Common Lawn and Garden Terms

Source(s): Randy Drinkard

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Some of the most commonly-used lawn, landscaping and garden terms include:

Annual – a plant that grows, blooms, produces seed or fruit and dies in one year or less.

Biennial – a plant that grows and establishes itself the first season, then blooms, produces seed and dies the second season.

Broadcast – a product that is distributed over a large area of space.

Compost – decomposed organic matter, used to enrich the soil and improve drainage and aeration.

Contact – a product that adheres to and is localized on the surface of the leaf or stem of the plant.

Fungicide – a product that controls a fungus.

Herbicide – a product that controls plants.

Humus – the brown or black organic part of the soil that results from the decay of leaves or other organic matter.

Insecticide – a product that controls insects.

Integrated Pest Management(IPM) – multiple tactics used in a compatible manner in order to maintain pest populations below levels that cause economic or unacceptable injury without posing a hazard to humans, domestic animals or non-target life forms.

Miticide – a product that controls mites.

Non-selective herbicide – a product that controls all and any types of plants.

Organic Matter – Any material which originated as a living organism, such as compost, manure or peat moss.

Pesticide – a product that will control a pest.

Perennial – a plant that lives for more than two years, often for many years.

Postemergence – a product that controls visible weeds.

Pre-emergent – a product applied to the soil surface that inhibits weed growth.

Rodenticide – a product that controls rodents.

Selective herbicide – a product that controls only certain types of plants, eliminating non-desirable plants while maintaining desirable plants.

Systemic – a product that is absorbed through the leaves and/or roots of the plant and moves throughout the plant.

Weed – a plant out of place.

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Reviewer(s): Todd Hurt, Training Coordinator, UGA Center for Urban Agriculture, The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, June 2006.

Center Publication Number: 206