pansies

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.

Some might say a calendar is a simple construct that allows us to divide and conquer. But I prefer to think of each little numbered square as the reminder to bite off only what I can chew and savor.

That is the beauty of reading seed catalogues while the next snowstorm approaches. We seed in an imaginary spring, weed in an imaginary summer, harvest in an imaginary fall.

A garden is a lovely thing
But gardens are not made
By saying "Oh how beautiful"
And sitting in the shade!

What is life, and what is gardening, if one is not always ready to make new friends and make new experiments?

Gardens are like those extraordinary Faberge eggs made for the czars, revealing surprise after surprise as the season progresses, each week showing some new wonder.

Every spring offers another chance to undo the damage done by winter and finally get the garden right.