My third offering from a book I bought in a charity shop recently…..
Sara Stein
‘Let’s imagine a goal: that at some time in the future, the value of a property will be perceived in part according to its value to wildlife. A property hedged with fruiting shrubs will be worth more than one bordered by Forsythia. One with dry-stone walls that provide passageways for chipmunks will be valued higher than one whose walls are cemented stone. Buyers will place a premium on lots that provide summer flowers and fall crops of seed. Perhaps there will be formal incentives; tax abatements geared to the number of native species; deductions for lots that require neither sprays nor sprinklers. A nursery colony of bats might be considered a capital improvement. There could be bonuses for birdhouses.
Oh, brave new world!’…
My second offering from a book I bought in a charity shop recently…..
Whilst on holiday in Suffolk recently, I ventured into one of several Charity Shops to look at the books, especially those on gardening. I came across a little paperback which takes a ‘sideways look’ at gardening and bought it (for the princely sum of £1) in order to share some of the best little offerings with you. For a 1990’s book it sounds a little quaint, I think, especially in relation to gender stereotyping in the garden (and elsewhere)! Tell me what you think…“1. Never plant anything in the garden that can subsequently be held against you.
2. Birds can be fooled once… the family pet, never.
3. A man who helps with the weeding is up to something.
4. Men who have difficulty making a start in the garden have no trouble at all with the motorbike or car.
5. No matter who plants it, you’ll end up peeling it.
6.’Popping down the road to borrow Fred’s tools’ translated means, ‘Popping down the pub, and should I by chance see Fred I’ll ask if I can borrow his tools.’
‘Botany, n. The science of vegetables – those that are not good to eat, as well as those that are. It deals largely with their flowers, which are commonly badly designed, inartistic in colour, and ill- smelling.’
- Some of the apples developing nicely in Old School Garden– but due to a late frost, flower wilt and insect attack, most of the trees are showing only a few, if any, fruit.
‘Is it not a pleasant sight to behold a multitude of trees round about, in decent form and order, bespangled and gorgeously apparelled with green leaves, blooms and goodly fruits as with a rich robe of embroidered work, or as hanging with some precious and costly jewels or pearls, the boughs laden and burdened, bowing down to you, and freely offering their ripe fruits as a large satisfaction of all your labours?’
- Contemplation/ Garden of Gethsemane by Jenny Meehan
‘..Gardening has always been regarded as a peculiarly English activity: indeed, it has assumed a key role in English identity. There are two main reasons for this..first…the weather….But there are also cultural reasons why gardening became the favoured activity of the English….English Gardens were seen as having curative powers for the English malady of melancholy….English people, unlike their continental counterparts, for whom it was a place for parade and social intercourse, went into the garden for a very different purpose- contemplation. I believe it was the Reformation which gave Englishmen their green fingers. In Catholic countries meditation took place in churches, monasteries and nunneries. In England the setting for contemplation became the garden….’
‘The worst ENEMYES to gardens are Moles, Catts, Earewiggs, Snailes and Mice, and they must be carefully destroyed, or all your labor all the year long is lost.’
‘Men seldom plant trees till they begin to grow Wise, that is, till they grow Old and find by Experience the Prudence and Necessity of it.’
John Evelyn
‘Trees are the best monuments that a man can erect to his own memory. They speak his praises without flattery, and they are blessings to children yet unborn.’
Lord Orrery to Thomas Carew 15th May 1749
‘Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing ‘Embraceable You’ in spats.’
Woody Allen
‘…the snail, whose tender horns beign hit,
Shrinks backward in his shelly cave with pain,
And there, all smother’d up, in shade doth sit,
Long after fearing to creep forth again:’William Shakespeare
Nigel Boldero aka 'Old School Gardener'
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