TheBanyanTree: A Man Who Plants a Garden is a Very Happy Man

[Julie Anna Teague]

Quoting Rob McMonigal <trebro at gmail.com>:

I've had big gardens and I've had small gardens, and yes, by mid July 
in the Midwest, it's just not fun anymore.  I have many large gardens 
now, but tend to grow mostly flowers, which give me great joy, and 
herbs, which give me great flavor without having to wait for some fruit 
which may or may not turn up and which may or may not be eaten by deer 
or raccoons or rabbits.  (We also have a great farmer's market, and 
they do those things so much better than I do.)  Other than that, I 
stick to a some onions and lettuce and spinach.  Oh, and I threw in six 
tomato plants this year, deer already ate one of them.  And some chard, 
which they also ate.  And I forgot that I put a zucchini plant right in 
the middle of my flower garden, and a Cinderella pumpkin just for 
kicks.  And there in lies the problem for me as a gardener--I am at my 
happiest when I've got my hands in the dirt this time of year, so I 
tend to get carried away, forgetting completely about the heat, weeds 
and bugs of July.  But playing in the dirt and piddling around outside 
is pretty much the whole point of it for me, and I'm as happy in the 
process as I am with whatever results I eek out.

> PS:  Bonus points for snagging the title reference without googling...

I sounds like Thomas Jefferson, who said a lot of nice stuff about 
gardening like:

"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and 
no culture comparable to that of the garden."

and

"Though an old man, I am but a young gardener."

And Ralph Waldo Emerson could really turn a phrase when it came to 
gardening--and this is one of my favorite quote:

"Earth laughs in flower."

Enjoy your gardening!

Julie