Therefore the sage is as pointed as a square but does not pierce. He is as acute as a knife but does not cut. He is as straight as an unbent line but does not extend. He is as bright as light but does not dazzle.
The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt head in the sun heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body but the soul. Share the botanical bliss of gardeners through the ages who have cultivated philosophies to apply to their own ? and our own ? lives: Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.
The Japanese garden is a very important tool in Japanese architectural design because not only is a garden traditionally included in any house design the garden itself also reflects a deeper set of cultural meanings and traditions. Whereas the English garden seeks to make only an aesthetic impression the Japanese garden is both aesthetic and reflective. The most basic element of any Japanese garden design comes from the realization that every detail has a significant value.
A garden should be in a constant state of fluid change expansion experiment adventure; above all it should be an inquisitive loving but self?critical journey on the part of its owner.
Digging potatoes is always an adventure somewhat akin to fishing. There is forever the possibility that the next cast or the next thrust of the digging fork will turn up a clunker.
A person who undertakes to grow a garden at home by practices that will preserve rather than exploit the economy of the soil has his mind precisely against what is wrong with us…. What I am saying is that if we apply our minds directly and competently to the needs of the earth then we will have begun to make fundamental and necessary changes in our minds. We will begin to understand and to mistrust and to change our wasteful economy which markets not just the produce of the earth but also the earths ability to produce.
Amazingly enough almost all the fruits grown in home gardens from strawberries to apricots are members of the same plant family Rosaceae along with such decorative favorites as roses mountain ash flowering quince…. Worldwide there are about 3400 members of this very ancient plant group which exhibit primitive characteristics.
You fight dandelions all weekend and late Monday afternoon there they are pert as all get out in full and gorgeous bloom pretty as can be thriving as only dandelions can in the face of adversity.
… the most fiendish plant I know of the sort of thing Beelzebub might pluck to make a bouquet for his mother?in?law … it looks as if it had been made out of a sows ear for the spathe and the tail of a rat that died of Elephantiasis for the spadix. The whole thing is mingling of unwholesome greens livid purples and pallid pinks the livery of putrescence in fact and it possesses and odour to match the colouring.
All things began in Order so shall they end and so shall they begin again according to the Ordainer of Order and the mystical mathematicks of the City of Heaven.
[A sheared hedge] … signifies vision persistence and patience ? qualities we crave in todays world. Yet many people do make the commitment. They create hedges care for them eagerly and gain much satisfaction from the process. Why? Perhaps its because shaping a hedge is the closest most of us will ever come to doing sculpture or erecting a monument but I think the real reward is more mundane. Shearing is very empowering ? it gives you an exhilarating sense of control and achievement. You can stand back afterward and say look what Ive done.
Gardening is such a highly individual area that it is irresistible to egocentrics…. The word is used in its broadest most correct sense and is not to be confused with egoist. It includes not only those who are normally naturally self?centered but also those who have been rendered self?centered by circumstances ? those who are lonely timid shy; those who have a compulsion to express themselves in some art or other; and especially those who are ostriches who are only truly happy when they escape from the bewilderment of daily life by burying their heads in an interesting well?ordered and preferably beautiful landscape.
When your garden is finished I hope it will be more beautiful than you anticipated require less care that you had expected and have cost only a little more than you had planned.
To garden you open your personal space to admit a few a great many or thousands of plants which exude charm pleasure beauty oxygen conversation friendship confidence and other rewards should you succeed in meeting their basic needs. This is why people garden. It can be easy but challenging and the rewards are priceless.
Soon shall thy arm unconquerd steam! afar Drag the slow barge or drive the rapid car; Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying chariot through the field of air.
All the seasons run their race In this quiet resting-place; Peach and apricot and fig Here will ripen and grow big; Here is store and overplus – More had not Alcinous!
If the garden of Eden really exists it does so moment by moment fragmented and tough cropping up like a fan of buddleia high up in the gutter of a deserted warehouse or in a heap of frozen cabbages becoming luminous in the reflected light of roadside snow.
Is it too ingenuous to imagine that anything can be left to say about a garden? Garden literature descriptive reminiscent and technical has blossomed so profusely among us during the last decade that he should be an expert indeed who ventures to add thereto.
