Glossary
annual - a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies.
(Wikipedia entry for Annual plant. Accessed 9.4.24)
arisings - the debris such as twigs and branches that are left after you have pruned a shrub or tree.
(‘A Simple Guide to Tree Surgery Terms’. climberswaytreecare.co.uk. Accessed 16.5.24)
bed - an area of soil at ground level that you can plant in, found in the middle of a garden.
(‘How to make new garden beds and borders’ thrive.org.uk. Accessed 30.4.24)
biennial - a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological life cycle. In the first year, it develops its leaves, usually in a low-to-the-ground rosette, grows just a short stem and establishes its roots. The following spring or summer the plant will bolt upwards and produce flowers/ fruits and seeds before it dies. Foxgloves are my favourite biennials.
(Wikipedia entry for Biennial plant. Accessed 10.4.24)
biodiversity - having a wide range of living things in your garden.
(‘How To Encourage Biodiversity In Your Garden’ by Charlotte Varela. woodlandtrust.org.uk. Accessed 10.4.24, ‘Top tips for a biodiverse garden’ by Katie Avis-Riordan and Steven Robinson. kew.org. Accessed 10.4.24)
border - an area of soil at ground level that you can plant in, that runs around the edge of a garden and separates the lawn from the boundary hedge or fence.
(‘How to make new garden beds and borders’ thrive.org.uk. Accessed 30.4.24. ‘How to plan a border’ rhs.org.uk. Accessed 30.4.24)
CBHG - Castle Bromwich Historic Gardens is made up of 18th Century Formal Gardens and Local Nature Reserve Parkland (Grade2*). It is located in Birmingham, England and is where I volunteer as a gardener and by creating content for their pages on the Bloomberg Connects app.
10 acres of a unique survival of 350 year old early 18th century formal garden design. The walled garden, once part of the Earl of Bradford’s estate, rescued, nurtured and owned by an independent Charitable Trust. A further 30 acres of the former estate’s historic Parkland, now a Local Nature Reserve, encircles the formal garden. Keeping largely to a period-relevant style with plant species and heritage fruit from 1680-1760 it’s like visiting the Baroque countryside in the middle of a 21st century city.
composting - where kitchen and garden waste is heaped together to rot and decompose down over time to produce crumbly organic matter that can be used as a mulch, soil conditioner or as part of potting compost.
(‘Dead wood and compost heap habitats’ rhs.org.uk. Accessed 21.5.24)
corymb - ‘a flat-topped cluster of flowers’.
(Reader’s Digest Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants and Flowers, The Reader’s Digest Association London, 1971, p. 791)
cottage garden - ‘The cottage garden is a distinct style that uses informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, it depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure.’
(Wikipedia entry for cottage garden. Accessed 30.5.24)
couch grass - a fast-growing perennial course grass and wild plant that can reach up to 1m tall. Its stems are flattened green leaves that can be partially covered with a pale sheath at the base. Smooth, unbranched flower spikes that lie flat to the stem, appear in late summer. Its tiny flowers are yellowish-green and golden seeds follow in early autumn.
(‘Couch grass’ and ‘Course grasses in lawns’. rhs.org.uk. Accessed 22.5.24)
cultivation - breaking up, lifting or turning the soil by digging/ forking/ rotavating.
(‘No Dig Gardening’ rhs.org.uk. Accessed 9.4.24)
deadhead - to remove the dead (flower) heads from plants. (Also a fan of the American rock band the Grateful Dead.)
(‘Deadheading plants’. rhs.org.uk. Accessed 14.5.24. Wikipedia entry for Deadhead. Accessed 14.5.24)
deciduous - plants that lose their leaves in autumn.
elliptic - in the shape of an ellipse - basically a long oval!
evergreen - plants that keep their foliage all year round and don’t ‘die back’ in the winter.
Gardeners’ World - a TV gardening programme that airs on BBC 2 on a Friday evening. It’s been broadcast since 1968 and features ideas and ‘Jobs for the weekend’ to help you get the most out of your garden.
glaucous - a dull greyish-green or blue colour sometimes found on the underside of leaves or the powdery finish you get on red grapes
(Google English dictionary entry for glaucous. Accessed 15.5.24)
GQT - Gardeners’ Question Time is a long-running (since 1947) BBC Radio 4 programme where a panel of horticultural experts answer questions from a live audience. It’s a great source of gardening wisdom and advice that is broadcast every Friday at 3pm in the UK with podcasts of each episode accessible around the world.
heel - bark at the base of the stem of plants like lavender, sage and rosemary that contain high levels of growth hormones.
(‘Propagation techniques’ rhs.org.uk. Accessed 29.8.24)
herbaceous - plants that have no woody stems above ground and whose soft and succulent stems and leaves die back in winter.
