Odd Phrases That Confuse & Amuse New Gardeners — Empress of Grime

Backyard-speak can sound like a secret language, particularly while you’re simply getting began. This information unpacks the oddest phrases—like bolting, deadheading, and hardening off—with pleasant, beginner-focused explanations.

The Empress of Grime Gardener’s Dictionary can be a superb useful resource for studying backyard jargon.

Garden image with examples of garden jargon words like bolting and deadheading.

Backyard Jargon 101

It’s straightforward to overlook how unusual gardening lingo sounds while you’re simply beginning out. Phrases like bolting or heeling in could make gardening really feel much less just like the deeply rewarding, life-enhancing exercise it’s and extra such as you’ve stumbled right into a secret membership that forgot at hand out a glossary of phrases.

Whereas some may name it a pastime, for many people, gardening is way more than that: it’s a connection to the earth, a path to sustainability, a approach to discover calm, objective, and pleasure. Sensible, productive remedy, if you’ll.

And as soon as it wins you over, you’re in it for all times.

These of us who’ve been gardening for some time could not even discover once we slip into full garden-speak, however it will possibly unintentionally go away new gardeners feeling confused or hesitant to ask questions.

I actually discover this every spring when the native plant nurseries are full of enthusiastic inexperienced persons asking plenty of questions. A number of curt, jargony solutions and so they’re left feeling discouraged and overwhelmed.

Phrases like annuals, perennials, chitting, damping off, or pinching again is perhaps second nature to us, however they’ll fly proper previous newbies. And don’t get me began on all of the misinformation shared about issues like fertilizer and pest management.

If we need to develop a extra inclusive gardening neighborhood—and we do!—we have to maintain issues clear (can I additionally want for correct?), welcoming, and pleasant. And large bonus for everybody who has a humorousness alongside the best way. We wish new gardeners to really feel assured and curious, not misplaced. In spite of everything, each time a brand new individual discovers the contentment discovered within the backyard, the higher the world is, don’t you suppose?

Right here’s a information to a few of these odd-sounding phrases, what they imply, and the way they match into on a regular basis gardening. I’ve accomplished my greatest to supply sensible definitions.

See what number of you already know.

Annual vs. Perennial — Annuals reside for one rising season; perennials come again yr after yr.
Bolting — When vegetation (like lettuce) shortly flower and go to seed, normally due to warmth.
Chitting — Letting potatoes sprout in preparation for planting. Potatoes planted to develop extra potatoes are known as “seed potatoes.”
Companion planting — Rising sure vegetation close to one another for supposed advantages like pest management or higher progress.
Crown — The a part of a plant the place the roots and stems meet, simply above or under the soil. Some vegetation like peonies just like the crown at a particular soil depth.
Cuttings — Items of vegetation (like a stem or leaf) that may develop roots and turn into a brand new plant.
Damping off — A fungal drawback that causes younger seedlings to wilt and die all of the sudden.
Days to maturity — How lengthy it takes from planting a seed to harvesting a full-grown plant. The times could also be estimated in another way relying on whether or not the seed is usually began immediately open air or began indoors and later transplanted open air.
Deadheading — Eradicating previous or light flowers to encourage extra blooms. The time period is often confused with pruning.
Flat — A shallow tray used for beginning seeds or rising younger vegetation. There’s a humorous expression within the gardening world referring to somebody who isn’t fairly with it: He’s a number of vegetation in need of a flat.
Inexperienced manure — Crops grown to be tilled into the soil to enhance its well being, not precise manure! You may additionally hear them known as cowl crops, inexperienced crops, fodder crops, or inexperienced mulch.
Hardening off — Slowly getting indoor-grown vegetation used to outside circumstances earlier than planting them exterior.
Heeling in — Quickly planting or burying container vegetation partially within the floor to guard their roots till you may plant them correctly. This method is usually used to overwinter potted vegetation, offering further insulation for the roots.
Loamy soil — Soil that’s simply the correct mix of sand, silt, clay, and natural matter for wholesome vegetation. To many people, loam is gardening’s model of a mythological creature.
No-dig gardening — Rising vegetation with minimal disruption to the soil by digging or tilling.
Natural — This phrase has many definitions and it may be used to mislead gardeners. This explains how.
Overwintering — Preserving not solely hardy vegetation alive by winter, both indoors or open air, utilizing numerous strategies together with climate safety or insulation.
Pinching again — Snipping off the ideas of flower stems to encourage bushier, fuller progress.
Succession planting — Planting new crops as quickly as one is harvested to maintain the backyard producing. This shares a superb succession planting plan for rising greens in containers.
Suckers — Further shoots that pop up from the bottom or stems of bushes and shrubs or between the leaf stem and foremost stem in vegetation like tomatoes. I lower off tomato suckers and root them into new vegetation.
Thinning — Eradicating some younger vegetation or seedlings so the remaining ones have room to develop. Additionally, you will hear this known as pricking out.
Transplant shock — The stress vegetation undergo after being moved to a brand new spot, typically inflicting wilting or gradual progress.
Volunteer vegetation — Crops that develop on their very own, normally from seeds dropped by final yr’s crops.
Nicely-draining — Soil that neither turns into too dry or soggy after rain or watering.

So what number of did you already know? Or did you be taught a number of?

There’s much more than I’ve listed right here—and a few are simply widespread in sure areas—however it’s enjoyable to see how a lot we’ve discovered alongside the best way.

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