The fair-weather gardener who will do nothing except when wind and weather and everything else are favourable is never a master of his craft. Gardening above all other crafts is a matter of faith grounded however (if on nothing better) on his experience that somehow or other seasons go on in their right course and bring their right results. No doubt bad seasons are a trial of his faith; it is grievous to lose the fruits of much labour by a frosty winter or a droughty summer but after all frost and drought are necessities for which in all his calculations he must leave an ample margin; but even in the extreme cases when the margin is past the gardeners occupation is not gone.
Gardening is a labour full of tranquility and satisfaction; natural and instructive and as such contributes to the most serious contemplation experience health and longevity.
… garden books are quite unconscious that besides telling us how to turn our patch of earth into a garden they are also expressing the way their age looks at the world the state of their society.
In green old gardens hidden away From sight of revel and sound of strife Here I have leisure to breathe and move And to do my work in a nobler way; To sing my songs and to say my say; To Dream my dreams and to love my love; To hold my faith and to live my life. Making the most of its shadowy day.
One of the most delightful things about gardening is the freemasonry it gives with other gardeners and the interest and pleasure all gardeners get by visiting other peoples gardens. We all have a lot to learn and in every new garden there is a chance of finding inspiration – new flowers different arrangement or fresh treatment for old subjects. Even if it is a garden you know by heart there are twelve months in the year and every month means a different garden and the discovery of things unexpected all the rest of the year.
Wyth a saw thou schalt the tre kytte And with a knyfe smouth make hytte Klene a-tweyne the stok of the tre Where-yn that they graffe schall be Make thy Kyttyng of thy graffe By-twyne the newe & the olde staffe.
Therefore the sage is as pointed as a square but does not pierce. He is as acute as a knife but does not cut. He is as straight as an unbent line but does not extend. He is as bright as light but does not dazzle.
The trouble with gardening is that is does not remain an avocation. It becomes an obsession.
More black than ash-buds in the front of March.
Isn?t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt head in the sun heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body but the soul. Share the botanical bliss of gardeners through the ages who have cultivated philosophies to apply to their own ? and our own ? lives: Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.
As is the garden such is the gardener. A mans nature runs either to herbs or weeds.
Every decade needs its own manual of handicraft.
The Japanese garden is a very important tool in Japanese architectural design because not only is a garden traditionally included in any house design the garden itself also reflects a deeper set of cultural meanings and traditions. Whereas the English garden seeks to make only an aesthetic impression the Japanese garden is both aesthetic and reflective. The most basic element of any Japanese garden design comes from the realization that every detail has a significant value.
God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.
A garden should be in a constant state of fluid change expansion experiment adventure; above all it should be an inquisitive loving but self?critical journey on the part of its owner.
Digging potatoes is always an adventure somewhat akin to fishing. There is forever the possibility that the next cast or the next thrust of the digging fork will turn up a clunker.
A person who undertakes to grow a garden at home by practices that will preserve rather than exploit the economy of the soil has his mind precisely against what is wrong with us…. What I am saying is that if we apply our minds directly and competently to the needs of the earth then we will have begun to make fundamental and necessary changes in our minds. We will begin to understand and to mistrust and to change our wasteful economy which markets not just the produce of the earth but also the earths ability to produce.
Amazingly enough almost all the fruits grown in home gardens from strawberries to apricots are members of the same plant family Rosaceae along with such decorative favorites as roses mountain ash flowering quince…. Worldwide there are about 3400 members of this very ancient plant group which exhibit primitive characteristics.
You fight dandelions all weekend and late Monday afternoon there they are pert as all get out in full and gorgeous bloom pretty as can be thriving as only dandelions can in the face of adversity.
To cultivate a garden is to walk with God.
… the most fiendish plant I know of the sort of thing Beelzebub might pluck to make a bouquet for his mother?in?law … it looks as if it had been made out of a sows ear for the spathe and the tail of a rat that died of Elephantiasis for the spadix. The whole thing is mingling of unwholesome greens livid purples and pallid pinks the livery of putrescence in fact and it possesses and odour to match the colouring.
A garden is a lovesome thing God wot!
All things began in Order so shall they end and so shall they begin again according to the Ordainer of Order and the mystical mathematicks of the City of Heaven.
[A sheared hedge] … signifies vision persistence and patience ? qualities we crave in todays world. Yet many people do make the commitment. They create hedges care for them eagerly and gain much satisfaction from the process. Why? Perhaps its because shaping a hedge is the closest most of us will ever come to doing sculpture or erecting a monument but I think the real reward is more mundane. Shearing is very empowering ? it gives you an exhilarating sense of control and achievement. You can stand back afterward and say look what Ive done.
