David Domoney’s Gardening Glossary

A daisy-grubber is a tool used to dig weeds out from the lawn. Its long two-pronged fork is designed to lever out long-rooted and difficult to get at weeds, without disturbing the surrounding soil.

Damping Down is the process of wetting the floors and surfaces in your greenhouse in order to cool it down and add humidity. It’s useful to do this on very hot sunny days, to stop your plants from wilting in the heat and becoming damaged by it.

Damping off is when a young seedling plant is killed by a fungal infection which is often a result of very humid conditions or poor drainage. The fungal infection causes rotting at the base of the stem of the plant, which causes it to collapse.

Deadheading is the process of removing dead flowers from a plant. This stops the plant from putting energy into forming seeds and therefore allows it to flower for longer, as well as making it look neater overall.

Any plant that is described as deciduous will lose its leaves over winter. Trees and shrubs do this to protect themselves over winter by remaining in a dormant state until their leaves grow back again in spring – a little bit like how some animals hibernate.

This generally refers to a tomato plant that stops producing new stems once the flowers have formed. Determinate tomato plants are usually smaller and can be grown in containers.

A dibble stick, or dibber, is a small wooden tool used to make pockets in the ground for planting seeds or transplanting.

The term used to describe the very first leaves from a seed after germination. See also Dicotyledon and Monocotyledon.

This means sowing seeds outdoors straight into the ground where you want them to grow, rather than starting them out in small pots, seed trays or propagators. Spinach and lettuce are good examples of crops that can be grown this way.

This means removing the buds of a plant to prevent it from flowering, or to direct the plants energy to current flowers to make them larger.

Dividing is a way of creating multiple new plants from one old one by separating the plant into smaller sections and then replanting in different areas around your garden. Some large perennial plants need to be divided every few years to stop them from becoming congested in the space they have.

Plants that lose their leaves in winter are said to be in a dormant state, as are bulbs planted in the ground over winter. It just means that the plant is at rest and not actively growing during this period, but is still living.

A dot plant is a term used to describe any plant used in the arrangement of a flower bed that stands out amongst the other plants in order to provide structure. They will usually be of a contrasting height to surrounding plants, and are often tall striking plants such as Abutilon or Canna Indica.

A drill is a straight, shallow furrow or groove made in the soil and used for sowing seeds into. Some crops are planted in drills, such as lettuce.

Sometimes a drip line refers to the area of ground underneath the circumference of tree branches where rain falls in a more concentrated amount – a little like the way it falls from an umbrella. This is the place where the tree roots are most actively taking in water, so during dry spells this is the place where you should water your trees – not near the base of the trunk. Drip line can also refer to a drip irrigation system, which delivers low quantities of water directly to a plants roots. The drip line in this instance refers to the place where the irrigation tubes have been laid.