Gardening Terms

Blanching The process of covering the stems of plants to make them sweet.

Bolting The is term used to describe the habit of some vegetables which produce leaves or roots for eating producing flower heads instead very early in the season. This is usually caused by hot dry weather, and the edible parts of the crop become unusable. Particularly subject to this are spinach, lettuce, and beetroot.

Brassicas A particular family of vegetables. This includes cabbage, cauliflower, kale, radish, broccoli, calabrese, Brussels sprouts.

Catch crops These are fast maturing crops which can be sown between crops which will take up a lot of space later in their development – radishes or lettuces between newly planted rows or sprouts or potatoes, for instance.

Cloches Derived from the French word for bell; the French originally put bell shaped domes of glass over crops to bring them along early. Modern cloches are generally tunnel shaped, and polythene or one of its variants are more usually used than glass.

Compost There can be confusion here. Garden compost is made from kitchen and garden refuse, allowed to rot down and dug into the soil to break it up and provide additional nutrition. Branded packs of seed, cutting and potting proprietary mixes are usually also called compost, but tend to be based mainly on peat.

Double digging Hard work, but necessary where ground is being brought under cultivation for the first time. Soil is taken out of a trench the length of the vegetable patch to a depth of two spades; this is carried to the far end of the plot. Then a second trench is dug, its soil going into the first trench, and so on until soil from the first trench fills the last trench of all on the plot.

Drills The very shallow trenches in which seeds are sown. When the soil has been raked to give a fine surface with no clods in, the back of a rake is usually used in conjunction with a garden line to make an even shallow indentation for the seeds to go in. It is covered afte4rwards by raking.

Earthing up This is a name given to the habit of drawing soil up around a growing plant to increase the crop, as for potatoes, or to blanch the stems, as with leeks and celery.

Forcing This is a production of crops out of their normal season and habits. It is usually done in darkness.

Germination The start into growth of seeds, when they receive the appropriate amounts of warmth and moisture.

Hardening off Indoor raised plants should not be transferred direct from greenhouse to open ground, as they will receive a severe setback to growth this way, and may not be sufficiently hardy to survive. Hardening off is usually done in a cold frame, and the young plants are exposed to a little more of the normal outdoor temperature each day, until in the end they are only covered on the coldest night. After this process, they are strong enough to go in the open ground, although they are occasionally planted under cloches first.

Humus This is a name given to broken down organic materials, which contain living organisms which provide nutrition from within the soil.

Legumes This name is given to the pea and bean families.

Lifting The harvesting of root vegetables. Always be careful to press the fork into the soil at a considerable distance from the plant, so that there will be no danger of sticking the tines through the edible part of the vegetable.

Lights The name traditionally given to the removable top part of a cold frame.

Mulching The provision of moisture holding material around plants. It serves two purposes; one is to keep down weeds as the material is generally impenetrable, and the other is to maintain moisture supplies in the soil. Always water the ground before applying a mulch.

pH This is a measure of hydrogen ion concentration in the soil, which is responsible for the soil’s degree of acidity or alkalinity.

Potting on This is an intermediate stage in the life of a plant. A tomato, for instance, is first put in a 8 cm/3in pot. After it has been in this a few weeks, tap it out and see whether the roots are covering the outside of the soil ball. If they are, it is time to pot on. Fill the next size pot with enough soil so that when the plant with its complete rootball and cling8ing soil stands in the new pot, its soil level is about 1 cm/1/2 in below the rim. Then gently add soil around the edges, firm it, and water.

Rotation The principle of only growing the same family of vegetables in the same patch of ground every three or four years. This reduces the risk of soil borne diseases particular to one family establishing themselves, and gives the soil a chance to recover from the particular nutrient deficiency a particular crop will have caused.

Seed bed This is an area set aside for raising young plants of vegetables which need to be transplanted later. These include cabbages, cauliflowers, sprouts, broccoli, kale and leeks. The seed bed should be very finely raked and cultivated, and should if possible be sited near a frame or greenhouse.

Succession The practice of sowing small quantities of a crop at regular intervals so that there is always something fresh to eat from the garden, rather than sow everything at once which will mean freezing or giving away produce at harvest time.

Tilth The finely broken down surface of an area where seeds are to be sown.

Transplanting This is careful digging up, with soil attached, of the young plants mentioned under Seed beds, and their planting in their final positions where they will remain until harvest. Transplanting should ideally be done in showery weather so that there will be less risk of the young plants wilting.

Дата добавления: 2015-05-23