February 2008
Sometimes survival in compost piles has a way of glorifying a plant you thought you hated.
'I have had almost every rose that you can grow,' she says, 'and some died, but at least I have made their acquaintance.'
A garden raised from seed is a garden raised in the heart, the gardener growing along with the garden.
There is of course no such thing as a green thumb. Gardening is a vocation like any other--a calling, if you like, but not a gift from heaven. One acquires the necessary skills and knowledge to do it successfully, or one doesn't.
I am instinctively suspicious of any garden writer (or gardener) who is insufficiently fretful.
This morning the sun and warmth have gone, a sleety rain is making it difficult to be outside, so I have made a list of the fall jobs. . . . The list that I gradually compile is long, but in order to give myself a sense of accomplishment, I include one or two jobs that I have already done.
But along the way we really do learn that marigolds gain enormously in impact when used as sparingly as ultimatums.
For the uninitiated, the reality of what it takes to create and maintain a great-looking garden appears to be an endless string of tiresome tasks and dirty jobs. But true gardeners know that the real fun of gardening in in the process--the planning, the planting, the nurturing, and the learning.
They should look pretty together, if only my scheme comes off. Alas, how seldom do these little schemes come off. Something will go wrong; some puppy will bury a bone; some mouse will eat the bulbs; some mole will heave the daphnes and the lilac out of the ground. Still, no gardener would be a gardener if he did not live in hope.
It will never rain roses. When we want to have more roses, we must plant more.
There may be a fine line between improving garden flowers and making them ugly.
If you try to think of gardening as a science, it doesn't work. There are too many variables. It's an art.
The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.
