Gardeners have a vocabulary all their own. Would anyone else besides a gardener understand what "dress with dried blood to accelerate" means? It's not a line from a teenage horror flick - just a suggestion of how to make a peony grow faster, taken from an old gardening book.
As an aid to better gardening communication, here is a list of gardening words you might hear - plus a sentence in which you can use it. (Thanks to Pike Family Nursery for allowing the use of this list.)
- aerate
- to poke holes in a lawn so oxygen and water can better penetrate
"If it rains on Friday the ground will be soft enough for my rented aerator to make really deep holes on Saturday."
- aggressive
- fast growing, invasive; a plant to be avoided without forethought on how to control it
"They told me bamboo was aggressive but I didn'trealize it would send up sprouts 20 feet away from where I planted it!"
- annual
- a plant that survives only one growing season: a marigold is a summer annual, a pansy is a winter annual
"I know I have to buy them every year but annuals sure bloom vigorously while they're growing!"
- balanced fertilizer
- a fertilizer that has identical N-P-K numbers
"My bulbs have finished blooming. I guess they need a bit of balanced fertilizer to make them strong for next year."
- balled & burlapped
- a system of digging large trees and wrapping the roots tightly in burlap
"It took three people to lift the root ball of a ten foot tall balled & burlapped maple!"
- bed
- a tended spot for growing plants
"That bed of daylilies sure is pretty in the sunshine!"
- Blossom end rot
- A rotten spot at the blossom end of tomato fruit, caused by lack of calcium
"The time to prevent blossom end rot is when the baby tomatoes are the size of marbles."
- broad-leafed weed
- a weed that has a round or broad leaf: dandelion, chickweed, clover, etc.
"These wild onions in my lawn don't look like broad-leafed weeds but that's how they're classified."
- broadcast spreader
- a spreader designed to "whirl" its contents over a large area
"The neighbors used to borrow Gus's broadcast spreader for our big lawns but when we wore it out, Carl bought one and now we use it."
- chlorotic
- yellowish and sickly, caused by lack of nutrients
"My azalea leaves are chlorotic. Is that caused by water standing around the roots or by the soil not having enough acid?"
- compost
- rotted plant material
"These leaves have been piled back here for year. I think I'll put the compost at the bottom of the heap onto my vegetable garden and dig it in."
- cool-season grass
- a grass that grows best in cool weather and stays green year-round
"I heard that Atlanta is in the zone where cool-season grasses really take a beating from the summer heat."
- core aerator
- a machine having hollow tubes which plunge into the soil and bring up cores of earth
"I used to have a spike aerator - but it really never loosened my soil as well as a core aerator did."
- crotch
- the angle where a limb and a larger limb or a trunk meet
"No wonder that Bradford pear split apart - it's full of narrow crotches!"
- cutting
- a 6" -12" long twig which can be forced to grow new roots after being pruned from a plant
"My grandmother used to root rose cuttings by sticking them in the dirt and covering each one with a quart jar."
- desiccated
- dried out
"I know I shouldn't have planted that Japanese maple in full sunshine. Now the leaves are desiccated around the edges."
- dethatcher
- a powered machine (also called a vertical mower) which slices into the thatch layer in order to lessen it
"I'm glad I waited until May to use a dethatcher. I could have really hurt my zoysia grass if I'd dethatched while it was brown."
- dormant
- a plant that is "sleeping" for the winter
"Centipede grass never goes completely dormant. That's why you can't spray Roundup on it to kill winter weeds."
- drip line
- the imaginary line under the furthest extension of a tree's limbs
"More than 50 percent of a tree's roots are outside the drip line!"
- drop spreader
- a spreader designed to drop its contents through evenly-spaced holes.
"I have a lot of curves and nooks in my yard so a drop spreader let's me fertilize accurately."
- focal point
- a landscape feature that draws the eye towards itself
"A bench in front of a hedge makes a nice focal point."
