There are far too many garden words and expressions which annoy me. So I thought I’d give myself the pleasure of ranting about some of them. And I’ll start with one that crops up a lot at this time of year =
Interest.
This appears at this time of year under the guise of ‘winter interest’ and us (sorry, ‘we’) writers use it far too much from sheer inability to find anything else to say about some things. A dictionary says: “the feeling of wanting to give your attention to something or of wanting to be involved with and to discover more about something.”
I suppose that really, when the RHS refers to Plants for Winter Interest they mean plants that we may be interested in in winter.
Interested? Or, heaven forbid – bored senseless by the sight of them???
Now, I know many of us have ears which prick up at the mere mention of a plant we haven’t come across before, denoting a sudden rush of interest. But are we really interested in plants in winter? Aren’t we more likely to enjoy them if they do something nice in the cold dark season? What would be wrong with Plants for Winter Pleasure? Plants for winter beauty? Or maybe really we’re actually totally uninterested, because going out to look at them in the cold and rain is just a bit too demanding? What, exactly, are they talking about??
Pesky.
It’s definitely crept into use in the UK. (Surprise solutions, eh? I bet.)
I think you Americans are responsible for this one – I find it defined as “especially North American English, informal,” = meaning: annoying. Which to me is a perfectly good word and defines my feelings about the word ‘pesky’. It cropped up a lot when people discussed my book ‘Outwitting Squirrels’. Is it a word that sounds less irritating if you’re American? Better than annoying, or irritating, aggravating, infuriating? It’s good to have our vast choice of words to use, but can we abandon this particular one?
Grumpy
And talking of books, some time ago I published a book called The Bad Tempered Gardener, in parody of the Lloyd book ‘The Well Tempered Garden’ which in turn referred to a clavier. And I then had the term ‘grumpy’ follow me around. By people who clearly couldn’t tell the difference between temper and mild moaning. I reserve my right to be thoroughly bad tempered and even shouty. I don’t grump. The mere idea of a grump itself makes me very bad tempered.
Deter/control.
This is a term gardeners, or perhaps just garden writers, use when they secretly mean KILL! Or they wish they did. We aren’t supposed to kill things that plague us out there in the garden, but years of futile attempts to deter them from chomping on our plants, leaping our fences, or digging holes in our lawns tends to make us think more along the death than deter lines.
Does it keep the deer or rabbits out??? (no)
Never mind control. A dictionary tells me it refers to “the power to influence or direct people’s behaviour or the course of events”. Oh, ha ha. Apparently some people believe you can ‘control’ slugs organically . I’ll not discuss the futility of the methods they suggest will control a slug here, (see squirrels) only the idea. It would perhaps be more fruitful to discuss how to control our tempers when a newly planted hosta disappears overnight. The beer suggestion might be effective for ourselves in that regard, if useless with slugs.
Riot.
A riot is a very nasty and dangerous thing. Whoever decided it was a good term to apply to a mess of colour in a garden was decidedly off colour themselves. They may perhaps be forgiven for being unaware that it is a term that would proliferate like cleavers, cropping up all over the place and strangling decent prose. It merits control of the death kind.
I know – not a riot of any kind but the nearest I could find of that thing in my photos. Wonder where it was…
Lovely
This is the worst perhaps, and just maybe unavoidable. Every garden in the UK is lovely and writers and broadcasters are never tired of telling us so. No garden has the slightest demerit, and no garden merits a better description. Lovely will do. Though this site does slip one in rather surreptitiously and leaves us wondering what that article was about.
Well, perhaps I can end this with a major over used and actually non garden phrase:
Happy New Year!
‘Lovely’, along with its close friend ‘nice’, is a surprisingly unhelpful word. Both are very non-committal: I see something that isn’t offensive to the eye but also isn’t good enough to warrant the effort of commenting in more depth, so I’m going to say it’s ‘lovely’ or ‘nice’.
I know a gardener for whom every plant and flower is ‘beautiful’ and it gets irritating. No flowers are ‘exquisite’, no plants are ‘bold’, ‘exciting’, ‘joyful’, ‘perfumed’, ‘showy’, ‘colourful’, they’re all just ‘beautiful’. The bland expressionless default to ‘beautiful’ sometimes makes me wonder if we’re looking at the same plant.
I thought of you when I was writing this – that you would find plants in winter interesting. Which actually is not the same as them ‘having winter interest’.
