Terminology

[HeyWayne]

What exactly does "over-wintering" mean?

I see the phrase mentioned in several books and magazines, but I'm not clear if it means - storing over winter, or if they grow over winter?

"Pinching out" is another one.

Does anyone know of a decent "gardeners glossary"?

[Flummery]

I take 'overwintering' to mean that the plant will survive over the winter. Often they don't put more growth on for a few months, but at least they don't die off. Pinching out is nipping off the growing tip. Dunno about a glossary - I would think many gardening books have one at the end.
As with the jargon in any other field, people assume you know what it means. If you do it saves a lot of explanation. If you don't it's totally meaningless!

[Sebbster]

Heywayne, not much to add Flummery has said it all, although the reason for pinching out is to allow the plant to put more effort into flowering and production, instead of growing.

Over-wintering will give you an early crop, with most plants growing a little then becoming largely dormant over the winter months. They are then established for early spring production and growth.

[Jaxom]

Where a crop can take a number of months to reach full fruit. A gardener will sometimes sow at the end of summer if they know the plant will survive the winter if protected. Next year the plant has a head start on spring-sown seeds. As a result early crops can be harvested when other gardeners have very immature plants and no sign of fruit.
A classic example of this would be chilli and pepper plants.
Over-wintering put simply is when a plant becomes dormant until the spring when growth will restart. Some delicate plants will need protection from frost in order to survive.

[Snadger]

To give an instance:-Japanese onions sets will be ready for planting soon to overwinter and form an early crop in June. Whereas spring sown maincrop onions will crop slightly later in July/August!

Pinching out can be for various reasons, but on some types of Tomato plants the shoots which form in the leaf axils are pinched out to force the plant to grow on a single stem with a fixed amount of flowering trusses up this stem (Usually five)
Pinching out can also mean removing the growing tip so that the plant forms a bush.

[Birdie Wife]

It can also mean bringing in more tender plants to a sheltered spot where they will survive the winter, such as a greenhouse, or even into the house, depending on how hardy the plant is.

[Jaxom]

I overwinter my hanging baskets in the cold greenhouse. They have ivy leaf geranium and trailing fuchsia in, which are at risk from frost.
As soon as the risk of frost has gone I give them a feed a little trim and pop them back out. Neighbours are always shocked at how big and full of flower they are at the start of summer compared to their own baskets which have little growth but lots of bare earth.

[todayiwillbemostlygrowing]

For a decent gardeners glossary, I would recommend the RHS Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening which I have just bought from the Book People website at a discounted price of £6.99 which is a bargin considering it is a huge book with all the terminology meanings you could ever need!

[redadmiral]

A gardener will sometimes sow at the end of summer if they know the plant will survive the winter if protected. Next year the plant has a head start on spring-sown seeds. As a result early crops can be harvested when other gardeners have very immature plants and no sign of fruit.
A classic example of this would be chilli and pepper plants.

could i just ask - does that mean i should be sewing pepper seeds fairly soon?

[Alison]

could i just ask - does that mean i should be sewing pepper seeds fairly soon?

No, I think the comment was more referring to plants that have been growing all this season and that somebody wants to keep for next year. Personally for things which are easy to grow such as chillies, I wouldn't bother over wintering. However, I always overwinter a number of tender plants such as my lemon tree / bush which was far to expensive for me to want to replace but wouldn't survive the winter outside. Also, I'll dig up some of my pelegoniums as I'm too tight to buy loads of new flowering plants and they're a pain to grow from seed and I need something for cuttings even if the original plant is getting scruffy!