- Fungicide
- A chemical that inhibits or kills fungi
"My neighbor was really surprised when I told him a fungicide wouldn't help a bit to kill aphids."
- grassy weed
- a weed having leaves that are similar to lawn grass: crabgrass, annual bluegrass, nutgrass
"Nutgrass is rated the hardest-to-control grassy weed in the world!"
- green-up
- the process by which a plant comes out of dormancy and puts on new leaves
"It is a good idea to wait on fertilizing zoysia lawns until they have achieved 50 percent green-up."
- herbicide
- a chemical that will kill plants
"I've tried digging and I've tried mowing; this year I'm using a herbicide on my kudzu!"
- honeydew
- the sticky liquid secreted by sucking insects
"My car was covered with honeydew from the aphids after I parked under a maple tree."
- horticultural oil
- a thin oil designed to be sprayed on insects to suffocate them
"Horticultural oil is about the only thing you can use to control scale on euonymous shrubs."
- Inch of water
- A measurement of how much water falls into a container; plants need approximately one inch of water per week
"Ronnie, put out a couple of soup cans in the lawn to make sure the sprinkler applies an inch of water before you shut it off!"
- lime
- a chemical added to the soil to raise its pH (a measure of soil acidity)
" I know that pelletized lime is the same as the powdered stuff but the pellets sure go through my spreader better."
- Mulch
- To spread materials under a plant in order to decrease water loss and inhibit weed growth
"Mulching my rhododendrons with chopped leaves helped them get through the drought easily."
- Mulching blade
- A lawnmower blade which has been specially designed to chop grass blades thoroughly before they fall
"That mulching blade made a big difference in the amount of clippings I could see on my lawn."
- N-P-K
- Nitrogen - Phosphorus - Potassium: the most important nutrients plants need
"I remember what the N-P-K numbers on a fertilizer bag mean by saying to myself "Up-Down-All Around!"
- Nitrate nitrogen product
- A fertilizer product that contains some percentage of nitrate nitrogen, plus perhaps ammoniacal nitrogen or urea nitrogen.
"Cold soil means pansies can't absorb ammoniacal nitrogen so nitrate nitrogen gives them the nutrients they need."
- organic matter
- rotted leaves, composted pine bark, mushroom compost, aged manure; usually mixed with existing soil to make it less heavy and compacted
"I'll dig a two inch layer of organic matter deep into my flower bed before I plant my seed."
- perennial
- a plant that grows for several seasons in your area
"My lantanas were perennial when we lived in Savannah but they're only annuals up here in Suwanee."
- pH
- a numerical measurement of your soil's acidity or alkalinity
"I want my hydrangeas to be pink so I'll put lots of lime around them to raise the soil pH to 6.5."
- pH
- a measurement of the acidity of your soil.
"It's been remarkable how much lime it has taken to raise my garden's pH from 5.0 to 6.0!"
- Pinch
- To remove the growing tip of a limb, in order to make it branch
"I pinched my redtip photinia in early summer. Now it has lots more leaves."
- Poa annua
- annual bluegrass; a bright green weedy grass that makes prolific white seedheads in May
"I used to try to pull out 'Po Anner' by hand in the spring. Then I got smart and started using a pre-emergent weed chemical on my lawn in the fall."
- pollen
- the fine, yellowish powder produced by the male part of a flower; when united with the female part of the plant, seeds are produced
"Pine tree pollen covered my car so thick I could write my name in it!"
- post-emergent
- a chemical that kills plants after they have emerged from the soil
"I was on vacation in March so I'll use a post-emergent on the crabgrass that's already sprouted."
- pre-emergent
- a chemical that prevents seeds from sprouting or growing
"It is best to apply a pre-emergent by mid-March to prevent crabgrass seeds from sprouting."
- prepare
- to thoroughly till or spade the soil to a depth of eight inches
"Preparing this bed is harder than I thought; maybe I should rent a tiller."
