Listen to the author reading this blog post.
This week’s post relates to the language used to describe an activity that gives a great deal of pleasure to people the world over – growing and taking care of plants and flowers, whether outside or in the home.
Starting, appropriately enough, with seeds, when you put a seed in soil so that a new plant will grow, you sow or plant it, and when you put a plant in the ground or in a container of soil, you plant it:
There’s still time to sow carrots and beetroot.
Plant the seeds two centimetres apart.
We’ve planted an apple tree in the garden.
To pour water onto a plant or the ground is to water it, and if you pour too much water onto a plant or seed and cause problems for it, you overwater it:
Water your roses early in the morning or late in the evening.
I’m afraid I’ve killed several houseplants by overwatering them.
A weed is a wild plant that grows where it is not wanted, especially among flowers or grass in a garden. When we remove these plants from an area of the ground, we weed it or do the weeding:
The garden was neglected, and weeds were growing everywhere.
I’ve been weeding the area to the right of the path.
I really need to do some weeding before the rains start.
Moving on to cutting and removing parts of a plant, if you deadhead a plant, you remove old flowers from it. When you cut back a tree or plant, you make it smaller by cutting off parts of it, and when you prune a tree or plant, you do this especially in order to make it grow better in the future:
To encourage more flowering, deadhead the flowers as they fade.
That hedge is too tall and needs cutting back.
I watched a video on pruning roses.
If a plant grows and is healthy, you can say it does well or thrives:
The lavender is doing really well in the sunny border.
These plants thrive in the shade.
Finally, if plants usually grow well in your care, in UK English we say that you have green fingers or you are green-fingered. In US English we say you have a green thumb or are green-thumbed:
My grandmother had green fingers – her garden was so beautiful.
This is the perfect book for a green-thumbed friend.
Who do you know who has green fingers or thumbs? Let me know below!
HI my mother after retirement she’s getting used to going to the garden vegetables so she have a green fingers and thumbs
Ok good
Hollow slippers were made of mirror glasses for all to forsake my grandmother’s cookies
Vegetable is so good vegetable is so good
I hope your mother enjoys her garden!
I am a green fingers, too. I love gardening, even though my garden is such a small part. Watching the plants thrive makes me relaxed and cheerful after a long day.
I have a small garden too and I feel exactly the same about it.
My daughter is definitely a person who has green fingers. Whatever she sows and plants strarts growing very quickly. Once we decided followe a recipe on how to grow beens, given by one of Sven Nurdkvist’s characters, a famous writer. My daugther and me sowed the same number of seeds in two pods. All the seeds in her pod began to sprout, while there were just twice less.
Yes, your daughter definitely has green fingers!
My grandfather indeed has a green thumb
Nice!
Y Mother had Green fingers, her plants were always beatiful.
But I belive she had a perfect place With correct sun and light that made them thive.
Yes, some gardens seem blessed with perfect conditions!
I’m so shock when i heard water her said but i feel this audio’s so good and it will help me to train my listening test
Hi! It was lovely to hear the author reading their article. Thank you!
You’re very welcome!
Ok good
Love your posts!
Thank you! I’m delighted to hear it!