Garden Thoughts

[Flummery]

Here's another Ralph Waldo Emerson one. I can really agree with this.

When I go into my garden with a spade and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.

Too many people are like that - but not us any more eh?

[Winged one]

Have you ever noticed how, even if the quotes don't have too many related to gardening or growth, the pictures in many of the books aimed at self-belief, up-lifting and enlightenment are almost always related to the natural world. So lots of plants and growing things, as well as general scenery (rocks, trees, mountains, the sea).

The natural world is so beautiful and uplifting, whether working it yourself or jsut getting out and enjoying it.

Sorry, I don't have any nice quotes to add, just my own rambling thoughts.

[multiveg]

Not sure about this, from The Gardener's Wise Words and Country Ways:

A garden that is not beautifully neat is nothing

though it continues:

But a garden that is too neat and tidy will be no help to wildlife, which can work greatly to a gardener's advantage.

That I like.

[Flummery]

Mine's the second, definitely!

[moggssue]

Neat and tidy? My garden? You're havin a larf!!

[Two_Sheds]

You can bury a lot of troubles [by] digging in the dirt.

[Two_Sheds]

Gardeners Know All The Dirt.

- Popular saying

(esp. on my allotment site!)

[Two_Sheds]

here's one for those with clay soil...

All clays are pretty well unworkable with ordinary implements. For the melted
toffee consistency of winter, you might prefer a large soup-ladle; for light
working over summer, a hammer and cold chisel. Is the soil always too wet or
too dry? No, there's a period - usually a day or two in May - when you can
actually use a fork.

- John Lucas, Backs to the Garden Wall

[JanieB]

Thanks TS, describes my lottie to a T. Been trying to think how to improve the soil, other allotments near mine have obviously had more care and attention and aren't all as "heavy". I think part of the problem is that it is probably one of the few that are the furthest from a driveable path, so barrowing stuff to it is a BIG chore.

[SueA]

Two Sheds I have been known to garden with a spoon from the kitchen!

[kirsty b]

All clays are pretty well unworkable with ordinary implements. For the melted
toffee consistency of winter, you might prefer a large soup-ladle; for light
working over summer, a hammer and cold chisel. Is the soil always too wet or
too dry? No, there's a period - usually a day or two in May - when you can
actually use a fork.

- John Lucas, Backs to the Garden Wall

How true!! I dream of loam.

[wellie]

Flummy, that was a lovely thing to say, and I really appreciate it, thank you....

This one I found is by Gertrude Jekyl (1843-1932)

"A GARDEN IS A GRAND TEACHER. IT TEACHES PATIENCE AND CAREFUL WATCHFULNESS; INDUSTRY AND THRIFT; ABOVE ALL, ENTIRE TRUST"

Personally, I like the 'careful watchfulness', because when I first found out that gardening 'blew my frock up', I used to wake every morning, newly married, and take myself out into my new wilderness wot I was taming, mug of coffee in hand, and every single flowerbud or leaf that had unfurled itself since the previous day, just blew me away completely, and I kind of guessed that I was hooked?!

[Flummery]

Good thing you're hooked Wellie - because Frank McKinney Hubbard says -

In order to live off a garden you practically have to live in it.

But we like to don't we?

[wellie]

I think Trousers would argue with the word 'practically' and substitute 'actually'?!
And yes, Flum, we do!

[Flummery]

The soil is rather like a bran tub. You only get out of it what you put in.

RHS Encyclopedia of gardening.