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Women's Words

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I have been reading a book about women gardeners in times past. Those that have gone before have wonderful wisdom to share.

Alvilde Lees-Milne in 1983 said:

“The loss of a garden you have created and tended for years is a very traumatic experience. The sadness was slightly mitigated by the knowledge that the physical effort was at an end. I was certain that I would be perfectly content without one. How wrong I was. Within a year it all began again. There is no cure for this obsession.”

Louise Beebe Wilder in 1924 wrote:

“A new garden grasps us by the arms and legs and drags us into its service, thrilling us by its need of us, at once challenging and imploring us to recue it from its rawness.”

Mrs. Ewing in 1886 wrote:

“Make a wise selection of hardy plants. Grow only good sorts that suit your soil and climate. Give them space and a good feeding. Disturb the roots as little as possible and cut the flowers constantly.”

I second that! Fill your garden with salvias, marigolds, and zinnias, and the deer won’t eat them, and you can cut them.

This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on women’s words.

Alvilde Lees-Milne

Alvilde Lees-Milne (astre de lesbos, twitter)

I have been reading a book about women gardeners in times past. (After all, I can talk to women gardeners in the present.) I find that those that have gone before have wonderful wisdom to share.

[For example, Collette in 1966 talked about her “tomorrow garden” this way:

“…it just so happens that I don’t have a garden anymore. The worrying thing would be if my future garden, whose reality is of no importance, was beyond my grasp. But it is not.”]

Alvilde Lees-Milne in 1983 said:

“The loss of a garden you have created and tended for years is a very traumatic experience. The sadness was slightly mitigated by the knowledge that the physical effort was at an end. I was certain that I would be perfectly content without one. How wrong I was. Within a year it all began again. There is no cure for this obsession.”

Louise Beebe Wilder in 1924 wrote:

“A new garden grasps us by the arms and legs and drags us into its service, thrilling us by its need of us, at once challenging and imploring us to rescue it from its rawness.”

Mrs. Ewing in 1886 wrote:

“Make a wise selection of hardy plants. Grow only good sorts that suit your soil and climate. Give them space and a good feeding. Disturb the roots as little as possible and cut the flowers constantly.”

I second that! Fill your garden with salvias, marigolds, and zinnias, and the deer won’t eat them, and you can cut them.

Reference: Women Gardeners by Deborah Kellaway, Virago Press London, 1995.

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