The garden is the poor man’s apothecary.
—Indian Proverb
You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.
—Unknown
Last night, there came a frost, which has done great damage to my garden…. It is sad that Nature will play such tricks on us poor mortals, inviting us with sunny smiles to confide in her, and then, when we are entirely within her power, striking us to the heart.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Every garden-maker should be an artist along his own lines. That is the only possible way to create a garden, irespective of size or wealth.
—Vita Sackville-West (1892–1962) English Gardener, Author, Poet
As Rosemary is to the spirit, so Lavender is to the soul
—Indian Proverb
Friends are flowers in life’s garden
—Indian Proverb
Gardening is the only unquestionably useful job.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
He who plants a tree, plants a hope
—Indian Proverb
A garden is evidence of faith. It links us with all the misty figures of the past who also planted and were nourished by the fruits of their planting
—Gladys Taber
A Book is like a Garden, carried in the Pocket.
—Unknown
Gardening gives one back a sense of proportion about everything – except itself.
—May Sarton (1912–95) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Novelist
Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made By singing:—“Oh, how beautiful!” and sitting in the shade.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
Cultivate the garden within
—Unknown
One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener’s own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race.
—Wendell Berry (b.1934) American Poet, Novelist, Environmentalist
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
—Anonymous
The garden is a mirror of the heart
—Indian Proverb
In the Garden, my soul is sunshine
—Indian Proverb
In the hope of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
The roses under my window make no reference to former roses or better ones; they are what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done.
—Unknown
I think the true gardener is a lover of his flowers, not a critic of them. I think the true gardener is the reverent servant of Nature, not her truculent, wife-beating master. I think the true gardener, the older he grows, should more and more develop a humble, grateful and uncertain spirit.
—Reginald Farrer (1880–1920) English Botanist, Plant-Collector, Writer
The trouble with gardening is that it does not remain an avocation. It becomes an obsession.
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–78) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Writer of Children’s Books
The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow.
—Unknown
A garden must be looked into, and dressed as the body.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.
—Unknown
Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul.
—The Holy Quran Sacred Scripture of Islam
We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden
—Unknown
Tickle the earth with a hoe, it will laugh a harvest
—Indian Proverb
Unemployment is capitalism’s way of getting you to plant a garden.
—Orson Scott Card (b.1951) American Author
God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
An addiction to gardening is not all bad when you consider all the other choices in life.
—Unknown
If you have a mind at peace, a heart that cannot harden, go find a door that opens wide upon a lovely garden
—Indian Proverb
To see things in the seed, that is genius.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
If you cross a rambling rose with a pansy, you get a rose that still rambles, but it also skips!
—Indian Proverb
I am fully and intensely aware that plants are conscious of love and respond to it as they do to nothing else.
—Celia Thaxter (1835–94) American Poet, Writer
Hoeing in the garden on a bright, soft May day, when you are not obligated to, is nearly equal to the delight of going trouting.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees.
—Douglas Malloch (1877–1938) American Poet, Short-story Writer
Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy.
—Lope de Vega (1562–1635) Spanish Playwright, Poet
My garden will never make me famous, I’m a horticultural ignoramus.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
—Willa Cather (1873–1947) American Novelist, Writer
Always remember the beauty of the garden, for there is peace
—Unknown
Plant carrots in January and you’ll never have to eat carrots.
—Indian Proverb
I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden. No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Such a variety of subjects, someone always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, and instead of one harvest, a continued one thro’ the year. Under a total want of demand except for our family table. I am still devoted to the garden. But tho’ an old man, I am but a young gardener.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
She (or he!) who plants a seed beneath the sod and waits to see a plant, elieves in God
—Indian Proverb
Gardening is medicine that does not need a prescription … And with no limit on dosage.
—Indian Proverb
Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas.
—Elizabeth Murray (1940–2007) American Painter Printmaker