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Gardening with Confidence - gardening advice Category: Agriculture and Industry > Gardening terms Date & country: 23/06/2018, USA Words: 472

Perlite
Perlite is a very light weight, heat-treated volcanic rock that is used to improve drainage and to increase the pore space, for oxygen availability to the roots, in potting soil.

Permaculture
Permaculture is sustainable land use design.

Pergola
A pergola is a garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice. As a type of gazebo, it may also be an extension of a building, or serve as protection for an open terrace, or a link between pavilions.

Peat
Partially decomposed vegetation (usually moss) with slow decay due to extreme moisture and cold.

Peduncle
The stalk of a flower.

Perennial
A perennial are plants lasting at least three life-cycles, such as rosemary, lavender, and many other long lived plants.

Photometrics
The study of light, especially color.

Photoperiod
The relationship between the length of light and dark in a 24 hour period.

Photosynthesis
The building of chemical compounds (carbohydrates) from light energy, water and carbon dioxide.

Phototropism
The specific movement of a plant part towards a light source.

Phylloclades
Leaf-like stems.

Phytoplasma
Aster yellows is a chronic, systemic plant disease caused by a bacterium-like organism called a phytoplasma. The aster yellows phytoplasma (AYP) affects 300 species in 38 families of broad-leaf herbaceous plants, primarily in the aster family, as well as important cereal crops such as wheat and barley.

Phloem
The vascular tissue in plants that conducts sugars and other metabolic products downward from the leaves.

Phosphor Coating
Internal bulb coating that diffuses light and is responsible for variations in color outputs.

pH
A scale from 1 to 14 that measures the acid to alkaline balance of a growing medium (or anything); in general plants grow best in a range of 5.5 to 6.8 pH.

pH Scale
pH scale.

pH Tester
Electronic instrument or chemical used to find where soil or water is on the pH scale.

Piquancy
Is a term applied to foods with a lower degree of pungency that are agreeably stimulating to the palate.

Pistil
The ovule producing part of a flower. The ovary often supports a long style, topped by a stigma. The mature ovary is a fruit, and the mature ovule is a seed.

Pinnately compound evergreen foliage
Includes individual leaflets on a stem. If such a leaf is evenly pinnate, it has an even number of leaves, one on each side of the stem. Oddly pinnate means having the same arrangement as evenly, but with the addition of an extra leaf at the very top of the stem. A leaf whose blade is divided into two or more distinct leaflets.

Pinching Back
Pinching back plants is a form of pruning that encourages branching on the plant. This means that when you pinch a plant, you are removing the main stem, forcing the plant to grow two new stems from the leaf nodes below the pinch or cut.

Picotee
A type of carnation whose light-colored flowers have dark-edged petals.

Pigment
The substance in paint or anything that absorbs light, producing (reflecting) the same color.

Pluviophila
A love of rain; a feeling of joy, hope, and relief on stormy days.

Pluviophile
Some one who loves the rain, who finds joy and peace of mind in rainy days.

Plants with BenefitsPlants with Benefits
Plants With Benefits

Potting Soil
A mixture of loam, peat, sand, and nutrients, used as a growing medium for plants in containers.

Porosity
Soil porosity refers to that part of a soil volume that is not occupied by soil particles or organic matter. Pore spaces are filled with either air, other gases, or water. Large pores (macropores) allow the ready movement of air and the drainage of water.

Pollination
Pollination is the spreading of pollen between plants for reproductive purposes and the development of fruit.

Pome
In botany, a pome is a type of fruit produced by flowering plants in the subtribe Malinae of the family Rosaceae. A fruit consisting of a fleshy enlarged receptacle and a tough central core containing the seeds, e.g., pyracantha, pear.

Pollarding
Pollarding is to cut off the top and branches of(a tree to encourage new growth at the top.

Pollen
Fine, dust like micro- spores containing male genes.

Pod
A pod is the dried fruit or seed vessel on a plant that encases the seed.

Prune
Alter the shape and growth pattern of a plant by cutting stems and shoots. A restaurant in NYC.

Propagate
(1) Sexual

Propagation
plant reproduction, done in three ways

Prostrate
A prostrate shrub is a woody plant, most of the branches of which lie upon or just above the ground, rather than being held erect as are the branches of most trees and shrubs. Way too often confused with prostate.

Primary Nutrients
N-P-K (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium)

Progeny
A descendant or the descendants of a person, animal, or plant; offspring.

Pre-Emergent Herbicide
Prevents the germination of seeds by inhibiting a key enzyme. In some areas of the world, they are used to prevent crabgrass from appearing in summer lawns. Pre-emergent herbicides are applied to lawns in the spring and fall to prevent the germination of weed seed.

Predator
An animal that naturally preys on others. I worry that predators will get to my chickens.

Psithurism
The sound of wind through trees.

Pubescent
On certain plants a covering with a layer of fine short hairs or down.

Pungency
Pungency is the technical term used by scientists to refer to the characteristic of food commonly referred to as spiciness or hotness and sometimes heat.

Pyrethrum
Natural insecticide made from the blossoms of various chrysanthemums.

Rain Barrel
A rain barrel is a system that collects and stores rainwater from your roof that would otherwise be lost to runoff and diverted to storm drains and streams.

Rain Gardening front coverRain Garden
Rain Garden.

Rejuvenate
Restore youth; a mature plant, having completed its life cycle (flowering), may be stimulated by a new 18 hour photo period, to rejuvenate or produce new vegetative growth.

Resistant
Refers to how well a plant resists to pests.

Receptacle
The part of a flower stalk where the parts of the flower are attached.

Rhizomes
A continuously growing horizontal underground stem that puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.

