These are the gardening writings, which were read at Evy's memorial services.
"There
are many tired gardeners but I've seldom met old gardeners. I know many
elderly gardeners but the majority are young at heart. Gardening simply
does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams
are yet to be realized. The one absolute of gardeners is faith. Regardless
of how bad past gardens have been, every gardener believes that next
year's will be better. It is easy to age when there is nothing to believe
in, nothing to hope for; gardeners, however, simply refuse to grow up.
Thomas Jefferson said once, "Though an old man, I am but a young
gardener"."
--Allan Armitage
"...last
evening there was a gathering of grey cloud, and this ground of grey was
traversed by those fast-traveling wisps of fleecy blackness that are the
surest promise of near rain the sky can show. By bedtime, rain was falling
steadily, and in the night it came down on the roof in a small thunder of
steady downpour. It was pleasant to wake from time to time and hear the
welcome sound, and to know that the clogged leaves were being washed
clean, and that their pores were once more drawing in the breath of life,
and that the thirsty roots were drinking their fill. And now, in the
morning, how good it is to see the brilliant light of the blessed summer
day, always full of new life and abounding gladness; and to feel one's own
thankfulness of heart, and that it is good to live, and all the more good
to live in a garden."
--Gertrude Jekyll, 1900
"Often I
hear people say, "How do you make your plants flourish like
this?" as they admire the little flower patch I cultivate in the
summer, ... "I can never make my plants blossom like this! What is
your secret?" And I answer with one word, "Love." For that
includes all - the patience that endures continual trial, the constancy
that makes perseverance possible, the power of foregoing ease of mind and
body to minister to the necessities of the thing beloved, and the subtle
bond of sympathy which is as important, if not more so, than all the
rest."
--Celia Thaxter, An Island Garden, 1895
"To have
an environmentally correct native garden, it is not enough just to sit
back and let the weeds grow tall; you must, it turns out, be as aggressive
as though you were attempting a Versailles."
--Abby Adams, The Gardener's Gripe Book, 1995
"I've noticed something about gardening. You set out to do one thing and pretty soon you're doing something else, which leads to some other thing, and so on. By the end of the day, you look at the shovel stuck in the half-dug rose bed and wonder what on earth you've been doing.
You've been
gardening, an activity that doesn't necessarily lead directly to its
supposed goal. This used to bother me, until I realized that this
meandering - a kind of free association between earth, tools, body and
mind - is the essence of gardening. What is supposed to be a practical,
goal-oriented activity is actually an act of meditation."
--Anne Raver, Deep in the Green, 1995
"A garden
which is a battleground against the less amiable and cooperative forces of
nature can scarcely be a source of serenity. The gardener must be a
philosopher, accepting that he and his have a place in the cycle of life
which nothing or very little, can alter."
--Hugh Johnson, Hugh Johnson's Gardening Companion, 1996
"I can
only hope that, if I ever get past the Pearly Gates, I shan't be made a
member of the orchestra and put to twanging a harp, but will be assigned
to the garden section, where I can wear my old corduroy pants and
indescribably soiled work shirt and really have a chance to do all the
many things I have left undone."
--Richardson Wright, Another Gardener's Bed-Book, 1933