the garden of life
  

If you would be happy all your life,
plant a garden.

Chinese proverb
   

I'm still devoted to the garden. . . although an old man,
I am but a young gardener.

Thomas Jefferson

      

I do not envy the owners of very large gardens.  The garden should
fit its owner or his or her tastes, just as one's clothes do; it should
be neither too large nor too small, but just comfortable.

Gertrude Jekyll
  
In one's garden a person may be one's own artist
without apology or explanation.  Here is one spot
where each may experience the "romance of possibility.

Louise Beebe Wilder



I have never had so many good ideas, day after day,
as when I worked in the garden.

John Erskine

   

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful;
they are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul.

Luther Burbank

   

A garden really lives only insofar as it is an expression of faith,
the embodiment of a hope and a song of praise.

Russell Page
   
   
   

Of course, the character of my garden
is also determined by things beyond
any human decision, mine or anyone else's.

Allen Lacy
  
Those who plant trees plant hope.

Lucy Larcom

It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a home-grown tomato.

Lewis Grizzard
  
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
  

My garden, with its silence and pulses of fragrance that come
and go on the airy undulations, affects me like sweet music.
Care stops at the gates, and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.

Alexander Smith
   

I look upon the pleasure which we take in a garden as
one of the most innocent delights in human life. . . It
gives us a great insight into the contrivance and wisdom
of Nature, and suggests innumerable subjects for meditation.

Cicero
   

To cultivate a garden is. . . to
go hand in hand with Nature
in some of her most beautiful
processes, to learn something
of her choicest secrets, and
to have a more intelligent interest
awakened in the beautiful order
of her works elsewhere.

Christian Bovee

 

When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy there's always the garden.

William Affleck
the garden of life

The work of a garden bears visible fruits--in a world
where most of our labours seem suspiciously meaningless.

Pam Brown
   

Native Americans all over the U.S. and Canada use a term they call
the Three Sisters to describe the Native American way of life
through the gardening technique of planting corn, beans and squash
together on the same mound.  These Three Sisters - corn, beans
and squash - supplement and complement each other.  The vines
of the bean plant grow up the corn stalk.  The huge leaves of
the squash vines keep the ground moist for all of the roots.
The nutritious vitamins from each of the plants escapes
into the soil so that they each benefit from one another.

Deborah Champlain
   

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I think that gardening is nearer to godliness than theology.

Vigen Quoiran
   

Those who plant gardens, plant happiness.

Chinese proverb
    

I use the word "aim" perhaps too loosely, for I surely will have many aims
in connection with every garden I attempt; the first perhaps is quite simply
to leave a place more beautiful than I find it.

Russell Page
   

    

When I go into my garden, all the cares, perplexities, and griefs of existence,
all the burdens of life slip from my shoulders and leave me with the heart
of a little child that asks nothing beyond its present moment of innocent bliss.

Celia Thaxter
    

Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as the paint,
and the soil and sky as the canvas--working with nature provides the technique.

Elizabeth Murray
   
    
St. Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden when someone asked
what he would do if he were suddenly to learn that he would die
before sunset that very day.  "I would finish hoeing my garden," he replied.

Louis Fischer
    

Where would the gardener be if there were no more weeds?

Chuang Tzu
   

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All gardens, even the most native and naturalistic, benefit from
the hand of an artful pruner. In this season where the garden is
poised for the green flood of springtime, remember that our gardens
are co-creations, shared with mother earth. And like any good
mother, she expects you to tidy up your room.

Tom Spencer
     

For the Infinite has sowed his name in the heavens in burning stars,
but on the earth he has sowed his name in tender flowers.

Jean Paul Richter

  

One can get lost in their garden and the rest of the world ceases to exist,
if only for a while. Anger dissipates with every shovel of dirt moved, pleasure
is found in the simplest forms, excitement is felt as each tiny plant matures
and then triumph with the harvest of the first tomato of the season. The
love of gardening never goes away. Even if someone is unable to garden
themselves, they enjoy the gardens of others.

Renee Hogan

the garden of life