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Common Gardening terms

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Gardening glossary of terms

When you’re new to gardening, you might not understand all of the terms that are used on the various gardening websites that you might encounter so I thought that it might be a great idea to post some of the more common terms and explain them.

Annual: a plant that completes it life cycle in one growing season and then dies. Keep in mind that annuals for one region of the Country may be a perennial in another region, or even in another Country.

Biennial: a plant that completes its life cycle in two growing seasons and then dies. Generally, the first year the plant produces foliage and the 2nd year the plant flowers.

Bulbs: fleshy leaf bases consisting of scales attached to a basal plate; tulips are one example.

Conifer: mostly evergreen trees or shrubs, usually with needle-like linear leaves and seeds borne naked on the scales of cones.

Deadheading: removing spent flowers or flowerheads for aesthetics, to prolong bloom or promote rebloom, or to prevent seeding.

Feng Shui: the ancient Chinese art of design and placement that balances the chi, or energies, within your surroundings.

Golden Mean: the ration 1:1.618 and a rule of proportion common throughout nature that can be applied to garden design.

Hardiness Zone: determined by the average annual frost-free days and minimum winter temperatures. The Hardiness zones in Canada are rated differently than those of US regions, keep that in mind when you read up on hardiness zones. If you are purchasing a plant in Canada that was shipped in from the states know your USD zones.

Herbaceous: a plant without woody stem; the plant parts are fleshy and wither after each growing season.

Mixed garden: a garden that is planted with combinations of herbaceous and woody plant material.

Neutral colors: green, violet, black, white, gray, brown.

Perennial: a plant that lives three or more years.

Primary hues: red, yellow, blue.

Rhizomes: swollen, horizontal undergrown stem; cannas are examples.

Suckering: describes plant material with adventitious shoots arising from below soil level, usually from the roots rather than the crown or stem of the plant.

Tuber: a swollen, irregularly shaped stem or root used for food storage; dahlias are one example.

Vascular plants: plants such as ferns and seed-bearing plants in which the phloem transports sugar and the xylem transports water and salts.

Warmer colors: yellow, yellow-green, yellow-orange, orange, red-orange, red, and red-violet (magenta).

Woody: A vascular plant that has a stem or more than one stem. Woody plants are trees, shrubs, etc. Most woody plants will be composed mostly of wood.






Do you need to bullet proof your home or business?

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I don’t know if you have this problem in your City, State, or Province, but lately there’s been a rash of shootings on the streets of Toronto. I’d say it’s picked up dramatically over the last three years or so. Why this is happening, I don’t know, but as a consumer I know that I’d feel much safer if I knew the stores or restaurants that I frequent had bulletproof Glass on the windows facing the main street.

Now, I might be over reacting a bit – but if you lived here you’d be shocked at how often shootings take place, particularly in the downtown area. I know some areas of the US are also plagued by gang warfare, drive by shootings and random shootings- maybe just for the heck of it and I’m sure that many businesses in those areas would also benefit by having bullet proof glass installed in their store front windows. Heck I’m sure some of the people in those areas probably have a need for bullet proof glass on their cars.

Actually I just learned of a product I wasn’t aware of when I was reading the Pacific Bullet Proof site. There’s even a product called bulletproof Fiberglass. I thought that when I first heard the name of the product that it would be used on cars but it can be used on just about anything. It’s a bulletproof material that’s sold in sheets and it looks like it can be used in a number of different ways. Check out their site if you, or perhaps a business owner you know might be interested in learning more about bullet proof products.

I know this wasn’t a gardening topic but for some of you it might relate to home protection. I hope that this information can be of some use to some of my readers. At least you know a little bit more about what’s happening in Toronto lately!

GTA finder puts renovators and home owners together

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Anyone else in Toronto here? I just found a great site that I’m certain will come in handy at some point. As I’ve said before Chris and I have been renovating our home. Slowly, ever so slowly. I’m pretty fed up with our slow progress and I’ve toyed with the idea of hiring a professional to come in and finish the job for us.

Perhaps this is a sign? I just came across this site that offers Renovator Quotes in Toronto. It’s a relatively new service for residents of Toronto. If you re in need of home renovations- sort of like we are – you can just go to the site and fill out a short form where you’ll describe what kind of work you need done.

Once you’ve submitted your information you just need to wait for a short while and soon, you’ll hear back from up to five different contractors or renovators who will offer you quotes and or estimates for your job. While you are waiting you can read articles on their site that have tips on renovating, and there’s even a Do it yourself section where you can get some tips on things you can do, and perhaps what you should leave in the hands of the contractors.

You’ll be able to find people that do renovation work, Roofers, workers who specialize in heating and air conditioning and of course painters too.

I’m really happy to have found a site that offers a service like this for the Toronto and GTA area. You never know, I may just call them soon and get some quotes if we don’t get back to work on our own reno plans ourselves.

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