, the downside of living in a snowy residential area is that if you need to get out of the house, you might need to shovel the driveway. For that, a snow shovel will come in handy. It's hard work. It's hard to imagine that some people, especially in the north of the United States, do it daily in winter.

Each season brings something different. And I've realized yard work isn't just about keeping things neat. It's about being part of something that grows, changes, and surprises you all year long. My question for you is, do you have a green thumb? This year, we have some unconventional yard work to do. During Hurricane Helene, four massive trees fell down in our backyard.

They're covering the entire thing. Over the next few months, we'll need to use a chainsaw to cut the trunks into pieces and an axe to split them for firewood. It'll be a lot of work, but that's why it's called yard work, right?

That's it for my five-minute English episode. I bet you heard a lot of new vocabulary in there, not unless you're regularly used to doing yard work and know terms like chainsaw, axe, rake, leaf blower. In any case, I hope you enjoyed it. One day, I truly hope to have a greenhouse. I think that would be so cool to have a supply of herbs on hand when cooking.

and maybe even some fresh greens. I'm not sure I'd risk growing fruit trees or any other type of berry bush, just given the amount of bears around here. But for that, we have orchards. North Carolina is known for having a lot of them. An orchard is like a fruit farm, and in the West, you'll find peach orchards, apple orchards, and so...

Even though I don't necessarily want to attract more bears by growing fruit in the backyard, we can visit those places on weekends. In any case, yes, I would still like to have a greenhouse. For veggies. For healthy vegetables. Because if you grow your own vegetables, you're probably going to eat healthier. Don't you think? Maybe I can turn my two little girls into gardeners. When I lived in New York...

And man, I lived in a bunch of different places from the Upper East Side to Brooklyn and Park Slope. I had a roommate at one point who was a rooftop gardener. He was originally from Hawaii and had moved to New York City for that specific job. People were willing to pay a lot of money for sustainable gardens on roofs.

He would plan out green spaces on high-rise buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn. So we lived in an apartment complex that was three stories high, or maybe it was two stories with a basement, something along those lines. And we had a blueberry bush. We grew peppers and tomatoes. And he also had a container full of compost.

And the thing is, I'll never forget this. The first time I saw it, I thought, what in the world is happening? It was moving on the inside and it was full of worms. So we had a massive container of worms on our roof.

It was kind of gross and at the same time very cool that we had this sort of natural, sustainable cycle of eating, giving the leftover food to the worms. They created fertilizer, and then we got to mix that fertilizer with the soil and create these great plants that we then ate. So I just love that cycle. I thought it was really cool. And yeah, props to anyone who is a gardener.

That's figured it out. I always admire people with a green thumb. And once again, someone with a green thumb is someone who is good at gardening. There is one last term I do want to mention, which I couldn't figure out how to put into the audio, and that is to prune.

So prune can be a noun. You might have a dried plum that is called a prune. Help with your digestion. And to prune as a verb with pruning shears.

is to cut, like to cut little twigs. Maybe if you have a rosebush and you have unwanted little branches off of it, you can cut them with your pruning shears. It's very useful if you're gardening. I think every gardener has gloves, pruning shears, a trowel or that gardening shovel, and a watering can. I mean, that's the absolute basic

equipment you need in order to have a garden. Now that's it for today's lesson. I'm going to play the audio one last time. Be sure to listen all the way until the end so you'll hear those terms repeated. Enjoy! I've never thought of myself as someone with a green thumb, but after spending a full year taking care of my yard, I've definitely grown to love it.

There's something about the rhythm of the seasons, the smell of fresh grass, and the feel of soil while gardening that's kind of addictive. Spring is when the yard truly comes alive. After months of seeing dead grass and bare trees, I grab my shovel, rake, and wheelbarrow to get to work.

There's always mulch to spread around the flower beds and weeds to yank from every corner. Yank is just a dramatic way to say pull. You can pull weeds or you might yank them. It's not as bad as it sounds, though. There's a certain satisfaction in seeing a freshly weeded flower bed. I'll toss some fertilizer down. I'll water the soil.

with my watering can or with my garden hose, and depending on my mood, I'll plant some seeds or fresh flowers. Either way, it requires digging a small hole, which you can do with your hand, or you can use a garden shovel, which we commonly refer to as a trowel.

Afterwards, every time I'm done gardening, I always stand back to admire my work. And then, of course, I need to eagerly await the day when the flowers bloom or when the seeds sprout. In my area of North Carolina, which is in the West, there are a lot of black bears. And they can smell food from miles away.

That's why it's important to have a greenhouse or a planter box with a lock on top to lessen the scent of fresh fruit and vegetables wafting their direction. Growing produce in the Appalachians is not for the faint of heart. In other words, it's for people who are up for a challenge. Bears like to feast on apples and peaches at local orchards and chow down on berries from berry bushes.

They'll even eat corn and carrots. It's hard to prevent them. And their neighbors, the squirrels. They're everywhere. When summer comes and my neighbors spend more time outside walking about, we try to make our yard presentable. The grass grows faster than I can keep up with. So for a season, the lawnmower is my best friend.

