From Sarah’s garden to yours
After a season or two of simple gardening, and doing what feels instinctive whilst being guided by the basic instructions on plant tags, a passion creeps in, and you want to know more. The deeper you delve into the knowledge behind gardening, the more you encounter gardening terminology that can seem like a foreign language that only experienced gardeners can discuss with confidence.
Here is a quick guide to some of the common words often used in the gardening world:
A
Acid: Measured using the pH scale and is between 0 and 7. Soil that is too acidic makes the nutrients too soluble, and they get washed away.
Alkaline: Measured using the pH scale and is between 7 and 14. Soil that is too alkaline holds on to the nutrients too tightly for the plants to access.
Allelopathic: The plant produces a chemical that makes it difficult for other plants to survive in the same area.
Annual: Most vegetables are annuals. This means they only last one season and set seed and finish their life cycle.
B
Biennial: These are plants that last 2 years. The first year they establish themselves and the second year they flower and set seed. Parsley is a biennial.
C
Catch Crop: A quick maturing crop that can be grown between slower crops or between the harvest of one plant and the sowing of the next.
Chlorophyll: Pigment that makes plants green and important for photosynthesis.
Chlorotic: When the plant looks sick and yellow. There are many reasons for this.
Cold hardy: Plants that can survive cold and subfreezing temperatures and bounce back to grow again next season.
Compost: A nutrient rich soil conditioner made from rotted down organic material, added to the soil to replenish nutrients, and improve the structure.
Crown: The part of the plant found at soil level where the roots and stems grow from.
Cultivar: The result of a natural plant from the wild, grown in captivity – i.e. cultivated.
Cutting: A horticultural propagation technique used to grow copies of plants from a section of stem, root, or leaf.
D
Dead heading: Cutting off old flowers. This can cause new growth and new flowers and make the plant look tidy.
Determinate: Mostly applies to tomatoes, a more compact plant and the fruit generally ripens at the same time.
Dibber: A blunt pointy stick used to make holes in the soil for transplanting seedlings.
Division Propagation: To dig up an overcrowded plant and split it for replanting to reinvigorate the plant as well as increasing the number of plants. Not all plants are suitable for this.
Drawn: The technical term for pale, leggy seedlings reaching for the light.
Drill: The line drawn in the soil to plant fine seeds into.
E
Earthing up: Pulling the soil up around plants to exclude light. Especially important with potatoes so they don’t go green. Green potatoes are toxic.
Edible: Plants that are safe to eat.
Ericaceous: Used to describe acid loving plants and acid soil.
F
F1: These seeds come from crossing two different parents to have a reliable crop with specific qualities. However, saved seeds won’t grow the same and can have unexpected results.
Fasciation: When stems grow fused together. This is not normal.
Fertiliser: Blend of chemicals needed by the plant for healthy growth. This can be derived from natural or artificial sources.
Forcing: The technique of making plants fruit or flower earlier than they would naturally do it.
G
Genus: Closely related plants. Used in part of the scientific name for plants i.e.: the potato is formally known as Solanum tuberosum. Solanum being the Genus.
Germinate: This is what happens when the seeds wake up and begin to grow. Usually started when the seed is exposed to moisture and warmth.
Ground Cover: Plants that grow to cover the ground.
Guttation: When sap from the xylem leaks out of the edges of leaves to form pretty droplets.
H
Half hardy: Plants that don’t like frost but could survive a mild winter.
Harden-off: Gradually expose indoor seedlings to outside conditions.
Hardy: Plants that can handle a frost.
Heeling In: Temporarily planting so plants survive until the permanent spot is ready.
Heirloom: Seeds handed down from generation to generation and are considered to be stable and reliable enough to repeat a similar harvest each year.
Herbaceous: A plant that dies back during the winter. It often has soft tissue, not woody stems.
Humus: The material left after compost has finished decomposing completely. Often found naturally under trees.
Hybrid: A plant that has parents from different species, but usually the same genus.
I
Indeterminate: This most commonly applies to tomatoes where the plant continues to grow and fruit all season until taken out by frost or disease.
Infestation: When a plant becomes overrun with pest or disease.
Inorganic: Materials not derived from living things.
L
Lateral: In a tomato plant this is the leaf that grows out of the stem where the leaf connects to the stem.
Leaching: When rainwater washes away all the nutrients from the soil.
M
Mycorrhiza: The fine threadlike part of soil fungi. Most are beneficial and form great relationships with the plants. Others can spread disease.
N
Nodule: Occurs on the roots of legumes and work together with special bacteria to turn soil nitrogen into a form plants can use.
O
Organic: Materials derived from living things.
P
Perennial: Plants that live for more than two years.
Petrichor: The lovely smell of earth after rain.
Phloem: The cells within the plant that together form a transportation system taking food to the leaves.
Photosynthesis: How the plant converts carbon dioxide and water to sugar and oxygen using the sunlight.
Pollinate: To enable fruit to grow, pollen from male flower structures needs to be transferred to female flower structures. Often from a different plant. Pollen is normally transferred by bees, insects, and the wind.
Potting mix: A commercially blended mix of soils, nutrients and materials that provide for a healthy home for plants grown in containers. It is disease free and is able to retain moisture between waterings for the plants to use.
Propagation: Plant reproduction by seed, cuttings, or division.
PVR: Plant Variety Rights. Legally the grower of a new variety of plant owns the right to sell or propagate the plant. It is prohibited to save the seeds to sell or sell seedlings or cuttings. PVR status is found on plant labels in garden centres.
S
Scarification: Some seeds need to be treated in different ways before it will germinate. Techniques include but aren’t limited to soaking, nicking with a craft knife, freezing, or surviving a bushfire.
Self – Pollination: When the pollen fertilizes its own flower or the other flowers on the same plant and doesn’t need more than one plant to set fruit.
Species: Individual groups within a family. Used in part of the scientific name for plants i.e.: the potato is formally known as Solanum tuberosum. tuberosum being the species.
Sucker: Vigorous branches the plant puts out to increase its size. Normally unwanted by gardeners as it will occur below a graft in a tree, or out of the stem of a tomato plant which can reduce air flow around the plant.
T
Tendril: A thin specialized stem that clings to nearby objects for support.
Tilth: A crumbly soil texture suitable for planting in. A fine tilth is perfect for sowing seed.
Transplant: To move a plant growing in a pot to a bigger pot or into the ground.
Trench: A long hole usually dug to the depth and width of a spade in the garden.
Tubers: These are stems that have adapted to be underground storage organs for the plant.
W
Weed: A plant growing in the wrong place. Often difficult to get rid of.
X
Xylem: The cells within the plant that together form a transportation system taking nutrients from the roots.
