Gardeners have always put words to the quiet work of tending soil, sowing seed, and watching the seasons turn. Here are some well-known gardening quotes, followed by extended selections from writers and designers who spent their lives in gardens.
“Show me your garden, and I shall tell you what you are.” – Alfred Austin
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” – Audrey Hepburn
“The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years.” – Unknown
“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.” – Alfred Austin
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
“One is nearer God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth.” – Dorothy Frances Gurney
Quotes from Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll, one of the most influential garden designers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, wrote extensively about planting design, color harmony, and the discipline of close observation. Her writing reflects long practice and careful study.
“For the love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies, but always grows and grows to an enduring and ever-increasing source of happiness.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“Let no one be discouraged by the thought of how much there is to learn.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“Gardening is a kind of disease. It infects you; you cannot escape it. When you go visiting, your eyes rove about the garden; you interrupt the serious conversation because of an irresistible impulse to pull a weed.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“The best garden is the garden which is always green.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming, summer.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“But a day comes, or perhaps a warmer night, when the wind, now breathing gently from the south-west, puts new life into all growing things.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“There is no spot of ground, however arid, bare or ugly, that cannot be tamed into such a state as may give an impression of beauty and delight.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“But the lesson I have thoroughly learnt and wish to pass on to others is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“I try for beauty and harmony everywhere and especially for harmony of colour.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“Nothing is a better lesson in the knowledge of plants than to sit down in front of them and look them over as carefully as possible.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“Weeding is a delightful occupation, especially after summer rain, when the roots come up clear and clean.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“There is nothing much more difficult to do in outdoor gardening than to plant a mixed border well, and to keep it in beauty throughout the summer.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“The size of a garden has very little to do with its merit. It is the size of the heart and brain and goodwill that will make it delightful or dull.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“I do not envy the owners of very large gardens. The garden should fit its master as his clothes do.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“Some of the most delightful of all gardens are the little strips in front of roadside cottages.” – Gertrude Jekyll
“There is scarcely any rose that we can wish to have in our gardens that is not also delightful in the cut state.” – Gertrude Jekyll
Quotes from Margaret Roach
Margaret Roach writes about gardening as a daily practice shaped by observation and acceptance of change.
“A garden without a gardener is a jungle waiting to happen. But a gardener without a plot to till is likewise a very sorry sight.” – Margaret Roach
“The medium is alive, and always changing, and no, you are never really in charge for a second.” – Margaret Roach
“How ugly my combination was. How proud it made me to see them grow.” – Margaret Roach
“We have grown up together, the garden and I.” – Margaret Roach
“I always say the birds taught me to garden.” – Margaret Roach
“The first week garden centers reopen can be perilous, particularly if the winter has been long.” – Margaret Roach
“The real garden season begins long before the soil can be worked.” – Margaret Roach
Quotes from Alan Titchmarsh
Alan Titchmarsh combines practical horticulture with dry humor drawn from decades in British gardens.
“This new year will be better than the last one. The weather will be kinder and your garden will look better than ever.” – Alan Titchmarsh
“Titchmarsh’s Law says that however big your greenhouse, you will always have too many plants to fit into it.” – Alan Titchmarsh
“Gardeners are as territorial as any robin.” – Alan Titchmarsh
“Gardeners and tea go together like wheelbarrows and manure.” – Alan Titchmarsh
“At the start of every year I walk round the garden to take stock.” – Alan Titchmarsh
“Winter is a time to daydream. Gardeners like to look forward, but I like to look back too.” – Alan Titchmarsh
“Sow a thought and you reap an act; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character.” – often quoted in gardening contexts
Quotes from Monty Don
Monty Don often writes about gardens as living ecosystems shaped by restraint and patience.
“I love plants for their setting as much as for themselves.” – Monty Don
“I can love a garden made up of very ordinary plants just as easily as one that contains rare specimens.” – Monty Don
“Gardening is not a rational act.” – Monty Don
“Dandelions thrive on being chopped back.” – Monty Don
“The garden is a place of constant change and renewal.” – Monty Don
More gardening quotes
“The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.” – Hanna Rion
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” – Greek proverb
“In every gardener there is a child who believes in The Seed Fairy.” – Robert Brault
“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.” – Claude Monet
“Gardening is the purest of human pleasures.” – Francis Bacon
“`
Leave a Reply