Poor use of language is downgrading English as well as doing a disservice to gardens. And plants.
“Naturalistic” is the garden word that kills me!
Naturalistic – a word to describe garden bores.
I’ve always enjoyed the heading Naturalistic Planting is anything but Naturalistic – https://thinkingardens.co.uk/articles/naturalistic-planting-is-anything-but-by-michael-king/
Good fun — thanks! (Nothing lovely about it — except maybe that great fence that doesn’t exclude anything…)
It keeps rabbits out. Some people call it a ‘deer fence’ because there is a notion that deer don’t like the random top. But it’s true that I haven’t asked them, so I don’t know if that’s the case.
What about “plant material”? Are we talking about fabric or plants?
That expression is an unpleasant objectification.
Absolutely! I cringe every time I encounter that phrase.
“Plant material” is my top complaint! It makes plant fungible, indistinguishable, and yes, objectified. To me, the term only makes sense referring to yard waste. But no, professionals especially use it, even the inefficient “pieces of plant material,” when just one word – plants – would have done the job
O, good one. Add ‘forbes’?
Not a single word, but for me “deer resistant” and its evil cousin, “deer proof” top the list.
Add rabbit to that……
Stevie Wonder gave me permission to love “lovely” when he wrote “Isn’t She Lovely.”
Well, there’s no answer to that, is there!?
There ya go, Allen! A truly lovely reply.
And I do use the term “winter interest” when explaining to plant-averse neighbors why I’m not cutting down all the perennials in our tiny, townhouse-complex garden areas.
Could be – ‘I just love looking at them’ ??
Criticism is very unwelcome in the gardening world and I’m sure this extends to the vocabulary used. I find it diffiucult to express my annoyance without causing offense. A rant allows great freedom!
O, it being a rant doesn’t stop it offending. I am definitely considered an offence in the gardening world. But also, I do think being offended is something to grow out of.
Perhaps “Plants Worth Looking at in Winter”? Not very concise, but much more accurate, I think.
“Pesky” to me (I’m American) connotes a trivial, temporary annoyance, not a truly annoying pest such as a slug.
I found you because I bought a copy of “The Bad Tempered Gardener” in a local bookstore. I might still have bought it had it been titled “The Grumpy Gardener”, but not as readily.
Well, there must be many ways of saying these things, given the wealth of the English language. Some of these irritate me by association. I’m glad the publisher didn’t bounce me into grumpy (I’d be embarrassed to this day) as they did ‘Deckchair Gardener’. And I’m glad you found me!
Got a good chuckle out of this as frequently when I can’t find anything great about a garden I will say ‘it’s lovely or very nice’. Busted! It’s difficult to always try to be inoffensive. Where’ the fun in that? There are many words I get tired of hearing too: resilient, environmentally friendly, naturalistic. They are just the latest ‘trends’ (another word that bugs me) in gardening. Gardening shouldn’t be about these fleeting concepts. Makes it too commercial. I am not going to rip out all of my magenta plants and replant peach because that’s the colour of the year! Sorry getting grumpy! LOL
You’re allowed! (to be grumpy…..)
Well, Anne, you’ve completely busted me on deter/control, words I’ve used countless times to describe my relationship with the white-tailed deer that plague (I didn’t see that word on the list) my garden. You’re right, I want to kill them. I can’t, because of guilt and, well, those “pesky” laws, but the dark gardener in me is really thinking kill.
As for riot, I use it and I’ll stand by it. It is the second definition of the word in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, and far preferable to “lots” or heaven forbid, “plethora.”
Happy New Year!
Huh. What that means, I conclude, is that misuse of the word riot has been so rampant (I missed that one, didn’t I?) that it’s got its misuse into the dictionary ! That should be a warning to us all.
My sympathy re those deer. And they say confession is good for the soul, so I’ll add, regarding our versions of those animals, me too.
Beckoned, beckoning… UGH! Hate it. The bench is not beckoning me to travel further down the path. That word and its forms is so over used in garden writing. As is whimsical, my other longstanding annoyance, although thankfully that one doesn’t seem to be popping up quite as often these days.
You’re right. On both. Love the idea of the first of those going literal……
Delightful is another one, although it’s not just gardening magazines who are guilty of overuse.
Well, we must be really short of adjectives, don’t you think?
