Gardening Jargon Buster
With every line of work, there seem to be a few – more than a few, actually – impenetrable words and phrases. What we all need here as a Gardening Jargon Buster to make everything as easy as possible.
Hundreds of words and terms are associated with garden design, so we can’t cover them all here. Well, we could try but you would lose the will to live!
Aycorn Garden Design have un-complicated and de-mystified the gardening dictionary. Here are your headline definitions: the most meaningful and useful phrases you’ll probably hear when we discuss your garden. Also, we’ve explained some of our services to point you in the right direction through our website. Click on each of the links for more information.
Have we missed anything? Let us know.
Types of Plants
Let’s start with the fundamentals. Understanding if a plant is robust enough to survive outdoors is essential as it helps us make the most of your garden.
Annuals grow, flower, seed and die in one season. In other words, you will need to re-plant the following year.
Biennials have a two-year life cycle; they spend their first year growing, then flowing or fruiting the following year. Then, they are no more.
Perennials are tougher. They live for at least three years and include trees and shrubs and keep their framework all year round. Herbaceous perennials (vivid colours for your garden beds) die down in the Autumn, coming to life the following Spring.
Bedding Plants
Instant, temporary pots of colour that brighten up your plant beds, borders, containers and hanging baskets. Examples are violas and sweet peas.
Deciduous
A plant that loses its leaves at the end of the growing season, then grows fresh new ones at the beginning of the next.
Evergreen
A plant that keeps its leaves throughout the year.
Herbaceous
A small to medium-sized perennial plant without wooden stems above ground. These plants’ stems die back in late autumn and early winter. Their roots survive below ground during the colder months, then shoot up again when Spring arrives. These plants are an ideal way to add colour to your borders.
Hard Landscaping
Hard landscaping provides the structure to your garden. In other words, it’s the support network that enables your outside space to come fully to life. Here, we’re concerned with things we build, such as walls or decking. And, which make your flowers, plants and trees look utterly amazing.
Hard landscaping has so many aspects – perhaps more than you could think of. Refer to our separate page for more information on this essential service.
Soft Landscaping
Soft landscaping is, in effect, everything else: flowers, plants, shrubs, trees; even plants in pots and the type of soil that would best suit your garden.
These designs contrast colour, texture, shape and style to deliver the “wow” factor. The skill in soft landscaping lies in knowing which plants will be utterly perfect – and precisely how and why.
Full Shade
Many plants can grow well in shade. In fact, true-shade plants, such as many type of ferns, can perish if they have too much sun. Filtered light – beneath a tree, for example – works well for plants that require full shade. Most “shady” plants are fine with a little bit of sun, but should stay out of the light at midday.
Partial Shade
A plant that needs 3-6 hours of direct sunshine per day.
Full Sun
A plant requiring 6-10 hours of sunshine per day.
Hardy
Broadly, this refers to a plant’s resilience and resistance to cold.
As a rule, a “hardy” plant will survive to minus 15 degrees Celsius, “frost-hardy” will survive to minus 5 degrees, and “half-hardy” to 0 degrees. “Tender” plants won’t last in temperatures below 5 degrees.
More questions?
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TEL: +44 1737 448100
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