- prune
- to remove a limb or branch
"Let me show you how to prune that rose back to a limb that's growing in the right direction."
- Rhizome
- A fleshy root extending from a plant, allowing it to spread and make new plants
"We must have dug up a ton of rhizomes around that bamboo clump before we could install an underground plastic barrier to keep it under control."
- Rhizome
- a fleshy belowground plant part that grows from the main plant into adjoining areas
"Mrs. Nelms dug up her irises last fall and gave me some of the rhizomes to plant in my yard."
- root ball
- the root system of a plant before it is planted
"I used my fingers and a stick to untangle the root ball before I planted that holly."
- root zone
- the entire area in which a plant's roots grow
"We used two bales of pine straw to mulch the whole root zone of the dogwood I planted last year."
- scalp
- To mow off the top inch of dormant Bermuda grass in order to accelerate green-up
"I'll scalp my lawn when average daytime temperatures approach fifty degrees Fahrenheit."
- slow release fertilizer
- a fertilizer whose granules have been manufactured to release nutrients over several weeks rather that all at once
"Those little white balls on top of the soil under a potted azalea aren't insect eggs - they're just granules of slow release fertilizer."
- soil test
- a chemical test that measures the nutrients in your soil and its acidity level
"I need to have a soil test done by the Extension service so I'll know how much lime to spread on my lawn."
- soil test
- a chemical test that measures the nutrients in your soil and its acidity level
"I need to have a soil test done by the Extension service so I'll know how much 10-10-10 to give my roses."
- Soilless mix
- A mixture of peat moss and other materials which does not include mineral soil
"Why in the world do they call it potting soil when it is not soil and has no soil in it?"
- stolon
- a thin aboveground plant part that grows from the main plant to adjoining areas
"If my neighbor's Bermuda grass stolons didn't grow into my fescue, it might look pretty nice in the winter."
- sucker
- a small sprout that emerges at the base of vigorously growing trees
"Those suckers I pruned off my crape myrtle made excellent stakes to prop up my peonies!"
- systemic pesticide
- a chemical that is absorbed by roots or leaves and then travels throughout the plant
"Lots of rose growers use a systemic insecticide on their plants to control aphids."
- tap root
- a central root that extends downward in the soil under the trunk of a tree
"When I saw the big trees that fell after the storm, I realized that trees growing in clay soil don't have a tap root."
- test
- fjkfdl.jkh klhjlfdkhjdkjh
jhjkl hfd kljhd fdklj fdujo;idu ofd;h fdo;iuh o;rsh dl;hjk
- thatch
- a layer of undecomposed grass stem pieces on which turfgrass may attempt to grow
"Landscapers say that unless the thatch layer is more than one-half inch thick, a lawn won't be harmed."
- till
- to thoroughly mix soil; often done with a shovel or a motorized tiller
"Bill tilled until the toil got to him."
- topdress
- spreading a thin layer on top of the ground
"Golf courses use sand to topdress their tees but topsoil is a better choice to fill low spots in most homeowner lawns."
- warm-season grass
- a grass that grows best in the summer but turns brown in the winter (ex. Bermuda, zoysia, centipede)
"If you keep the weeds out of it, a tan Bermuda lawn looks really attractive in the winter."
- weed and feed
- a product that combines fertilizer and a weed control chemical in the same bag
"This weed and feed label says to avoid application to newly seeded fescue grass until it's been mowed four times."
- Well-drained soil
- Soil through which water passes rapidly
"I thought the soil on my red clay slope was well-drained because water never stands there. Turns out it is poorly- drained .... because the water can't penetrate the clay. No wonder everything I plant there dies!"
- zone
- an area of the country that has similar low temperature readings each winter
"I know palms are hardy down in Florida's Zone 9 but I'm trying to find some that are hardy in Atlanta's Zones 7 and 8."
No glossary terms found.
