ON GARDENING

Rhododendron 'Polar Bear'
Purchased from Meerkerk Gardens, Whidbey Island, WA.
Blooming on Shaw Island this day of Eleven July 2015.

"Gardening is not some game by which one proves his superiority over others, not is it a marketplace for the display of elegant things that others cannot afford. It is, on the contrary, a growing work of creation, endless in its changing elements. It is not a monument or an achievement, but a sort of travelling, a kind of pilgrimage you might say, often a bit grubby or sweaty, though true pilgrims do not mind that. A garden is not a picture, but a language, which is of course, the major art of life."

The late, great Henry Mitchell, in the Essential Earthman.

      Slate published a beautiful tribute to one of my favorite garden writers in 1998. See Deborah Needleman