Grow Your Own Magazine

Flummery · #1 (**permalink**) 11-01-2008, 05:05 PM

Prompted, nay inspired, by Wellie's previous Gentle Thoughts thread, I though I'd share with you a quotation or two from the little book of gardening quotations I was given as a present.

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

and another which made me smile -

All gardeners know better than other gardeners.Chinese proverb.

Anyone like to add some more?

wellie · #2 (**permalink**) 11-01-2008, 06:22 PM

A Flummy on hand on The Grapevine is worth lots more than in the bush in the shrubbery.

TonyF · #3 (**permalink**) 11-01-2008, 06:28 PM

How about a Flummery in the shrubbery?

wellie · #4 (**permalink**) 11-01-2008, 06:30 PM

Is there an echo in here?!

Flummery · #5 (**permalink**) 12-01-2008, 12:15 PM

Cheeky monkeys!

Here's another - "Earth laughs in Flowers".

Ralph Waldo Emerson

HappyMouffe · #6 (**permalink**) 12-01-2008, 08:13 PM

I like this one - it's so true...

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

HappyMouffe · #7 (**permalink**) 12-01-2008, 08:14 PM

Mind you, I think the smile tends to slip after I've hand weeded the fifth bucket load of couch grass and ground elder roots from just 3 rows of digging

scarey55 · #8 (**permalink**) 12-01-2008, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappyMouffe

Mind you, I think the smile tends to slip after I've hand weeded the fifth bucket load of couch grass and ground elder roots from just 3 rows of digging

There speaks there voice of bitter experience

TonyF · #9 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappyMouffe

Mind you, I think the smile tends to slip after I've hand weeded the fifth bucket load of couch grass and ground elder roots from just 3 rows of digging

It's a pain for sure but isn't it a satisfying feeling at the end of the day, bit weary, perhaps a bit aching, when you go into the kitchen with a basket full of food?

And when you're sitting on a chair on the lottie/in the garden, cup of tea, piece of cake or a bikkie and you look round at what you acheived, you get the ultimate garden thought, the long drawn out gardener's ahhhhhhhh (we all do it at some time) and that really smug bastard, self satisfied feeling of all the grief of work is at work, none of the fools in my life here causing me aggro, just me and him/her if they're helping you, our plot, our fruit, veggies and flowers for the family/friends and the rest of the world can go take a jump at itself.

Flummery · #10 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 10:42 AM

Ah yes, grand thought. That's why we do it really.
Herer's another -

Gardening has compensations out of all proportion to its goals. It is creation in its purest sense. Phyllis McGinley

HappyMouffe · #11 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 05:31 PM

TonyF, so true

Birdie Wife · #12 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 05:35 PM

Cool thread! I could do with more zen moments when I'm sitting staring out at a sodden garden with the snow blowing horizontally across

Snadger · #13 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 05:36 PM

Must improve my reading material!

I never come across anything as 'deep' as all this!

That's it................ no more Beano or Dandy!

scarey55 · #14 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 06:21 PM

Now, I'm not that religious (and we don't need to go there) but.... this is where my signature comes from and it has always struck a chord.

A garden is a lovesome thing,
God Wot,
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Fern'd grot—
The veriest school
Of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not—
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign;
'Tis very sure God walks in mine.

HeyWayne · #15 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 06:54 PM

"A bird in the hand is worth probably about £15 if it's from Waitrose organic range!"

Seeing that first seedling poke up through the soil, enjoying those first crops and savouring every burst of flavour. Watching the faces of your friends and family as they tuck into the hard earned fruits of your labour and seeing real joy at eating what you have grown - never grows tiring.

Being up to your knees in sh*t isn't a very nice place to be in the work environment, but being knee deep in the stuff on your plot has a whole different meaning.

"Knowing that you'll learn something new tomorrow is what makes it worth doing today!" - HeyWayne 2008

Flummery · #16 (**permalink**) 14-01-2008, 09:33 AM

Here's another Ralph Waldo Emerson one. I can really agree with this.

When I go into my garden with a spade and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.

Too many people are like that - but not us any more eh?

Winged one · #17 (**permalink**) 14-01-2008, 11:03 AM

Have you ever noticed how, even if the quotes don't have too many related to gardening or growth, the pictures in many of the books aimed at self-belief, up-lifting and enlightenment are almost always related to the natural world. So lots of plants and growing things, as well as general scenery (rocks, trees, mountains, the sea).

The natural world is so beautiful and uplifting, whether working it yourself or jsut getting out and enjoying it.

Sorry, I don't have any nice quotes to add, just my own rambling thoughts.

multiveg · #18 (**permalink**) 14-01-2008, 11:26 AM

Not sure about this, from The Gardener's Wise Words and Country Ways:

A garden that is not beautifully neat is nothing

though it continues:

But a garden that is too neat and tidy will be no help to wildlife, which can work greatly to a gardener's advantage.

That I like.

Flummery · #19 (**permalink**) 14-01-2008, 12:29 PM

Mine's the second, definitely!

moggssue · #20 (**permalink**) 14-01-2008, 01:20 PM

Neat and tidy? My garden? You're havin a larf!!

Two_Sheds · #21 (**permalink**) 14-01-2008, 01:35 PM

You can bury a lot of troubles [by] digging in the dirt.

Two_Sheds · #22 (**permalink**) 14-01-2008, 01:36 PM

Gardeners Know All The Dirt.

- Popular saying

(esp. on my allotment site!)

Two_Sheds · #23 (**permalink**) 14-01-2008, 01:42 PM

All clays are pretty well unworkable with ordinary implements. For the melted
toffee consistency of winter, you might prefer a large soup-ladle; for light
working over summer, a hammer and cold chisel. Is the soil always too wet or
too dry? No, there's a period - usually a day or two in May - when you can
actually use a fork.

- John Lucas, Backs to the Garden Wall