An extreme change in weather in which the temperature drops and the air becomes quite dry.
A cold snap is a weather event that strikes fear in the hearts of gardeners everywhere, especially when it occurs in early spring after a warm period that causes plants to start to grow. It provides less than ideal condition for plants and can result in cold damage to the tender new growth of plants or even death.
COMMUNITY GARDEN
A piece of land, usually in an urban setting, that is planted and tended by a group of people either collectively or in individual plots.
Community gardens can be on public or private land. There is a great deal of interest in these neighborhood gardens, especially in urban environments – as a source of food security, for greening and revitalizing neglected city spaces, and for building a sense of community. For more information, visit https://communitygarden.org/. A similar term is urban agriculture, or the cultivation of food in an urban area.
COMPACT
(See: Habit)
COMPANION PLANTS
Plants that grow well together and even enhance each other’s ability to thrive.
In edible gardening (growing plants for harvest), companion plantings have been used for centuries. Legumes, such as beans, capture nitrogen and enhance the soil, which benefits plants such as corn. The beans do not compete with corn for nutrients and the corn provides a vertical surface on which the beans can grow. Add a cover crop like squash, which shades the soil, keeping it moist as well as blocking out weeds and you have a companion garden.
Additionally, some companion plants are used to attract pollinators to increase crop yield or to attract beneficial insects, which prey on insects that are harmful to the crops. Another example is taller plants, which will provide needed shade for shorter plants, and grasses planted in fruit tree groves to keep the soil cool and conserve water.
In regard to companion plants in ornamental gardening, it is not uncommon to see suggestions of companion plants for a particular plant written on plant tags or in popular gardening magazines. If you are shopping online, a nursery may recommend companion plants for the Hosta you just added to your shopping cart. Savvy nurseries create vignettes of plants that work well together in the garden. In ornamental gardening, companion plants are selected for aesthetic purposes. The foliage of one plant may highlight and contrast well with another plant such as the white variegation of a Hosta that adds brightness and a bit of softness next to the rougher textured and darker color of Rodgersia. Companion plants extend the bloom and visual interest of a garden. Plants are selected that bloom at different times or bring interesting colors of foliage, bark or texture to the garden. For example, a tall stand of the ornamental grass Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ is striking behind a swath of purple coneflowers in bloom; and once the blooms are spent, the unique architecture and the intense red seeds and orange leaves of the sumac keeps the drama of the garden extended well into fall. Companion planting with ornamentals is all about highlighting the best qualities of the plants within a design.
COMPOST/COMPOSTING
Decomposed organic matter that is incorporated back into the garden and landscape in order to improve soils.
Compost is oftentimes referred to as “black gold” by gardeners and is a rich organic matter that can be used to improve garden soil. The composting process is both an art and a science, with the art relying on the combination of materials that will lead to quicker breakdown (the science).
COMPOST TEA
A low-nutrient liquid extract that results from placing finished compost in water and extracting the beneficial organisms and compounds. (See: Compost)
CONE
Botanically speaking, the conical (more or less) multiple fruit of pines, firs, cedars and others.
Some plants that are considered conifers produce fruits that are referred to as cones. Since these are the fruits of these plants, they are also the reproductive organs of the plant.
CONICAL
A cone-like plant shape where the base is the widest point of the plant and it becomes narrower or more slender towards the top
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