Garden Glossary

Here's a list of terms that I or other gardeners might use, just so you don't get left behind in a blog post.

Rhizome: A fat mass of underground roots. A ginger root is an example of a rhizome.

Mattock: My personal favorite hand tool, which is like a pickaxe and a hoe mixed together. You can use it to dig through tough ground, hoe through dirt, or get under roots and pry loose plants.

Backfill: Scooping in some dirt into the hole you just dug, say when planting a transplant.

Topdressing or sidedressing: Applying fertilizers over the top of the soil, often right next to or surrounding a plant, without tilling it into the soil. This is done mostly to avoid disturbing the soil or plant roots.

Aerobic bacteria: Types of bacteria that need air to survive. These are the kinds of bacteria you want in your compost pile.

Perfect flower: A flower that contains everything it needs to self-pollinate within itself. An imperfect flower does not, and must therefore cross-pollinate with another plant of the same type.

Taproot: A big, fat, downward-pointing root that reaches deep for water and roots a plant firmly into the ground (a carrot is an example of a taproot). This is as opposed to a plant that grows using rhizomes or a fibrous root system.

Hardy: Means that a plant will be able to survive the winter in your area. A plant that is hardy in Oklahoma might not be hardy in Nebraska or Wisconsin, though.

Loam: Loam is a type of soil that contains a balanced mix of clay, sand and silt. A loose, moist loam that is dark in color is the best soil for the greatest number of plants.

Silt: Silt particles are larger than clay, but smaller than sand. When silty soil is wet, it feels muddy rather than slick, as clayey soil will.

Broadcasting: Sowing seeds by scattering them by the handful.

Seed-starting mixture: A particularly light and nutrient-rich potting soil, usually storebought, that is used in small trays to grow plants from seed.

Propagation: Any method used to create new plants from one single plant. Could mean growing from cuttings, dividing a mature plant, or other techniques.

Coldframe: A frame covered with a heat-insulating material like cloth or plastic that is designed to trap heat near the ground where plants are growing. Can be contructed from materials like PVC pipe, wooden rods, etc.

Bone meal: An organic fertilizer rich in phosphates and nitrogen that is made from ground-up animal bones. Like blood meal this is often a byproduct of the slaughterhouse industry.

Date of last frost: The date, reported by a knowledgeable agricultural entity, beyond which you can be reasonably sure you won't get any more cold snaps. It's safe once this date passes to plant your cold-sensitive plants.

Slow-release fertilizer: Any fertilizer that breaks down over time. This can be a natural or artificial process. Bone meal is slow release because it breaks down slowly all on its own. Coated fertilizers are slow release because they have a manmade coating.

Deadheading: Snipping or pinching off the spent (dead) blossoms of flowing plants. This is done to encourage the plant to grow more flowers.

Ornamental: Plants included in a garden simply to look good, with no other purpose.

Perennial: A plant that returns from season to season.

Annual: A plant that dies at the end of the season.

Biennial: A plant that takes two seasons to complete its life cycle.

Thinning out: Pinching away or removing young seedlings from a bed full of just-germinated seeds. This ensures that the plants don't crowd each other out. The remaining seedlings will grow into stronger plants.

Rootbound: When a containerized plant's roots take up all possible space in the container and come to resemble a bird's nest. Combat this by gently loosening the roots with your fingers before planting.

Leggy: A plant that is overdeveloped in height and stem growth. This usually happens because the plant is "reaching" for sunlight.

Foliar diseases: Diseases caused by too much contact between plant leaves and wet dirt. Mulch to prevent this, and try to water more gently.

Cultivar: Different types of plants within the same species. Examples: Lemon basil, globe basil, Thai basil and large-leaf basil are all still basil.

Bolting: A stage of rapid growth in a plant's life cycle where flowers are created and seeds are dropped. Bolting often causes vegetables and herbs to lose flavor, and the process is usually kick-started by high temperatures. Basil and cilantro are two plants that bolt. This is also called "Going to seed."

Organic: (1) Something that is plant-derived, or (2) An approach to gardening that minimizes the use of artificial additives in favor of materials taken from plants, minerals or animals.

Greenhouse, hothouse, glass house: All terms for an enclosed outdoor building designed to provide a warm, sunny and moist atmosphere for plants to grow in year-round. Often, these buildings will have their own temperature controls and systems for delivering water to plants and air.

Overwintering: Refers to taking a plant, often containerized, indoors for the winter. For some species of plant, such as banana trees and bay laurels, this is the only way for them to survive an Oklahoma winter. At least, most Oklahoma winters....

Dividing: Digging up and cutting in half (usually) a mature plant. This is one method of plant propagation. You get two healthy plants instead of one old, overgrown plant.

Cover crop: Anything planted over a dormant garden during the off-season to keep down weeds and (sometimes) fix nitrogen into the soil. Buckwheat and rye are two examples.

Trellis: A bit of lattice, wooden, metal or otherwise, that climbing plants can crawl up. Training a plant to a trellis can involve weaving it through the rungs of the lattice, as you would with clematis vine or English ivy.

Forcing: "Making" a plant bloom or sprout by keeping it within the right temperature conditions to do so, usually by keeping it indoors or in a greenhouse.

Perlite: Small particles of porous volcanic glass that hang onto water well. Like vermiculite, gardeners mix this in with soil to use water more efficiently — especially in container gardening.

Ground cover: A short, spreading plant grown in a garden to cover over any bare dirt, either for aesthetic or weed-prevention purposes (or both)

Direct sowing: Planting seeds directly into the ground as opposed to starting them in containers.

Peat moss: Compressed layers of dead sphagnum moss cut out of peat bogs and sold to gardeners as soil amendments. The additive builds better soil texture and holds onto water readily.

Foliar feeding: Applying a liquid fertilizer to the leaves of plants so that the plants can suck it in through the leaves. This is done to give weak or shocked plants a boost.

Blood meal: An organic source of nitrogen for gardens, blood meal is a derivative of the meat-producing industry. You can also use it to deter any small mammals that are frightened by the smell of blood. Cats love it, though...

Volunteer: A plant that was seeded by a "parent" plant last season. Many herbs, including basil and cilantro, do this. Volunteers can come from plants you never planted at all, by means of compost, manure, or animals like birds that planted them for you.

Trowel: A small hand shovel.

Escapee: A plant that skipped the garden and started to grow wild, perhaps in your yard. "The cilantro escaped."

Greensand: Sedimentary rock dust from marine environments used as an organic gardening amendment. A natural source of potassium and many trace minerals for your garden.

Deer chaser: A Japanese fountain that fills a piece of bamboo with water repeatedly, which makes a hollow "clack" as it drops. The sound from this water feature is meant to scare away deer and other troublesome mammals.

Staking or caging: Providing a means of artificial support to climbing or viney plants, like climbing roses, cucumbers. Can also be used to support plants that tend to sprawl on the ground otherwise, like tomatoes.

Chlorophyll: A plant's green pigment.

Vermiculite: A light, fluffy material derived from a mineral called mica. The porous, spongy nature of this material is used by gardeners to hold water in the soil for longer. These are the little white pellets you see in some storebought potting soils.

Soil amendment: Any organic materials you till into the soil to improve its texture and nutrient content.

Humus: The finished product of compost — a rich, black matter packed with nutrients that improves soil texture.

Transplant: A partially-matured plant, usually storebought, that you can remove from its container and plant into your soil. This is opposed to growing from seed, cuttings, or other types of propagation.