I never expected to love mowing the lawn, and I don't. But there is something refreshing about stepping outside early in the morning and smelling freshly cut grass. Do you know what I'm talking about? Maybe you know that from playing sports when someone else mowed the lawn. Our yard is fairly large, and it's full of oak trees. Near their roots, we get a fair share of mushrooms.

White ones, gray ones, red ones. I don't know if they're edible, if they can be eaten, or if they'll send me on a trip, but we never risk it. When pulling weeds, we always discard of them. With gloves, of course. Nobody in my family wants to eat a poisonous mushroom. And when I was a kid, I remember watching my grandpa take care of his yard.

He cared so much about how it looked. They had a maple tree and hedges. A hedge is a dense row of shrubs or small trees planted closely together, and they often form a boundary or a fence around a property, garden, or walkway.

My grandpa's hedges blocked a direct view of the house, and he liked that they provided privacy and were somewhat decorative. He trimmed his hedges constantly with hedge trimmers to keep those shrubs in line, and it also helped clear the pathway to his front door.

We don't have shrubs or bushes in our yard, but as I said, it's covered in oak trees. And so when fall rolls around, also known as autumn, our yard work is intense. The leaves on our trees change from green to yellow, then orange to red. Eventually they fall onto the lawn and they create a vibrant blanket of leaves for us to deal with.

In autumn, I trade my hose for a leaf blower. And at least once a week, I blow leaves into heaps or big piles. I often need a rake also to gather small twigs that are left behind. Raking is a workout. But there's nothing quite like jumping into a big pile of leaves after you're done. My daughters definitely love it.

By the time winter arrives, our front and backyards are quiet. But they're not completely abandoned. Yes, we have squirrels still running up and down the trunks of trees and cardinals landing on branches. Every now and then, snow falls in Asheville, and we watch with admiration as our yard turns white.

My family goes out to make snow angels and snowmen. We even go sledding down our driveway, which seems crazy having grown up in sunny California. We used to have to travel to visit the snow. Now, the downside of living in a snowy residential area is that if you need to get out of the house, you might need to shovel the driveway. For that, a snow shovel will come in handy.

It's hard work. It's hard to imagine that some people, especially in the north of the United States, do it daily in winter. Each season brings something different. And I've realized yard work isn't just about keeping things neat.

It's about being part of something that grows, changes, and surprises you all year long. My question for you is, do you have a green thumb? This podcast is sponsored by IQ Bar. I've got good news and bad news. Here's the bad news. Most protein bars are packed with sugar and unpronounceable ingredients. The good news? There's a better option. I'm Will, and I created IQ Bar Plant Protein Bars...

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This year, we have some unconventional yard work to do. During Hurricane Helene, four massive trees fell down in our backyard. They're covering the entire thing. Over the next few months, we'll need to use a chainsaw to cut the trunks into pieces and an axe to split them for firewood. It'll be a lot of work, but that's why it's called yard work, right?

That is the end of this lesson. There were quite a few words in this story that might be unique to you. I bet you understood the majority from context, but let's quickly go through a list. For tools, we had a shovel, a rake, a wheelbarrow, watering can, garden hose, hedge trimmers, pruning shears, leaf blower, shovel, trowel, and rake.

Then we had the parts of a yard. You might have a tree in your yard, a lawn, which is an expansive area covered in grass, typically.

flower beds, grass, weeds, mulch, flowers, leaves, twigs, branches, bushes, shrubs, hedges, fertilizer, soil. You might have a greenhouse or a shed to store your tools. I also mentioned some fun expressions like to have a green thumb, to roll around, or a fair share of.

We had some common verbs like to dig. You dig a hole. To rake. We rake leaves. To shovel. You can shovel dirt. You might shovel snow. And to mow the lawn. We really only mow one thing, and that's the lawn.

If you liked this episode and would like to learn more about different seasons in the U.S., how to talk about them in English, then be sure to check out episode 59 about springtime in the United States. Then we talked about summer in the U.S. in episode 69. In episode 81, we spoke about fall or autumn.

And in episode 115, we talked about winter. And in that particular episode, you not only learned the vocabulary related to winter, such as snow vocabulary and ski terms, you also learned about ski resorts in the U.S. So do check those out. Once again, that's 59, 69, 81, and 115.

And I hope you enjoyed this episode. Once again, if you want to get the premium content for this episode, be sure to check out the episode notes. The bonus material is always very in-depth and it's a great way to dive deeper into your English learning. Hope you enjoyed that lesson.

Talk to you next week. Bye. Thank you for listening to this episode of the American English Podcast. Remember, it's my goal here to not only help you improve your listening comprehension, but to show you how to speak like someone from the States.

If you want to receive the full transcript for this episode, or you just want to support this podcast, make sure to sign up to premium content on AmericanEnglishPodcast.com. Thanks and hope to see you soon.