Quote of the Day: Melissa Coleman
The pulse of material needs began to slacken. The less they satisfied the urge to buy things, the more the craving – as with sugar, carbohydrates, and alcohol – began to wane. The drugs of the modern world were only a mirage of need easily forgotten in the absence of fulfillment.
Melissa Coleman – This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone
A fitting quote as I spent the day yesterday getting rid of the stuff we no longer wanted/needed. No doubt as I’m packing all of our belongings up in boxes I’ll be happy that we’ve simplified!
Even though Mr Chiots and I live fairly simply we still have so much in comparison to many others around the world. Though I appreciate the simplicity of having fewer things I’ll always have my computer, my camera, and a few good books – Oh yeah and a good cup of coffee!
What is one thing you’d never want to live without?
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Beauty in all seasons
There is beauty, certainly, at all seasons: in winter, when the skeletons of the standard currants and gooseberries, the espaliered apples, show cleanest against the snow-covered rows, all plastid like seersucker; in early spring, when the rows, fecund and mellowed from their winter sleep, lie ready for the seeding of the first crops–radishes, lettuce, board beans, and mesclun; in late spring, when neat green lines of sprouted seed give further definition to the rows and the promise of so many good highs to come; in high summer, when the integrity of those rows, their pattern on sprawling stem, creating a maze to wander through; and in autumn, when frosts threaten and all the work of the growing year must be hastily undone, stripping tomato vines, gathers potatoes, searching for squash and pumpkins, trundling all under cover in the hurried exhilaration of final harvest. But in high spring and early summer, when the pea vines produce their wan, white mothlike flowers, the garden is at perhaps its most beautiful. It is then, most certainly, that we know why we are here, and what we are doing.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd in Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill
While I do appreciate and enjoy all the seasons of the garden here in NE Ohio, I especially love the exuberance in the this time of year. I have to agree with the authors above, it truly is the most beautiful time in the edible garden.
What season do you think is most lovely when it comes to the garden?
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Quote of the Day: La Quintinye (Louis XIV’s gardener)
Where a potager should be located with respect to the house? If there is enough space, the area nearest should be kept for flowers and parterres and the potager should be on the best ground beyond that is still readily accessible. But if one can have but one garden, it would be far better to employ fruits & legumes than in box & grass” La Quintinye (Louis XIV’s gardener)
The Art of French Vegetable Gardening
I had to laugh when I read this quote, too funny with the current cultural norms in our society where the opposite is the case. Here at Chiot’s Run we have both box and grass alongside edibles. We definitely have more edible plants than ornamental, but I find many edibles to be highly ornamental. Of course back when this was said one would have to choose edible over ornamental if you weren’t wealthy and wanted to eat.
Stan Hywet in Akron has both ornamental and edible gardens. As does Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania and many other botanical gardens.
While I love my edibles, I still really appreciate the beauty of box, grass, and other non-edible species. My efforts will never be solely spent on growing edibles, for I find just as much nourishment, though of a different kind, from a fragrant peony and hydrangeas, to shaped green boxwood. In fact I’ve always dreamed of having boxwoods in pots by the door and just recently added some (read my post on the Your Day Blog about it).
What’s your favorite non-edible plant(s) for the garden?
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Quote of the Day: Gertrude Jekyll
“If you will take any flower you please, and look it over and turn it about and smell it and feel it and try to find out all its secrets, not of flower only, but of leaf, bud and stem as well, you will discover many wonderful things.”
Gertrude Jekyll found in English Gardens in the Twentieth Century: From the Archives of Country Life
I’m certainly enjoying the happy sunny oxeye daisies that are springing up around the garden. They’re carefree and move around, blooming in different spots each year.
What wonderful things have you been noticing in your garden?
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Quote of the Day: Barry Cornwall
Oh, the summer night
Has a smile of light
And she sits on a sapphire throne.
~Barry Cornwall
Earlier this week we had a wonderful summer evening after a weather front moved through. It pushed away all the hot sticky humid weather and cooler drier air moved in. I happened to be watering a few areas of the garden to keep the plants alive and it was perfect.
There is something wonderful about using a sprinkler, I love the sound of the water falling and the click when it changes directions. Reminds me of the occasional time we played in it growing up.
Are there any other things you experience in the garden that bring back fond childhood memories?
