Topic: several veg growing terms that seem to confuse gardeners

[plainleaf]

Lishka instead of biweeky or a fortnightly.
I would just write "every two weeks" which should translate the same in both type uk and usa.
 

[pansy potter]

I just love a good debate ;D

[Lishka]

Lishka instead of biweeky or a fortnightly.
I would just write "every two weeks" which should translate the same in both type uk and usa.
 

Of course you would, now that you've been made aware of the linguistic differences between the US and UK - the point of this whole thread, I think, is to guide you towards these pitfalls? On another forum a similar thread (the different interpretations of words in both countries) is running - an English person living in California, offered the sign outside a shop this summer which proudly offered "American Sods for Sale". ;D

Best advice would be to have your draft proof-read by a UK person, or persons even. I'm sure that peeps here would be only too glad to help you.

I wish you all the very best in your venture,

Lishka

 

[pumkinlover]

as in turfs? ;)

[goodlife]

There is one term that keeps popping up in both side of the water..
the use of biennial or biannual..I've been 'taught' to use the first term but I keep hearing the biannual coming from 'experts' mouths too.
Now both are of course a plants that complete their life cycle in 2 'years'/growing seasons.

[Morris]

Now I always thought biannual meant occurring twice per year, therefore flowering twice in gardening terms?

[goodlife]

Ah..in that case..biannual is repeatedly used wrong. English is not my first language..and when I started studying horticulture..I was learning lot of new words from dictionary/horticulture course...once I had 'argument' about biennial word with my tutor.. ::)...as I was arguing about biennial being plant that complete its 'life' within 2 years/growing season..he insisted use of biannual...so left it to that... ::) But it is something that has stuck into this little brain of mine..and now when I hear it used by 'celeb' gardeners..I cringe when I hear biannual...so I've sort of left into false belief that the biannual may just be some 'old' term that is hard to shrug off.. ??? ::)
In dictionary biannual is "occurring twice a year"..but I've got couple of gardening books that list gardening terms/words..in those biannual is not even mentioned..yet you hear it used commonly by 'big names' and everytime describing the meaning of the biennial ::) ::).
I know I'm bloody foreigner..but it can be soooo fustrating when even 'natives' get it wrong.. ::)
I used to get to my tutors nerves because I was always 'picking faults' and correcting them.. ;D ;D
When first moved to UK..my OH was having 'dinner' during day and 'tea' in late afternoon/evening....I used to scream NOO!..breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, tea...in that order..untill the penny dropped that is is local lingo...now when I'm talking, I'm having 'dinner' and 'tea' in wrong order too.. ;D

[grannyjanny]

After reading your post Goodlife you have a fan. OH just said 'tell her she is brilliant' ;D ;D ;D.

[goodlife]

What.. ;D..all that talk of food got into him.. ;) ;D

[grawrc]

I've just checked in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary.

Biannual and biennial can both be either adjectives or nouns.

When used as adjectives they have different meanings:

biannual = appearing, occuring etc. twice a year
biennial = existing or lasting for two years.

When, however, they are used as nouns, biannual means exactly the same as biennial = a plant which springs from seed and vegetates one year, and flowers, fructifies and perishes the next
OR
an event taking place biennially (every two years).


 ;) :P

[GrannieAnnie]

.breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, tea...in that order.

Where does HIGH TEA fit in?  We say that here to be funny while serving up a cup of tea and a cookie.

[grawrc]

When first moved to UK..my OH was having 'dinner' during day and 'tea' in late afternoon/evening....I used to scream NOO!..breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, tea...in that order..untill the penny dropped that is is local lingo...now when I'm talking, I'm having 'dinner' and 'tea' in wrong order too.. ;D

How about some of the Norwegian words for meals!! You'll never guess what "lunsj" could mean!! and it is, indeed , lunch but the word for dinner (eaten late afternoon/ evening) is "middag" meaning midday!!

