"What one needs in gardening is a cast-iron back with a hinge in it."

Anon.

West-country gardener, looking at row of very stunted broad beans which his
employer had sown: 'Im sorry for your bees, sir, they'll get sore knees
sucking 'em.'

In article , "Bill Litchfield"
writes:

"What one needs in gardening is a cast-iron back with a hinge in it."

Anon.

Ah, no longer "Anon"

" Develop a a passion for hoeing. To cut down a weed is, therefore,
to do a moral action. My hoe becomes an instrument of retributive justice.
Hoeing becomes, not a pastime, but a duty. Nevertheless, what a man
needs in gardening is a cast-iron back with a hinge in it."

Charles Dudley Warner
'My Summer in a Garden" 1872

this comes from a book called "Old Time Wisdom:
1001 Old-Time Garden Tips" by Roger Yepsen

I'll add this one:

"A busy hoe gathers no rust. A rusty hoe in June
is a sure sign of a poor farmer." " Genesee Farmer" 1838

Emilie
NorCal

Here are some quotes from gardens in New Zealand:

"Old Gardeners Never Die, They Just Spade Away."

"Today Is Beautiful, Why Reach For Tomorrow."

"Today Well Lived Makes Every Yesterday A Dream Of Happiness And Every
Tomorrow A Vision Of Hope."

... from Betty Port's garden in Rotorua.

"Gardening, Something That Is Healthy If One Can Straighten Up
Afterwards."

... from Elsie & Phil Rouse's garden in Tauranga.

By the way, gardening in New Zealand is a 52-week per year occupation.
They have no off season, no time to read seed catalogs, etc. I really
appreciate the rest I get during the 6 months of down time between
mid-October when I mow the fallen leaves and mid-April when I have to
take down the deer netting and mow the wild garlic. It gives me time to
play with my snowblower when I am not down in New Zealand or Australia
enjoying their gardens.

For more quotes check:
http://www.angelfire.com/mi/lilylu/sayings.html

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Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

"The flowers in my garden are in their present places
because they have personally informed me....that this
is where they wish to be. Listening to flowers is one
of the most important of all the gardener's duties."
Beverly Nichols

This garden is the result of doing unnecessary things
which we could not afford, at the wrong time of the year.
Unknown


Emilie

"MLEBLANCA" wrote in message
...
"The flowers in my garden are in their present places
because they have personally informed me....that this
is where they wish to be. Listening to flowers is one
of the most important of all the gardener's duties."
Beverly Nichols

This garden is the result of doing unnecessary things
which we could not afford, at the wrong time of the year.
Unknown


Emilie

Some really good garden quotes in this thread. Here's a few mo

....a real gardener is not a man who cultivates flowers; he is a man who
cultivates the soil.
Karel Capete

"Probably more pests can be controlled in an armchair in front of a February
fire with a garden notebook and a seed catalogue than ca ever be knocked out
in hand-to-hand combat in the garden."
Neely Turner

Furrow: Horizontal line on forehead of gardener.
Garden: One of a vast number of free outdoor restaurants
operated by charity-minded amateurs in an effort to provide
healthful, balanced meals for insects, birds, and animals.
Hose: Crude, but effective and totally safe, type of scythe
towed through gardens to flatten flower beds and level
vegetable plantings.
Nursery: The only known place where money grows on trees.
Perennial: Any plant which had it lived would have bloomed
year after year.

Henry Beard and Roy McKie
from Gardening: A Gardener's Dictionary