"What one needs in gardening is a cast-iron back with a hinge in it."
Anon.
West-country gardener, looking at row of very stunted broad beans which his employer had sown: 'Im sorry for your bees, sir, they'll get sore knees sucking 'em.'
Ah, no longer "Anon"
" Develop a a passion for hoeing. To cut down a weed is, therefore, to do a moral action. My hoe becomes an instrument of retributive justice. Hoeing becomes, not a pastime, but a duty. Nevertheless, what a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back with a hinge in it."
Charles Dudley Warner 'My Summer in a Garden" 1872
this comes from a book called "Old Time Wisdom:
1001 Old-Time Garden Tips" by Roger YepsenI'll add this one:
"A busy hoe gathers no rust. A rusty hoe in June is a sure sign of a poor farmer." " Genesee Farmer" 1838
Emilie NorCal
Here are some quotes from gardens in New Zealand:
"Old Gardeners Never Die, They Just Spade Away."
"Today Is Beautiful, Why Reach For Tomorrow."
"Today Well Lived Makes Every Yesterday A Dream Of Happiness And Every Tomorrow A Vision Of Hope."
... from Betty Port's garden in Rotorua.
"Gardening, Something That Is Healthy If One Can Straighten Up Afterwards."
... from Elsie & Phil Rouse's garden in Tauranga.
By the way, gardening in New Zealand is a 52-week per year occupation. They have no off season, no time to read seed catalogs, etc. I really appreciate the rest I get during the 6 months of down time between mid-October when I mow the fallen leaves and mid-April when I have to take down the deer netting and mow the wild garlic. It gives me time to play with my snowblower when I am not down in New Zealand or Australia enjoying their gardens.
For more quotes check:
"The flowers in my garden are in their present places because they have personally informed me....that this is where they wish to be. Listening to flowers is one of the most important of all the gardener's duties." Beverly Nichols
This garden is the result of doing unnecessary things which we could not afford, at the wrong time of the year. Unknown
Emilie
Some really good garden quotes in this thread. Here's a few more:
...a real gardener is not a man who cultivates flowers; he is a man who cultivates the soil. Karel Capete
"Probably more pests can be controlled in an armchair in front of a February fire with a garden notebook and a seed catalogue than ca ever be knocked out in hand-to-hand combat in the garden." Neely Turner
Furrow: Horizontal line on forehead of gardener. Garden: One of a vast number of free outdoor restaurants operated by charity-minded amateurs in an effort to provide healthful, balanced meals for insects, birds, and animals. Hose: Crude, but effective and totally safe, type of scythe towed through gardens to flatten flower beds and level vegetable plantings. Nursery: The only known place where money grows on trees. Perennial: Any plant which had it lived would have bloomed year after year.
Henry Beard and Roy McKie from Gardening: A Gardener's Dictionary
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