I like muddling things up; and if a herb looks nice in a border, then why not grow it there? Why not grow anything anywhere so long as it looks right where it is? That is, surely, the art of gardening.

[On writing:] The most egotistic of occupations, and the most gratifying while it lasts.

Serenity of spirit and turbulence of action should make up the sum of a man's life.

Among the many problems which beset the novelist, not the least weighty is the choice of the moment at which to begin his novel.

The farmer and the gardener are both busy, the gardener perhaps the more excitable of the two, for he is more of the amateur, concerned with the creation of beauty rather than with the providing of food. Gardening is a luxury occupation; an ornament, not a necessity, of life.

The more one gardens, the more one learns; And the more one learns, the more one realizes how little one knows.

My garden all is overblown with roses,/ My spirit all is overblown with rhyme.