"pelirojaroja" wrote in message
...
Gardening is indeed a noun -- it's a gerund.

From Bartleby:

Gerunds are verb forms ending in -ing that act as nouns. They can be the
subject of a sentence (Skiing is her favorite sport), the object of a verb
(She enjoys skiing), or the object of a preposition (She devoted her free
time to skiing). Gerunds can be modified like nouns (That book makes for
difficult reading). But they can also act like verbs in that they can take
an object (Convincing him was never easy) and be modified by an adverb
(Walking daily can improve your health).

Those are examples of a gerund. Here's a good website to explain their
use.

http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/gerund.htm

-- (Sorry, but I teach high-school English!)
-- pelirojaroja

"animaux" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 18 May 2003 20:52:54 GMT, "Shepherd"
wrote:


Gardening is also a noun meaning the cultivation of plants.


"Garden" is a noun. "Gardening" is a verb.

Thanks pelirojaroja. I also make my living from the use of words. I
construct crossword puzzles for many local and national publications and
syndicates.

Shepherd