'Gardening is not a rational act.' ~Margaret Atwood
Given our most trying weather of late, I agree with that sentiment, but will never give up. I just reassess. The picture of me on the right of this blog was taken beneath our lovely apricot tree that fell during last week’s fierce windstorm. Many trees and plants went down in that blast. Next spring a new apricot will go into the ground.
It is ever my wish to have a garden like Mr. McGregor‘s, but I must remember that his was in England and did not undergo the brutal trials that have beset mine. Weather in the Shenandoah Valley swings between the extremes of north and south in the most erratic manner, and is very hard on plants. Try as I might, only the strong survive. And sometimes, not even them.
Most of you know me as a writer, and so I am, but I’m a gardener first. My thoughts ever turn to how the plants fare and I grieve when they suffer. Every spring I truly believe this year I will triumph, this year I will not be undone by the vagaries of nature, and each year I have my moments of glory and disappointment. But there’s always next season. And I still hold out hope for a splendid fall. For now, I’m salvaging what I can.
‘A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy.’ ~Luis Barragan
‘A good garden may have some weeds.’ ~Thomas Fuller
‘A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.’ ~D. Elton Trueblood
’A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.’ ~Doug Larson
‘All gardening is landscape painting.’ ~William Kent
‘But if each man could have his own house, a large garden to cultivate and healthy surroundings – then, I thought, there will be for them a better opportunity of a happy family life.’ ~George Cadbury
‘Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.’ ~Luther Burbank
‘Garden as though you will live forever.’ ~William Kent
‘God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.’~Francis Bacon
***Pre-storm photographs taken by my daughter Elise
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