Quotes About Gardening

I've got a drought-tolerant garden; I've got a company - crazy as it sounds, we make yogurt. There are actors who have to act no matter what, but I don't want to do it just for the sake of doing it.

Get a composter and let nature breakdown your compostable trash and use the remains as mulch for your plants.

I put quite a few trees in last autumn. A lot of silver birch and a couple of native trees - just generally doing gardening, putting plants in and hedges in. It takes quite a lot of time and I love it.

I like making pies. I have a bunch of fruit trees in my backyard. My loquat tree sprouted, and I like making loquat pie. They're really hard to peel and everything, and it took me forever, but they make the best pies. They're amazing.

The dwarfed trees of the Chinese and Japanese have been noticed by every author who has written upon these countries, and all have attempted to give some description of the method by which the effect is produced.

I'm a self-taught landscape gardener; it's a real passion of mine. It's what I do in my spare time because trees don't ask questions!

No apple is reliably self-fertile, so each tree needs a pollinator. A neighbour may well have an apple that will do that for you, but it is better to always plant at least two trees to be certain of pollination.

Be the gardener of gratitude to grow flowers of happiness in your garden.

The garden, by design, is concerned with both the interior and the land beyond the garden.

The water needs of perennials vary. Some are moisture-lovers, others are drought-tolerant, and many are somewhere

Here's stuff you can cut out any time you see it: Dead wood: Remove dead canes down to the ground level. Damaged wood: Cut it back into about 1 inch of healthy wood. Misplaced stems: Take off stems that are rubbing together (choose one and spare the other), stems that are taking off in the wrong direction, and stems that are trailing on the ground.

Many perennials (like most people) enjoy being fed. They respond by growing more robustly and producing more flowers. You're fine with a general, all-purpose garden fertilizer, applied according to the label directions during the height of the growing season.

so I recommend picking up Roses For Dummies (Wiley Publishing, Inc.) if you just can't get enough of roses.

You can't deny that regular doses of plant food significantly boost your annuals (make sure you apply it according to directions). The leaves become healthier and greener, and you end up with more buds and flowers.

I'm not going to lie — other creatures as well as humans adore roses.

or brown bugs that lead to misshapen leaves, deformed buds, and discolored flowers (with brown spots). They especially love light-colored roses and are most common in early summer. You can spray with insecticidal soap or neem oil.

So, what, exactly are perennials? They're long-lived herbaceous (non-woody) plants — flowers and herbs, mainly. How long they last depends on the plant and the conditions in your garden.

Black spot: Rose leaves develop small black spots with fringed edges. The fungus that causes black spot is worse in hot, humid weather. To treat, remove and destroy affected leaves (don't add them to the compost pile). Prune the plant to improve air circulation, and water in the morning. Some sprays that fight this disease include summer oil (a light horticultural oil), neem oil, a baking soda solution, sulfur-based sprays, and strong chemicals — ask at your local garden center.

They're especially nice for shady areas where lawn won't grow.

I love the smell of clean laundry. Working in the garden and getting my hands dirty. Doing the dishes. These are the things that make me feel normal.

Sweet peas should smell. Half the point of growing sweet peas is to cut them for the house; they should fill a room with an almost painful olfactory inarticulateness. But most sweet peas smell of nothing. This does not stop them being beautiful, but they are like food with no flavour.

The mysteries of germination and flowering and fruiting engaged me from an early age, and the fact that by planting and working an ordinary patch of dirt you could in a few months' time harvest things of taste and value was, for me, nature's most enduring astonishment.

Here in my garden the second law of thermodynamics is repealed. Here there is more every year, not less. Here it is ever early, never late. Here, in the ungainly form of a Sibley squash, newness comes into the world.

COOK AND, IF YOU CAN, PLANT A GARDEN.