Edited by Tina Ivany.
Do you have a favorite quotation about gardens or gardening?
Robin Shifflet: Here is my favorite Japanese saying about gardens:
If you want to be happy for an hour, get a bottle of sake.
If you want to be happy for a few months, get married.
If you want to be happy for a lifetime, become a gardener.
Anne Murphy: Three of my favorites:
"If you have a garden and a library you have everything that you need." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow." (Audrey Hepburn)
"Though an old man, I am but a young gardener." (Thomas Jefferson)
Mollie Allan: My favorite garden quote is "Bloom where you're planted." Attributed to Mary Engelbreit.
Barbara Patterson: I’m told this is a Greek proverb, and I’ve seen many variations. It’s definitely about far more than planting trees, and I believe it to be true.
"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they shall never sit in."
Pat Venolia: From my dad, Everett Greer, Pomona Wholesale Nursery: “Get rid of the ants, and you’ll get rid of the aphids.”
Connie Beck: This one from John Heathcoat Amory: “Gardening is eleven months of hard work and one month’s acute disappointment.”
I also like the definition of a perennial. “Any plant which, had it lived, would have bloomed year after year.” (Henry Beard)
Tina Ivany: I like the confidence of this quote: “Science, or para-science, tells us that geraniums bloom better if they are spoken to. But a kind word every now and then is really quite enough. Too much attention, like too much feeding, and weeding and hoeing, inhibits and embarrasses them.” (Victoria Glendinning)
Lisa Marun: "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." This Greek proverb is a wonderful reminder that notions like respect and generosity aren't, by definition, limited to certain times, places, or beings. How comforting to think of a world where we all 'plant trees' in our own ways.
Marilyn Wilson: "To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow." This is on a plaque my mother gave me; it is mounted on the wall outside my front door.
Lisa Rini: Here are two I love from the Second Best Marigold Hotel, one of my all-time favorite movies. I have the first quote up on my wall in the garden. Several pets are buried there. It’s also true for plants I have lost.
“There is no such thing as an ending, just a place where you leave the story."
“There's nothing I respect more than someone planting trees under whose shade they may never sit.”
Rachele Melious: My favorite quote is “Some say dog is man’s best friend. Others say it is the tree.”
Sabine Prather and Theodora Gurns shared the same favorite quote: “When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.” (Minnie Aumonier)
Vivian Blackstone: Mine has to do with creatures I don't want in my garden, which are very few, such as praying mantis's, or rats, or others. I use a well know Hawaiian mantra called Ho'oponopono, the Hawaiian system that heals itself/oneself. Recently used by a Dr. Stanley Hew Len. It goes like this:
“I love
you
I'm sorry
Please forgive me
Thank you.”
If they persist I have to use something more tangible.
Steven Gerischer: My favorite quote is about garden design (I use it whenever teaching people who think they can't): “You put somethin' round with somethin' spikey with somethin' fluffy-you're a genius! This ain't rocket science!" (Felder Rushing)
Sheila Busch: “The garden is never done.”
Jim Bishop: Bob Dale, the weatherman on Channel 7 used to recite this poem about San Diego weather several times a year. I think it is all you need to know about San Diego’s gardening climate:
“Our spring is in the summer.
Our summer is in the fall.
Our fall is in the winter
And our winter is not at all.”