Thursday, May 17, 2012

Garden Quotes


While searching for a quote to apply to this texturized photo I created I came across these quotes 
I would like to share with you. As I was reading them I found that I agreed with most of 
them and many brought a smile to my face. 
 I can't seem to stop searching and reading them - careful it is addicting.


"Because a garden means constantly making choices, it offers almost limitless possibilities for surprise and satisfaction."

- Jane Garmey, The Writer in the Garden  

"In his garden every man may be his own artist without apology or explanation.  Each within his green enclosure is a creator, and no two shall reach the same conclusion; nor shall we, any 
more than other creative workers, be ever wholly satisfied with our accomplishment.  Ever a season ahead of us floats the vision of perfection and herein lies its perennial charm."
-  Louise Beebe Wilder


"Let no one think that real gardening is a bucolic and meditative occupation.  It is an insatiable passion, like everything else to which a man gives his heart.        '
-  Karel Capek


"Little by little, even with other cares, the slowly but surely working poison of the garden-mania begins to stir in my long-sluggish veins."
-  Henry James


"Texture and foliage keep a garden interesting through the season. 
Flowers are just moments of gratification.
"
-   Kevin Doyle


"Gardens are the result of a collaboration between art and nature.
"
-  Penelope Hobhouse

"In a rock garden we foster a little patch of the wilderness that stands to us for freedom."
-  Jason Hill

"In garden arrangement, as in all other kinds of decorative work, one has not 
only to acquire a knowledge of what to do, but also to gain some wisdom in
perceiving what it is well to let alone.
"
-  Gertrude Jekyll



"Should it not be remembered that in setting a garden we are painting - a picture 
of hundreds of feet or yards instead of so many inches, painted with living flowers 
and seen by open daylight - so that to paint it rightly is a debt that we owe to the 
beauty of flowers and to the light of the sun.
"
-   William Robinson, The English Flower Garden and Home Grounds, 1883

 "Gardens unite artificial and natural beauty, embracing all the natural elements - water, light, air, growth - and making them elements of art.  Every effort devoted to garden design becomes a mirror of the longing for happiness in harmony with nature."  
-   Carl F. Schroer

 "Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty."

-  James Russell Lowell
 "Today the art of gardening is practiced much more often than 
any other, in ignorant, impulsive ways, by people who never 
stop to think that it is an art at all."   

-  M.G. Van Rensselaer

 "All gardeners need to know when to accept something wonderful 
and unexpected, taking no credit except for letting it be."

-  Allen Lacy 

"Don't underestimate the therapeutic value of gardening.  It's the one area where 
we can all use our nascent creative talents to make a truly satisfying work of art. 
Every individual, with thought, patience and a large portion of help from nature, 
has it in them to create their own private paradise: truly a thing of beauty 
and a joy for ever." 

-  Geoff Hamilton, Paradise Gardens  


"Many pursue happiness, gardeners create it."
  - Michael P. Garofalo, Pulling Onions  

"All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today."
- Indian Proverb 

"Man was not made to rust out in idleness.  A degree of exercise is as necessary for the preservation of health, both of body and mind, as his daily food.  And what exercise is more fitting, or more appropriate of one who is in the decline of life, than that of superintending a
well-ordered garden?   What more enlivens the sinking mind?   What is more conducive to a long life?"
-  Joseph Breck

 "What will I do when I can no longer dig?"

-  Knute Hamson, Growth of the Soil

"Early to bed, early to rise,
Work like hell: fertilize."
-  Emily Whaley, Charleston, N.C.


"Any garden demands as much of its maker as he has to give.  But I do not need to tell you, if you are a gardener, that no other undertaking will give as great a return for the amount of effort put into it."
-  Elizabeth Lawrence


"There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling."
-  Mirabel Osler


"For me, a garden is peace of mind.  It immediately takes my mind off the thing I'm puzzling about in my work and gives me repose."
-  Henry Louis Gates Jr.


 "My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view." 
-  H. Fred Ale


Thursday, May 3, 2012

Garden Delights - Look What's Blooming Today


As I wandered through the garden today I was delighted to see the purple sand cherry blossoms.
I had forgotten how pretty they were and they brought a smile to my face.

I then wandered on and was pleased to spot this little white pasque flower. It blooms a little later than the purple one which is past its prime as seen in the following photos.



I should not have said "past its prime". I take that back because once the flower fades this beautiful seed head remains for weeks. I think it's as beautiful as the flower.

The creeping veronica has also come into flower. This plant is such a pretty blue 
which is hard to find in the garden.

As I moved on I spotted these tulips that I did not plant. Thank you squirrels, good job! 

One of the things that I enjoy so much about gardening is that every day it changes and brings new delights. If I am gone a few days I cannot wait to tour the garden to see what has gone on while I was away. 

I wonder what she is thinking. 

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