(Wikipedia entry for Herbaceous plant. Accessed 10.4.24)
lanceolate - shaped like a lance!
(Google English dictionary entry for lanceolate. Accessed 15.5.24)
mulch - a layer of usually organic material applied to the soil to keep in moisture, improve the soil, reduce growth of unwanted plants and enhance the aesthetic of your garden. Biodegradable mulches include leaf mould, compost and wood chippings.
(Wikipedia entry for Mulch. Accessed 10.4.24. ‘Mulches and mulching’. rhs.org.uk. Accessed 10.4.24)
node - ‘Nodes are the points on a stem where the buds, leaves, and branching twigs originate.’
( ‘All About Nodes’. thespruce.com. Accessed 18.4.24)
No Dig - where you avoid digging/forking/rotavation in order to avoid damaging soil structures, destroying natural drainage channels, disturbing fungal networks and releasing carbon. Instead, you improve soil structure by mulching with a well-rotted, at least 10cm, layer of organic matter. You can sow seeds into the mulch layer and dig small holes through it to the soil below to plant - as long as you avoid digging over the whole area.
(‘No Dig Gardening’ rhs.org.uk. Accessed 9.4.24)
ovate - (leaves) shaped like an egg
(Cambridge Dictionary entry for ovate. Accessed 15.5.24)
panicle - ‘a large branched flower cluster each with numerous individually stalked flowers’.
(Reader’s Digest Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants and Flowers, The Reader’s Digest Association London, 1971, p. 796)
perennial - a plant that lives for more than two years. They die back in the winter and return every spring/summer.
(Wikipedia entry for Perennial plant. Accessed 10.4.24)
perlite - ‘Perlite is a lightweight granular material that's white in colour. It looks and feels like little bits of polystyrene but is actually made from expanded volcanic glass, heated to 1000°C until it ‘pops’ (like popcorn) to many times its original size. It's lightweight, sterile, and easy to handle, and is long-lasting. It's neither alkaline nor acidic. Perlite's expanded nature makes it extremely porous, so it can absorb water, but it also improves drainage, so is ideal to mix into compost to ensure water drains freely.’
(‘Perlite: main uses’ gardenersworld.com. Accessed 19.9.24)
plug - a very small young plant in a small amount of soil
(Cambridge Dictionary entry for plug plant. Accessed 25.4.24)
propagate - the process by which new plants are produced. It can be a natural process or facilitated by humans enabling us to make new plants for free. The easiest ways to propagate plants are by collecting seed, taking cuttings and dividing large plants into several smaller ones.
(Wikipedia entry for Plant propagation. Accessed 10.4.24. ‘Six methods of plant propagation’. gardenersworld.com. Accessed 10.4.24)
pruning - the targeted removal of certain parts of a plant 'to ‘restrict the size, remove dead or unsightly growth, increase vigour, improve the shape or keep the plant in a healthy state to produce flowers and/or berries.’
(‘Pruning plants’ rhs.org.uk. Accessed 14.05.24)
racemes - a flower cluster with the separate flowers attached by short equal stalks.
(Google English dictionary entry for racemes. Accessed 16.5.24)
sharp sand - is a gritty, angular grained sand that can be used to protect plants from slugs and snails. It can also be used in potting mixes to loosen clay soil.
(Wikipedia entry for Sharp sand. Accessed 23.5.24)
shrub - a bush which is a perennial with woody stems above the ground. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple stems and shorter height. (Wikipedia entry for Shrub. Accessed 10.4.24)
species roses - wild roses from around the world that are the ancestors of modern roses. Usually have single roses with five petals only. They are often resistant to pests and diseases and are hardy and deciduous. ‘Several species are outstanding for their freely borne, red hips.’
(Reader’s Digest Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants and Flowers, The Reader’s Digest Association London, 1971, p. 600)
tuber - a a thick storage stem or a tuberous root on some plants, that grows below the soil.
(Britannica entry for Tuber. Accessed 29.7.24)
umbellifers - plants with umbrella shaped umbel flower heads made up of many tiny flowers held on short flower stalks.
(‘Plants with umbellifer flowers’ gardernersworld.com. Accessed 20.6.24)
variegated - where the leaves of a plant are streaked, edged, patterned, splashed or speckled in a second colour, often white, yellow or pink. Some people love variegation but some think it looks as if the leaves of the plant are diseased! (Gardeners’ Question Time, 26.4.24, 4.46)
wild plants - these are plants other people might call weeds and might want to remove from their gardens. I call these plants wild plants rather than weeds because I want to work with them in my garden because they are free, beautiful and they’re good for biodiversity!