Dictionary
Plain definitions for the gardening terms used across the encyclopedia and planner. Any of these words are hoverable wherever they appear in the site's text.
A
- Aphids
- Small, soft-bodied insects that cluster on new growth and undersides of leaves, sucking sap and excreting sticky honeydew.
B
- Bean beetles
- Coppery, ladybird-like beetles whose larvae skeletonize the undersides of bean leaves.
- Blanching
- Shielding part of a growing plant from sunlight, usually by hilling soil or tying leaves over it, so that part stays pale, mild, and tender - used for leeks, cauliflower, and celery.
- Bolting
- When a plant switches from leafy growth to flowering and seed production, usually triggered by heat or day length. Leafy herbs like cilantro and vegetables like lettuce lose flavor and turn bitter once they bolt.
C
- Cabbage worms
- Pale green caterpillars that chew ragged holes in leaves, favoring brassicas like kale and cabbage.
- Colorado potato beetle
- A striped beetle whose larvae strip potato foliage; can defoliate plants quickly if not controlled early.
- Companion planting
- Growing certain plants near each other because one benefits the other - by deterring pests, improving flavor, or making better use of space.
- Cucumber beetles
- Small yellow-and-black striped or spotted beetles that chew leaves, flowers, and fruit rind of vine crops, and can spread bacterial wilt.
- Curing
- Drying a freshly harvested bulb, root, or tuber in a cool, shady, well-ventilated spot for one to several weeks before storage, which toughens the outer skin and extends shelf life.
D
- Days to maturity
- The typical number of days from planting (or transplanting) until a crop is ready to harvest.
- Deadheading
- Removing spent flowers from a plant to prevent it from setting seed, which often encourages it to keep producing new blooms.
- Difficulty
- A hand-curated beginner/intermediate/advanced rating based on how narrow a plant's tolerances are and how much attention it needs, not a calculated score.
H
- Hardening off
- Gradually acclimating seedlings started indoors to outdoor sun, wind, and temperature over a week or so before transplanting them permanently.
- Hilling
- Mounding soil up around the base of a plant's stems as it grows, most often used with potatoes to protect developing tubers from sunlight and boost yield.
- Hornworms
- Large green caterpillars that can strip a plant's leaves quickly if not caught early.
- Humidity
- The amount of water vapor in the air, usually given as a percentage of the maximum the air could hold at that temperature.
J
- Japanese beetles
- Metallic green-and-bronze beetles that feed in groups, skeletonizing leaves between the veins.
L
- Leaf miners
- Small fly or moth larvae that tunnel between leaf surfaces, leaving pale, winding trails.
M
- Mealybugs and scale
- Small, slow-moving insects that coat themselves in a waxy or cottony layer while feeding on sap, often clustering in leaf joints.
N
- Nitrogen
- A core plant nutrient that drives leafy, green growth. The "N" in an N-P-K fertilizer ratio.
- Nitrogen-fixing
- The ability of some plants, especially legumes like beans and peas, to host bacteria in their roots that pull nitrogen from the air and add it to the soil.
O
- Onion thrips
- Tiny, slender insects that rasp at leaf surfaces, leaving silvery streaks and patches, favoring alliums.
P
- Powdery mildew
- A fungal disease that coats leaves in a white, powdery film, weakening the plant and reducing yield.
R
- Runner
- A trailing stem that grows out from a plant and roots at intervals to form new plants - how strawberries spread.
S
- Scape
- The curling flower stalk that hardneck garlic sends up before bulb maturity; usually cut off so the plant's energy goes into the bulb instead.
- Slugs and snails
- Molluscs that rasp ragged holes in leaves and leave a slime trail, mostly feeding at night in damp conditions.
- Soil pH
- A measure of how acidic or alkaline soil is, on a scale where 7 is neutral. Most vegetables prefer a slightly acidic 6.0-7.0.
- Spider mites
- Tiny arachnids that cause fine stippling on leaves and fine webbing, most active in hot, dry conditions.
- Squash bugs
- Flat, brownish-grey bugs that suck sap from vine crops, causing leaves to wilt and blacken; can kill young plants in heavy numbers.
- Sucker
- A side shoot that grows from the joint between a stem and a branch, usually removed on tomatoes to focus growth on the main stem and fruit.
- Swallowtail caterpillars
- Green-and-black-banded caterpillars that feed on the foliage of herbs in the carrot family, eventually becoming swallowtail butterflies.
T
- Trap crop
- A plant grown to attract pests away from the crop you actually want to protect, sacrificing itself so the main planting is left alone.
W
- Wireworms
- Slender, hard-bodied beetle larvae that live in soil and tunnel into roots and tubers.