The language of gardening.

The other day I was asked what a ‘drift’ was. Having explained (I will talk about it later), it occurred to me that there are a number of terms which could be puzzling to a new gardener, so here goes a stab at explaining a few.There will be many more which I miss and from time to time I may add another post.

Lets start with ‘double digging’. This is usually combimed with adding compost to your garden, and usually (though not always) used in the vegetable patch. It means that you dig out a spade’s depth of soil and put it to one side. Then you dig out another spade’s depth. Then mix compost with your second spade of soil and p[t it back in the hole (You can just put the compost in and add the soil if you like). Next you dig out a spade’s depth of soil from your next area and add it to your original hole so that it is now the level it originally was. Take out another spade’s depth of soil, add compost, replace soil. You continue like this until you have finished the whole area when you replace original spade’s depth of soil with the original soil you took from your first dig. It is a lot of work and if you have heavy, compacted or stony soil, particularly hard. However, it is well worth doing as it sets your soil up to produce really good, healthy plants and , provided you do not walk on it, it will not need doing for a good few years. One other thing, if you have really heavy soil, it is worth incorporating shingle in with the compost. This will help drainage and stop your soil getting too  water logged in wet weather.

Next ‘dead heading’ and pruning. These are sort of allied since they are both taking bits off your plants. Dead heading is exactly what it sounds like. Taking the dead flower heads from ornamental plants. You will find that there is all sorts of advice about cutting back stems when you do this (particularly on roses) but it has been found that roses flower just as freely if you just cut off the dead flower heads. Do take off the whole flower though, not just the petals, otherwise the plant will still try to set seed and won’t bother with another load of flowers. Having said that, if you have flowers like dahlias and lupins it is worth cutting back the stem the flower is on to the main stem, where you will find another bud. The whole reason for dead heading is to encourage the plant to produce more flowers by stopping it from setting seed. In the case of plants where the seed head  itself is ornamental (like poppies, then you don’t dead head (although you may want to collect some of the need heads for future use.With roses, you leave the hips on when the second (or last) flush of flowers  is finished.

Pruning is rather more major and done for other reasons. You prune all sorts of plants – trees; shubs; flowers; climbers. It basically means cutting it back. There are a number of  reasons for pruning . Sometimes it is done to keep the plant in a good shape. Sometimes it is done because the plant has a problem, like crossing branches or branches dying back. Sometimes you prune to open up the centre of the plant to light because it is getting to congested and with fruit bushes and trees you prune your plant to encourage it to fruit. The time and the way you prune depends on the plant. There are loads of good books to help you with this, alternately ask your local garden centre or gardening club for advice. Make sure they know what they are talking about though. Remember, if you cut off too much of your plant, it will always grow back next year. As long as you don’t toally denude it of leaves, it will recover- in most cases stronger that ever.

A drift is just a line of plants (usually three or four-or more wide) but instead of going straight down the flower bed, it curves. This supposedly copies nature which has no straight lines and gives a more natural look. It is one of the new jargon words much loved by the current crop of celebrity gardeners and copied by less well known garden designers. It implies you have a flower bed large enough to handle this sort of design as you need a number of ‘drifts’ to make this work. At its best it is spectacular. At its worst, its messy. The idea is not new, although the application is different.

There are loads of other words which gardeners use where it is not immediately apparant what is meant. Don’t be afraid to ask. Most gardeners love to show off their knowledge.