Root Stock
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It can refer to a rhizome or underground stem.

Row Cover
In horticulture, row cover (or cloche) is any material used as a protective covering to shield plants, usually vegetables, primarily from the undesirable effects of cold and wind, and also from insect damage.

Root Rot
Root rot is a condition found in both indoor and outdoor plants, although more common in indoor plants with poor drainage. As the name states, the roots of the plant rot. Usually, this is a result of overwatering.

Root Bound
Roots stifled or inhibited from normal growth, by the confines of a container.

Root Flare
The outwardly curving base of a tree where it joins the roots, often distinguishable as individual root buttresses.

Root
Their purpose is to anchor a plant and provide a means in which to feed and hydrate a plant.

Runner
A long thin stem that usually grows horizontally along the ground and produces roots and shoots at widely spaced nodes, as in a strawberry plant. Also called stolon.

Runoff
The draining away of water from the surface of an area of land, a building. or structure.

Salt
Crystalline compound that results from improper pH or toxic buildup of fertilizer. Salt will burn plants, preventing them from absorbing nutrients.

Sales
Up right stakes in the wattle craft.

Screen
Landscaping that is primarily used to screen an area for privacy, to block an objectionable view, or to serve as a natural boundary or border is considered a screen planting. Selections might include dense, fast-growing, evergreen shrubs; trees; vines; large succulents and tall ornamental grasses

Scarification
In horticulture, stratification is the process of pretreating seeds to simulate natural winter conditions that a seed must endure before germination. Many seed species undergo an embryonic dormancy phase, and generally will not sprout until this dormancy is broken.

Scoring, scratching, or teasing roots
The loosening of roots when taken from a nursery pot so they won’t continue growing in a circle is referred to as teasing the roots.

Scratch-in
Scratch-in means raking granular fertilizer into the soil either with fingers or a small rake or hand cultivator.

Sepal
The outer parts of the flower (often green and leaf-like) that enclose a developing bud.

Secondary Nutrients
Calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg).

Seed
A flowering plant’s unit of reproduction, capable of developing into another such plant.

Seed Pod
A dry calyx containing a mature or maturing seed.

Selenophile
A person who loves the moon.

Self-Pollinating
The pollination of a flower by pollen from the same flower or from another flower on the same plant.

Shade Cloth
Shade cloth is a commercially available material for hanging over your greenhouse glazing to cool it in summer months. They are usually made of loosely woven polyester or even aluminum and can be found in varying densities or degrees of shade from appx. 5% to 95%

Side-Dress
To fertilize (growing plants) by mixing fertilizer into the soil along each row. Side-dressing and top dressing refer to two ways of fertilizing-along the side or on top of the roots. Topdressing usually involves composted material or mulch.

Slow movement
The Slow Movement advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace. The slow movement began in 1986 with Carlo Petrini’s protest against the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in Plazza di Spagna, Rome. Thus the slow food organization was born. Over time, this developed into a subculture in other areas, such as slow garden, slow design, slow food, slow flowers, slow travel, and so on.

Slow Release Fertilizer
The property of a fertilizer that allows it to release it nutrients to plants over time.

Soil Test
Soil test.

Soluble
Able to be dissolved in water.

Soluble Salts
Definition of Insoluble salts (precipitates.) Many ionic metal compounds are insoluble in water. Calcium carbonate, copper chloride, and lead sulfide are examples of such salts.

Soil minerals
Soil minerals, also called nutrients, are necessary for plants. The minerals needed in large amounts (macronutrients) include

Soil mix and potting soil
Both are possibilities for filling pots, but they have essential differences. A soil mix is garden soil mixed with sand, compost, or other amendments. Potting soil, a mixture of organic and inorganic ingredients, doesn’t contain any actual soil in the mixture. It is light, well drained, and sterile.

Specimen
A plant that has interest enough to stand on its own and not be apart of a mass planting.

Spike
An elongated main stem that supports many separate flowers on shorter stems, usually symmetrically arranged, as with Penstemon.

Spore
Seed like offspring of a fungus.

Spring
Spring

Spring Fever
Oh, you’ll know it, when you have it!

Sprout
(1) A recently germinated seed (2) Small new growth of a leaf or stem.

Square Feet
(SqFt) Length (in feet) times width equals square feet.

Stool Layering
A method of propagation in which various woody-stemmed plants (as currants, gooseberries, quinces) are cut back to the ground in early spring and the new shoots that they develop are covered with soil to a depth of six to eight inches to induce root growth which forms individual plants that can be removed in the fall. Also called mound layering.

Sterilize
Make sterile (super clean) by removing dirt, germs and bacteria.

Stolon
A stolon is a horizontal stem growing above ground that forms roots at its tip.

Stomata
Small mouth like or nose like openings (pores) on leaf underside, responsible for transpiration and many other life functions; the millions of stomata, must be kept very clean to function properly.

Stamen
Male, pollen-producing.

Standard
A tree or shrub growing on an erect stem of full height.

Starch
Complex carbohydrate; starch is manufactured and stored in food.

Stratification
(the seed) Aa brief cold-treatment (few days) of water soaked seeds to break seed dormancy, results in an even germination. It is unlikely that pre-chilling dry seeds will break dormancy.

Stress
A physical or chemical factor that causes extra exertion by plants; a stressed plant will not grow as well as a non stressed plant.

Sustainable
Means to perpetuate existence as well as to provide sustenance and nourishment.

Sustainable
Sustainable gardening,

Succulents
Succulents are plants with fleshy, thick tissue adapted to storing water. Common succulents include agaves, ice plants, and stonecrops.

Suckers
A sucker is a shoot or cane which grows from a bud at the base of a tree or shrub or from adventitious buds in its roots.