When I first started out gardening I used to hear some of the sayings below and didn’t have a clue what they meant or what they were talking about so here is a helping hand to understanding some of the words floating around gardeners today.
Annual – A plant that grows from seed, flowers, sets seed and dies in one year
Bare-root – A plant sold with no soil or compost around the roots. They are dug up and ready for planting in the dormant season
Bedding plants – A plant that is raised for use in a temporary garden display, spring, summer or winter. E.g. Viola, pansy, begonia,
Biennial – A plant that grows from seed to form a small plant in the first year and flowers and sets seed in the following year.
Cultivate – To prepare the land and soil for growing crops
Deadhead – To remove spent flowers to tidy the display, prevent the formation of seeds and improve future flowering
Earth up – To draw up soil around a plant forming a mound. Potatoes are earthed up to protect new shoots from frost and to prevent tubers from being exposed to light.
Groundcover plants – Densely growing, mat-forming plants that can be used to cover the ground with foliage to prevent weeds germinating
Hardening-off – A method of gradually weaning a plant from the conditions inside to those outside without causing a check to growth
Hardiness – the amount of cold a type of plant is able to withstand. Hardy plants can tolerate frost, half-hardy and tender plants cannot
Herbaceous plants – plants that produce sappy, green, nonwoody growth. Herbaceous perennials die down in winter, but re-grow from basal shoots the following spring.
Leafmould – A material that has been produced from the decomposition of leaves in a leaf bin or heap. Useful as a soil improver or planting mixture.
Manure – A bulky organic animal waste that is rotted down and used to improve soil structure and fertility.
Mulch – A material that is laid on the surface of the soil to prevent moisture loss through evaporation and suppress weed growth. A mulch can be loose and organic such as compressed bark or garden compost.
Perennial – A plant that lives for more than two years. The term is usually applied to a hardy non-woody plant. A tender perennial is a non-woody plant that cannot tolerate frost.
Pricking out – The spacing of seedlings while still small so that they have room to develop and grow on.
Runner – A horizontal shoot that spreads out from the plant, roots and forms another plant
Sucker – A shoot that arises from the roots underground. The term is usually applied to shoots from the rootstock of grafted plant that has different characteristics to the ornamental variety
Transplanting – the transfer of seedlings or young plants from a nursery bed where they were sown to their final destination
Windbreak – A hedge, fence, wall or fabric that is used to filter the wind and therefore reduce the damage that it may cause