wondrous words

I found some new gardening terms this week from reading Making Things Grow Outdoors:

Tilth: "This, by the way, is what the experts mean when they tell us to keep the soil rich and in good tilth."
Tilth is the rough texture in soil

Spit, Humus: "If you have not found it [subsoil] by the time you have gone down two spits, the garden has an excellent depth of humus..."
S- the depth of a shovel blade
H- dark brown or black substance consisting of decayed animal and plant matter in soil

Crozier: "A whole generation of so-called gardeners are living in houses surrounded by land in which beans never uncurl like croziers from the soil..."
The curled end of a young frond, or a crook on the end of a bishop's staff

Visit the host of Wondrous Words Wednesday at Bermudaonion's Weblog.