Tilling the Winter Webs

till [v] - To prepare (land) for the raising of crops, as by plowing and harrowing; cultivate

I don't know about you, but I love quotes. As part of my garden prep - which is as much a physical body preparation activity as it is a heart and soul prepping one - I spend a  lot of time mentally preparing for it. Tilling the weeds in my brain, if you will. 

As part of my own prep, I love to read quotes to get perspective from other gardeners and growers through the years, as gardening is by no means a new activity for us humans. 

Here are 12 of my recent favorite gardening quotes to help you clear your winter webs and make space for sowing the seeds of your own garden(s). 


Life's a garden, dig it and you make it work for you -- Joe Dirt

However many years she lived, Mary always felt that 'she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow' -- Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

My garden is my beautiful masterpiece -- Claude Monet

A garden should make you feel you have entered privileged space -- a space not just set apart but reverberate  -- and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer to poetry -- Michael Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education

Plants want to grow; they are on your side as long as you are reasonably sensible -- Anne Wareham

To dream a garden and then plant it is an act of independence and even defiance to the greater world -- Stanley Crawford, A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm

We gardeners are healthy, joyous, natural creatures. We are practical, patient, optimistic. We declare our optimism every year, every season, with every act of planting -- Carol Deppe, The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times

Kind hearts are the gardens, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the flowers, kind deeds are the fruits. Take care of your garden and keep out the weeds. Fill it with sunshine, kind words & kind deeds -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Faith sees a beautiful blossom in a bulb, a lovely garden in a seed, and a giant oak in an acorn -- William Arthur Ward


What are your favorite quotes about gardening to add?

Springing my mind back to garden mode (with a list)

There are little snowdrops blooming in my garden today. I took a walk around the yard, was smiling to see just one little snow patch left to melt. It got me thinking of all the things I want to remember from what I learned LAST year, in my first year ‘turn my front yard into a garden’ adventure.

1    1.      Keep a journal. It will make making such a list much easier. In reality, I captured a lot of the garden learning in photos. I still want to keep a log of things, to ease the strain on my brain.
2.       Plant the things you really liked and don’t worry about the other stuff. For me, it is really all about the tomatoes. Last year in a 4’ x 8’ bed I grew more than 450 tomatoes, in 8 varieties. It was the pride of my summer. I also love to grow (and eat!) swiss chard, beans, basil, rosemary, leeks, carrots, lettuces, and brussel sprouts and a big container of mint. I will try to grow squash again, although mine caught bugs and fungus and were gone too quick last year. I will skip cauliflower, kale and broccoli.
3.       I have always loved old cotton sheets, the kind that have little birds or flowers embroidered on them, and always feel cool to your cheek on a summer night. Well, those sheets, once wor n and tattered make one of my favorite garden tools – cotton strips for tying plants. Especially in my tomato bed, I love to see all the strips blowing in the breeze amongst the green of the plants and the red & yellow of the fruit.
4.       Talk about the food we eat at our family dinner table – it is interesting to talk about where our food comes from and my family is proud and happy of the food we grow and the food we get from our farm share and our city farmers market.
5.       Share. I think I have this one down, but like the reminder. Share the food, share the fun, share the knowledge. Share my enthusiasm.
6.       Move a table to the front yard for al fresco dinners in the garden. We have a back yard table where we ate at a lot last year, but I want to have coffee, breakfast and snacks in the front yard garden too. This is a big lesson learned for me that I am excited to implement.
7.       Find a way to count and predict and celebrate. Maybe we will make guesses to how many tomatoes we will grow this year, or what will be ready by someone’s visit or birthday? Maybe we will guess how many local meals we can make between June and September. Maybe we will host a pot-local luck garden dinner…endless opportunities.

How about you, what garden lessons will you take with you into your Garden2014?