Pests, Plagues, and Varmints

Compared to gardeners, I think it is generally agreed that others understand very little about anything of consequence.

One way to keep crows out of the corn patch is to plant rhubarb instead.

Here is a landscape pronouncement of possibly dubious value: Any ilex ought to be planted in front of or below windows for winter beauty, simply because you stare out of windows so much during that season.

A garden raised from seed is a garden raised in the heart, the gardener growing along with the garden.

Behind every bloom-filled border is a grubby, sweaty gardener with muddy knees, chipped fingernails, and sore muscles--and a big smile, too.

April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.

We have to stand still in a garden and listen to its rhythms, look for the signs and symbols and meanings, hear its utterances. We have to look down and up, notice the needles and the haystacks.

To imagine a garden paradise, one must live in one's home and listen to its music. . . . Delicious, blissful pleasure is derived from the garden's use as a continuation of the home.

A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.

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.

That's why it's good to have family or old friends. They keep you from becoming a prisoner of your own obsessions. The world is wide, there are other pleasures in it besides gardening, and sometimes we gardeners just need to have that pointed out to us.

Improbability is not a quality we value in landscapes.