A Gardener's Credo

A Gardener's Credo

What is a garden?

A garden is art.

It is also science; and exercise.

Most of all, it is sustenance.

A garden is first among places,

and gardening is first among pursuits,

in demanding so much of body, mind and heart,

and in giving so much in return.

A garden in the city 

brings colour, scent and flavour

to the concrete wasteland.

A garden in the country says

'I care for more than grass'.

A garden is

a warm sheltered place; a cool shady place;

a stimulation of colours place; a soothing of greens place;

a dry gravel place; a moist moss place;

a bird song place; an insect wings place.

A garden is

roses and rhubarb,

sequoias and see qua,

wildness and weeds.

A garden is everything we can grow,

and whatever we like to grow.

A garden is its own world,

and we make of it what we will.

Christine Dann
September 2010

The garden path in early summer.