Hath not thy heart within thee burned At evenings calm and holy hour?
The heart bowed down by weight of woe To weakest hope will cling.
Gardening is such a highly individual area that it is irresistible to egocentrics…. The word is used in its broadest most correct sense and is not to be confused with egoist. It includes not only those who are normally naturally self?centered but also those who have been rendered self?centered by circumstances ? those who are lonely timid shy; those who have a compulsion to express themselves in some art or other; and especially those who are ostriches who are only truly happy when they escape from the bewilderment of daily life by burying their heads in an interesting well?ordered and preferably beautiful landscape.
We use our gardens as a refuge much as a painter uses canvas as an area to be created according to our own suitably reassuring aesthetic taste.
You ought to know that October is the first Spring month.
When your garden is finished I hope it will be more beautiful than you anticipated require less care that you had expected and have cost only a little more than you had planned.
If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need.
Of all the flora and fauna on earth it is only man that desires or needs rules.
To garden you open your personal space to admit a few a great many or thousands of plants which exude charm pleasure beauty oxygen conversation friendship confidence and other rewards should you succeed in meeting their basic needs. This is why people garden. It can be easy but challenging and the rewards are priceless.
This cabin Mary in my sight appears Built as it has been in our waning years A rest afforded to our weary feet Preliminary to the last retreat.
A fine garden being no less difficult to contrive and order well than a good building.’08-02-2010
And hail their queen fair regent of the night.
Soon shall thy arm unconquerd steam! afar Drag the slow barge or drive the rapid car; Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying chariot through the field of air.
I have a rock garden. Last week three of them died.
How fair is a garden amid the toils and passions of existence.
All the seasons run their race In this quiet resting-place; Peach and apricot and fig Here will ripen and grow big; Here is store and overplus – More had not Alcinous!
The garden is a metaphor for life and gardening is a symbol of the spiritual path.
My lilac trees are old and tall; I cannot reach their bloom at all. They send their perfume over trees And roof and streets to find the bees.
If the garden of Eden really exists it does so moment by moment fragmented and tough cropping up like a fan of buddleia high up in the gutter of a deserted warehouse or in a heap of frozen cabbages becoming luminous in the reflected light of roadside snow.
If your going to try to push nature it just pushes right back against you.
Is it too ingenuous to imagine that anything can be left to say about a garden? Garden literature descriptive reminiscent and technical has blossomed so profusely among us during the last decade that he should be an expert indeed who ventures to add thereto.
The fair-weather gardener who will do nothing except when wind and weather and everything else are favourable is never a master of his craft. Gardening above all other crafts is a matter of faith grounded however (if on nothing better) on his experience that somehow or other seasons go on in their right course and bring their right results. No doubt bad seasons are a trial of his faith; it is grievous to lose the fruits of much labour by a frosty winter or a droughty summer but after all frost and drought are necessities for which in all his calculations he must leave an ample margin; but even in the extreme cases when the margin is past the gardeners occupation is not gone.
Weed a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
Gardening is a labour full of tranquility and satisfaction; natural and instructive and as such contributes to the most serious contemplation experience health and longevity.
… garden books are quite unconscious that besides telling us how to turn our patch of earth into a garden they are also expressing the way their age looks at the world the state of their society.
In green old gardens hidden away From sight of revel and sound of strife Here I have leisure to breathe and move And to do my work in a nobler way; To sing my songs and to say my say; To Dream my dreams and to love my love; To hold my faith and to live my life. Making the most of its shadowy day.
Illustrious predecessors.
One of the most delightful things about gardening is the freemasonry it gives with other gardeners and the interest and pleasure all gardeners get by visiting other peoples gardens. We all have a lot to learn and in every new garden there is a chance of finding inspiration – new flowers different arrangement or fresh treatment for old subjects. Even if it is a garden you know by heart there are twelve months in the year and every month means a different garden and the discovery of things unexpected all the rest of the year.
A good garden may have some weeds.
Wyth a saw thou schalt the tre kytte And with a knyfe smouth make hytte Klene a-tweyne the stok of the tre Where-yn that they graffe schall be Make thy Kyttyng of thy graffe By-twyne the newe & the olde staffe.