Vocab

Question 0

Biodiversity

Answer 0

The variety of organisms present, considered from many levels: cultivar, species, genus, family, and on up to include all five kingdoms, as well as the diversity of habitats and ecosystems.

Question 1

Allelopaths

Answer 1

Plants that secrete a toxic substance that suppresses competing plants.

Question 2

Buffer Plants

Answer 2

Plants placed between guilts or between allelopathic species. They should be compatible with the trees in each guild and should have a positive effect on one or both of the guilds to be linked.

Question 3

Chaperone Plants

Answer 3

Species that protect seedings from harm until the juveniles are ready for life on their own.

Question 4

Companion Planting

Answer 4

Placing two or more plant species in a way that at least one species benefits the other(s) by deterring pests, attracting pollinators, and so on.

Question 5

Compost

Answer 5

The rich, humusy end product of decomposition, made by poling surplus organic matter into a mound or bin and letting it rot.

Question 6

Cover Crops

Answer 6

Crops planted specifically to build soil, reduce erosion, and smother weeds.

Question 7

Drip Line

Answer 7

The invisible boundary under a tree’s outermost leaves.

Question 8

Edge Effect

Answer 8

The increase in diversity that occurs where two systems meet, creating conditions favorable to inhabitants of both sides of the edge as well as new conditions at the edge itself that support new inhabitants (as when a river flows into the sea or a pond meets its shore).

Question 9

Forest Garden

Answer 9

A multistoried, food-and habitatproducing landscape that acts like a natural woodland.

Question 10

Gaia

Answer 10

Greek goddess of the Earth, and the origin of the word root geo-, as in geography and geology. Also, as in Gaia theory, James Lovelock’s idea that many of Earth’s processes are self-regulating

Question 11

Graywater

Answer 11

The household water from sink, shower, tub, and laundry drains.

Question 12

Guild

Answer 12

A harmoniously interwoven woup of plants and animals, often centered around one major species, that benefits humans while creating habitat.

Question 13

Hardscaping

Answer 13

The term designers use for wood, stone, concrete, and other constructed elements such as walls, sheds, paths, fences, and the like.

Question 14

Humus

Answer 14

A fairly stable, complex group of nuoientstoring molecules created by microbes and other forces of decomposition by the conversion of organic matter.

Question 15

Inter Planting

Answer 15

Combining plant varieties in ways that avoid competition for light, space, or nutrients and that often discourage pests.

Question 16

Micro Climate Gardening

Answer 16

Arranging plants in a manner that will take advantage of variations in microdimate (such as placing a frost-tender plant against a warm, south facing wall) or in ways that will create favorable micro climates (such as using a tree to shade a house from hot sun).