My high school English teacher reprimanded me that ‘nice is a weak word’…. But the beauty of the English language by adding ‘quite’ can, with suitable inflection provide a varied vocabulary: short, sharp, downward inflection – it’s ok; upward inflection – surprisingly nice; quite – pause – nice – struggling for a suitable word; flat – I like it! Or the simple ‘na-ice- upward inflection – excellent, which I found the link to Naturalistic Planting…..
Yes, we were told the same. But I have a bit of love for that word myself, and applaud your usages. Personally I like the second usage, nicely defined here: “there is a nice distinction between self-sacrifice and martyrdom”
What a lovely and interesting piece of writing.
I am a bit of a newcomer to hellebores. I am sad, but not grumpy, that you are beginning to think of them as Much of a muchness.
In our area, we have overdone camellias, beautiful winter pansies and ‘ornamental’ kale for decades.
For us rubes, hellebores are an exciting new frontier. <3
Extra points if you can figure out what the 3 thing is supposed to be. I had to ask my niece.
As a rube, I can definitely tell you that Bambi steaks are quite lovely!
Control simply means not over cooking them.
Squirrel is definitely an acquired taste. And control is just a silly fantasy.
On beautiful sunny winter days I hope your garden brings you and Charles much pleasure.
Happy New Year!
Thanks Matt – it’s game casserole for us tonight (truly) but we didn’t do the ‘controlling’!
And it’s dark as night and pouring down outside right now – but I’m sure those cold clear days will come. When they do, I will love our hellebores. It’s simply that there are comparatively so few winter flowers that they get talked to death. Snowdrop tedium is just about to erupt……..
I’m with you Matt about hellebores. They are the perfect plant. Right now, about 90 days before I’ll see their first blooms, they are the best looking plant in my garden. Healthy full green leaves, ignored by the deer, maintenance free. And they spread easily if given just a little help.
I loved the fence. With some of the plants a bit taller and the colorful trees in the distance. A deer will not jump a fence if it can’t see where it will land. Thus, if this fence’s lowest board is more that ‘deer eye’ height it will deter them. I would never say prevent them from jumping, but only one on the run from some perceived danger would try it. I have an 11′ fence around my property made of cattle wire. Though they can see through it the other side is woodland and they can’t get a good running start. Though I have been told by others that a buck can jump a 10′ fence without a running start so far I haven’t encountered that thankfully.
Tish Iorio, Doswell, VA, USA
It’s true that we have no evidence of deer jumping that fence. But we too have heard of amazing deer jumps. We are fencing most of the ornamental garden, but there will always be vulnerabilities, I think.
Maybe I’m not in the majority here, but I find the objections as stated rather trivial, and most of these terms of usage seem perfectly reasonable to me, in particular “winter interest”, which living in a climate with a year-round growing season and a love for unexpected blooms in winter makes the term especially valid in my opinion. This article strikes me as what one might write about for lack of more significant topics as well as maintaining a reputation for liking to “stir the pot” or “roil the waters”. I guess it actually had its intended effect…
In the meantime, I’ll continue on using the term “winter interest” without an iota of guilt or shame. Especially with the winter-blooming Aloes in my garden this time of year, which can’t help but provide much needed “winter interest” against the predominant greenery of a California rainy winter, our equivalent of spring in less balmy climates.
Read where lots of flooding in parts of Wales and England
Your part? Is your “winter interest’ currently flooded fields?
I’m paddling when I go out to feed the birds, and the power was down yesterday. But it’s much worse elsewhere. Thanks for asking! How is it with you this winter?
Let’s hear it (or NOT!) for “sustainable.”
o – yes! Missed that one…
My gorge rises when people burble on about wanting ‘attract critters” to their yard and gardens. I now hate the word “pollinators; I hate the banality of our poor exhausted adjectives that now have the stink of advertising. When soulless AI comes for garden writing no one will notice.
You’re not alone, though critters is not a word you’d find this side of the Atlantic. Pollinators are, ahem, everywhere. And you are right about AI. (Unless it has already taken over?)
My latest garden vocab peeve is “pressure.” Weed pressure, deer pressure, HOA pressure, you poor thing! Gag. And planting a “pollinator garden” is killing me. One blooming maple or holly tree supports more bees than your little sustainable riot of naturalistic butterfly attracting flowerbeds. Happy to be retired from this.
Oh, yes, the p words. I daren’t go there!
I loathe the use of Ultimate, any reference book, usually second rate and derivative, using it in the title, is avoided like the plague.