[Lishka]

as in turfs? ;)

or even turves perhaps? ;D

[goodlife]

Oh..I forgot supper from the list.. ;D
High tea?..that was new to me..well suppose I'm mere mortal and not a society bird..so I don't need to know that sort of terms.. ;) But If should get a letter from the old 'Liz' and get invite to her place for the tea..I shall then look into dictionary and learn the correct term for the wet brew... ;) ;D
Thank's for that grawl!...I'm that little bit wiser now..so I was right and wrong with the argument with my tutor.. ::)
..but I still dislike the biannual word..

[Lishka]

Where does HIGH TEA fit in?  We say that here to be funny while serving up a cup of tea and a cookie.

GrannieAnnie - hi y'all!(yep, just back from NC - I so love Mizz Joanne, the school bus driver and her Southern drawl LOL)

Without going to a dictionary for a precise definition of 'High Tea', for us it was a meal at 5.00pm on a Sunday afternoon when we visited the Grands. Usually
 a ham salad with freshly cooked ham, potatoes,etc. with one of her lethal trifles and cream cakes afterwards. A sort of evening dinner at tea-time if you will.

A cup of tea and biscuits, hovever, is more afternoon tea - but I'd also expect cucumber sandwiches  or feel that I'd been short-changed!

Biscuits/cookies = another debate and I'll leave it to another poster.

Me, I'm off for my afternoon tea ;D

Regards to you and OH,

Lishka

[Lishka]

Cuppa tea made, tomato sandwich in front of me - this is a hard thread to keep away from!

Yard v garden, now that's a strange one.

For me a 'yard' is (usually) a small paved or concreted area at the back of a small house - a garden larger, grassed and with perhaps flower beds, maybe a tree or two or three, and a vegetable patch etc. if that's your thing?

(hard to eat a tomato sandwich and type simultaneously - I'm off).
Lishka

[goodlife]

Whoopsie..I got it totally wrong..high tea sounds very posh..
"High Tea Basics
 Traditionally, high tea was a working class meal served on a high table at the end of the workday, shortly after five PM. It was a heavy meal of meat dishes (such as steak and kidney pie), fish dishes (such as pickled salmon), baked goods (such as crumpets or, in Ireland, barm brack), vegetables (such as potatoes or onion cakes), and other heavy foods (such as baked beans and cheesy casseroles).
High tea was more of a working class family meal than an elite social gathering."
 

[Morris]

This thread gets better and better!!   ;D ;D

Thanks grawrc, now I know the definitive definitions of biannual/biennial!

I have a great friend from the US, who used to live in our village. We had such fun comparing our joint but divided language when she lived here.

Our most mystifying conversation was in the early days, when she asked me where in the supermarket she could find cheese sauce. We were at complete cross-purposes until it became clear I was assuming cheese sauce was something one made, and she was assuming it always came from a packet.  Neither had ever heard of anyone doing it the other one's way.

(This was quite a while ago, before cheese sauce became a common item in the chilled counter.)

We never ventured into gardening terms, though, as she wasn't much of a gardener.

[goodlife]

talking about sauce..In Finland term 'brown sauce' is gravy type sauce..and UK's 'brown sauce' is just HP over there. Grapes are grape fruit..translation of our 'grapes' is wineberry over there.There is several similar differences between language meanings..I always get things confused..switching my poor old brain from one language to other is such a hard work...and try to remember same time which side of the road I'm supposed to be when visiting my family...hard work.. ::)

[GrannieAnnie]

Whoopsie..I got it totally wrong..high tea sounds very posh..
"High Tea Basics
 Traditionally, high tea was a working class meal served on a high table at the end of the workday, shortly after five PM. It was a heavy meal of meat dishes (such as steak and kidney pie), fish dishes (such as pickled salmon), baked goods (such as crumpets or, in Ireland, barm brack), vegetables (such as potatoes or onion cakes), and other heavy foods (such as baked beans and cheesy casseroles).
High tea was more of a working class family meal than an elite social gathering."
 

I just googled Images of "High Tea" and it showed very fine little cakes and sweet things dolled up with whippedcream and cherries and ganishes galore etc on multi-tiered serving plates--that's why we think it is a joke when we serve only a cup of tea and a cookie from the cookie jar and proudly announce "It is "High Tea time"  I guess serving it at 10:30 AM is also incorrect.