Plants of commercial value, also potherbs, edible crop plants and medicinal plants, were propagated in the garden for planting elsewhere.

By using land that might otherwise be used to grow edible crops, biofuels have created shortages of food and price rises.

For hundreds of years, cottagers planted whatever decorative plants they could get hold of around their houses, mixing them with essential edible crops.

Ancient humans focused on these seedless, pollen-less mutants to generate progressively more edible crops.

The requests included not only edible crops such as cucumbers and peppers but also decorative plants such as marigolds and sunflowers.