What they said about gardening ...

I came across the following quote the other day, which seemed apt given that lots of people are planning to take part in Carol’s idea of a book club. Perhaps it could be the club motto?

If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need. Cicero

It also got me searching for other gardening quotes – and I found loads. There were too many to include them all, but here are some of the best :

One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a packet of garden seeds. Dan Bennett

One of the worst mistakes you can make as a gardener is to think you’re in charge. Janet Gillespie

The gardening season officially begins on Jan 1st, and ends on Dec 31st. Marie Huston

It is only when you start to garden – probably after fifty – that you realise something important happens every day. Geoffrey B Charlesworth

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves. Mohandas K Gandhi

You know you are a gardener, if you find compost a fascinating subject. Author unknown

Always try to grow something in your garden out of the ordinary, something your neighbours never attempted. For you can receive no greater flattery than to have a gardener of equal intelligence stand before your plant and ask, “What’s that?” Richardson Wright

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us. Iris Murdoch

Why do people give each other flowers? To celebrate various important occasions, they're killing living creatures? Why restrict it to plants? "Sweetheart, let's make up. Have this deceased squirrel." The Washington Post

If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn. Andrew Mason

My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view. H. Fred Ale

Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson

What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it. Charles Dudley Warner

Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans. Marcelene Cox

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done. Author Unknown

And perhaps my favourite of all ...

I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite. Bertrand Russell