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I have heard people say, "I garden in
lieu of therapy, but therapy would be cheaper." I believe
gardening's worth the price since it's at least as effective in
curing head and heart of what ails us.
- Janet Macunovich -
see What's Coming Up #109
In my garden, after a rainfall, you
can faintly, yes, hear the breaking of new blooms.
-Truman Capote -
Above, left: In early spring, dwarf Fothergilla (F.
gardenii) flowers break bud before the leaves.
Above, right: Serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.)
blooms.
...a garden is mainly ...a space
around which interests can be accumulated.
- Graham Stuart Thomas, in
Perennial Garden Plants -
see What's Coming Up #65
Money plant, a.k.a. honesty (Lunaria annua) in
bloom and in seed.
...the flowers... Those beautiful
creatures that catch the smile of God out of the sky and preserve
it.
Mark Twain, in The
Diaries of Adam and Eve
We pulled the seeds out and scattered
them on their flossy parachutes, leaving only the leathery brownish
yellow tongue, soft as the inside of an elbow.
- Margaret Atwood, in The Blind
Assassin -
Don't wear perfume in the garden
unless you want to be pollinated by bees.
- Anne Raver -
Don't hesitate to put in a plant that
you greatly admire simply because it is supposed to be difficult to
grow... The best gardening is experimental as well as
ephemeral.
- Christopher Lloyd -
see What's Coming Up #169
Take my last best advice: Try
everything twice!
- Janet Macunovich -
see What's Coming Up #62
More than half a
century has passed,
and yet each spring,
when I wander into
the primrose wood,
I see the pale yellow
blooms and smell their
sweetest scent -- for a
moment I am seven
years old again and
wandering in that fragrant wood.
- Gertrude Jekyll -
Love your neighbour, yet don't pull
down your hedge.
- Benjamin Franklin, in Poor
Richard's Almanack, 1754 -
see What's Coming Up #87
Silly gardeners! We buy pretty, comfortable
benches and position them oh so carefully. But does the gardener
ever sit? No! We perch momentarily and then jump up to do that next
thing we see.
- Janet Macunovich -
I cannot
walk into our garden without
constantly being reminded of the friends
who have shared their plants.
- Allen Lacy, in The Inviting
Garden -
It's my hobby, my vocation, my
passion... it may as well be my religion, too.
- Janet Macunovich -
Oakleaf hydrangea (H.
quercifolia) leaves expand from the bud.
A single painted gnome sends out a
message we think we can read and either
tolerate or ridicule. If your immediate
reaction is a patronizing dismissal of both
gnome and owner, you had better
examine very carefully your own
trash-filled life.
- Geoffrey B. Charlesworth,
The Opinionated Gardener, 1988 -
...I make it a point of
honour to have a 
couple of gnomes in my garden as
silent testimony to the right of gnome-lovers everywhere to do
their own thing without fear of snide remarks.
- Richard Briers, A Little Light
Weeding, 1999 -
Those who stay indoors until
the golden flames of forsythia announce to all that spring is here
will miss the first crocus...
- Elizabeth Lawrence, The Home Garden, 1943 -
Raindrops; dogtooth violet (a.k.a. trout lily,
Erythronium canadensis), daily and seasonal wonders too often
missed.
.