Aerate  The process of introducing air pockets or voids into the soil to promote healthy root growth.  In most cases turning the soil well and adding organic materials at that time creates minute air pockets in the planting bed before installing plants.  This allows for good drainage and avoids compacted, soggy or sodden soil.

Annual  Any plant that completes it's life cycle within a years time.  It will not regrow or return after flowering is finished.

Blind Shoot      A branch or stem that either doesn't produce a flower or fruit, or stops growing due to loss of the growing point.  This can usually be remedied by cutting the branch in half to force side buds to grow and produce.

Deadhead   The cutting or plucking of spent flowers to maintain a neat appearance and to encourage new blooms.

Determinate    Pertains to the growth habit of plants, tomatoes in particular. Determinate indicates that the plant matures in a bush shape. Indeterminate suggests a vining growth that can spread ...wait for it... in an indeterminate fashion.

Hardwood    Pertaining primarily to perennials, any woody part of the plant that is from last years growth or older.

Indeterminate    Pertains to the growth habit of plants, tomatoes in particular. Indeterminate indicates that the plant matures as a wandering, vining plant. Determinate suggests a more compact, bush shape.

Leach   The process of removing excess salts and minerals from the soil by a series of repeated flushings with water.

Leech  A yucky, blood-sucking creature, or a relative that never moves out! 

Mulch   Any of a number of materials, usually organic, that can be placed on the soil in a thick layer to retain moisture and deter weed growth.  Plastic sheeting is also considered a form of mulch.

Perennial   Any plant that continues growing, flowering and producing seed year after year, either evergreen or returning from a seasonal dormancy.

Rogue  Refers to unwanted plants showing up where they shouldn't, or a plant that becomes aggressive taking over the others around it.  It can also refer to a genetic anomaly such as planting a bed of red petunias from seed and having a white one show up.

Sucker In the case of a grafted tree, suckers sprout rapidly as long straight stems from the rootstock below the graft and should be removed.  In other non-grafted trees and shrubs, suckers or water sprouts shoot vertically from branches with rapid growth and should likewise be removed as not to interfere with the shape of the plant.

Tender Perennial   A perennial plant that can't tolerate freezing.  Grown in zones that freeze, these are often treated as annuals or brought inside to winter over until spring.

Tip Cutting   When trying to create or propagate another plant, some are done best using a tip cutting.  As it says, it is taking a section of a branch a few inches long that includes the very tip.

Volunteer   Any plant that shows up in ones garden that wasn't purposely planted.  Tomatoes are famous for being volunteers as an old tomato gets mixed into the garden in the fall and seeds sprout and pop up unsolicited in the spring.

Winter Over   The action of bringing frost sensitive plants indoors and keeping them alive until they can be safely replanted outdoors in spring.