Misunderstood Garden Words

I was reading late at night recently when I came upon a phrase that chilled my soul: “Dress with dried blood to accelerate.”

Did it concern the latest Hollywood terror flick? Was it directions for driving a getaway car? Are fashion designers upping the ante on the catwalks of Milan?

Actually, none of the above. It came from a gardening tome published in the 1930's and dealt with their notion of how to promote better peony growth with the addition of organic fertilizer. Unless you know the garden vernacular, your initial reaction might be the same as mine.

I relish telling a tale from several years ago when I gave a bag of bulbs as a housewarming gift to my friend Karl and his wife. Never having gardened before, they stared, big-eyed, at the assortment of daffodils and tulips I proffered.

“What should we do with them now?”, they inquired.

”Oh, just prepare a bed and put them in it”, I casually replied.

“Surely you don’t mean we have to SLEEP with them?!” they squealed in unison.

I quickly reassured them that “preparing a bed” was a gardening term and had nothing to do with their night time arrangements. Ever since, I have tried to keep them in mind when explaining garden tasks to beginners. I also keep in mind that we are ALL beginners at some aspect of gardening. Even garden experts might run across a term or phrase they’ve never encountered. Here are some garden words and phrases that are commonly mis-interpreted.

PREPARE A BED Just as a lumpy mattress and thin covers make for a miserable night for a couple, heavy soil and skimpy mulch can make life miserable for a plant. Whether you’re planting bulbs, a butterfly bush or begonias, the roots of your plant MUST be happy in order for it to thrive. What makes roots happy? Organic matter!

Few gardeners have perfect soil in which to plant. Their soil may be too sandy, too wet, too dry or too full of clay. Mixing organic soil conditioner with the soil to a depth of eight inches or more makes good gardening soil out of the poorest dirt.

I have lots of clay in my landscape soil. When I prepare a bed, I spade up the existing soil as deeply as I can with a round-point shovel. Onto my loosened pile I pour a two cubic foot bag of soil conditioner for every ten square feet of bed. On top goes two bags of gritty Paver Leveling Sand. I also scatter a pint of garden lime and a half-bag of hen manure on the site. My Mantis tiller makes short work of mixing it all together but, if the soil is moderately dry, a shovel is almost as fast.

I rake the bed smooth, stand back a minute to admire my handiwork and then drink some iced tea, secure in the knowledge that this PREPARED BED will be a happy home for anything I plant there.


Garden words that seem to mean one thing may actually mean something else. To keep your garden happy, you have to learn the language of gardeners and properly apply the words to your outdoor tasks.