Quote continued: "I mean to have a moral garden, if it is not a productive one-one that shall teach, Oh my brothers! O my sisters! The great lessons of life [My comments: At least he wasn't sexist but I don't think I will rush out and buy his book]
Here is quick one with none of my facetious comments:
Michael Pollan, Second Nature, A Gardener's Education, 1991:
"Of the seven deadly sins, surely it is pride that most commonly afflicts the gardener [My comment: I already have this book by my bedside as it is one of my favourites and I think it is better if I don't write any more]
I think it is time to be a little more cheerful and quote from the chapter entitled "Rewards"
This quote I agree with wholeheartedly, I just wish I had the time to feel it more often, especially in the coming week:
Jill Parker, The Purest of Pleasures, 1988
"A sharp flick, a steady pull, a gentle twist or a deep scoop-all are part of the relentless tactics of handweeding. Only to another gardener could one admit to the foolish quickening of the pulse as one follows the tenacious root of a weed, the chagrin when it breaks off and the triumph when it breaks out whole."
And now I will be serious, for a moment. Note that this was written at the end of the Second World War
Clare Leighton, garden writer, 1948:
"There has never been a time when we have more definitely and more deeply needed our gardens. We are living in a queer, spiritless time of confusion; there is very little sense of security in life. We seem to have lost our vision, to be filled with anxiety, to feel there is no long-distance view of life; and this is a strange, bad negativeness, a chaos of mind, that which there is nothing more destructive. Perhaps one of the best ways to get back to a sense of basic spiritual security is to work more and more in the earth"
What do you think? Could it have been written today with justification?. I have come to the end of my writing and I feel a lot better. I will not be too late with this new article and the sun is shining. My dripping nose has eased off and there are still three more hours of light left to chase those weeds down into the wet, crumbling, rich brown earth. After all, it is much easier to reach the end of the root after it has been raining
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