Gardening Quotes

happilygardening.com is a free multiple choice quiz game in which players are taken on a relaxing virtual tour of the planet Earth and are shown famous gardens that they must identify. All those lovely pictures of gardens should recharge players energies with creative inspiration for them to release out into the world in whatever way they choose! Click here to play it.

Below are all of the gardening-related quotes in the game...




"I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze..." - William Wordsworth

"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. " - Thomas Jefferson

"It is a good idea to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought." - James Douglas

"I’ve always felt that having a garden is like having a good and loyal friend. " - C. Z. Guest

"Many gardeners will agree that hand-weeding is not the terrible drudgery that it is often made out to be. Some people find in it a kind of soothing monotony. It leaves their minds free to develop the plot for their next novel or to perfect the brilliant repartee with which they should have encountered a relative's latest example of unreasonableness." - Christopher Lloyd

"Creating a garden starts as an interest and soon becomes a lifetime’s obsession. One that can be engaged in a moment’s notice, by simply stepping outside." - This Beautiful Fantastic

"A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust." - Gertrude Jekyll

"Every gardener nurses prejudices against certain plants or flowers. It is not a bad idea to examine our own, from time to time, and to decide whether they have sufficient validity to be taken to our graves." - Christopher Lloyd

"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul." - Luther Burbank

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." - Khalil Gibran

"There is no spot of ground, however arid, bare or ugly, that cannot be tamed into such a state as may give an impression of beauty and delight." - Gertrude Jekyll

"Garden as though you will live forever." - William Kent

"The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul." - Alfred Austin

"My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece." – Claude Monet

"When gardeners garden, it is not just plants that grow, but the gardeners themselves." - Ken Druse

"A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows." - Doug Larson

"The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land." - Abraham Lincoln

"Life begins the day you start a garden." - Chinese proverb

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." - Greek proverb

"If you want to be happy for a day, get drunk. If you want to be happy for a year, get married. But if you want to be happy for a lifetime, plant a garden." - Dutch Proverb

"Won’t you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you. " - Richard Brinsley Sheridan

"A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit. " - D. Elton Trueblood

"The lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others, is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives." - Gertrude Jekyll

"Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade." – Rudyard Kipling

"Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized." – Allan Armitage

"I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow." – David Hobson

"I like gardening. It’s a place where I find myself when I need to lose myself." – Alice Sebold

"When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden." – Minnie Aumonier

"If you’ve never experienced the joy of accomplishing more than you can imagine, plant a garden." – Robert Brault

"Gardeners, I think, dream bigger dreams than emperors." – Mary Cantwell

"Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts." - Sigmund Freud

"Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace. ' - May Sarton

"To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour." - William Blake

"I think this is what hooks one to gardening: it is the closest one can come to being present at creation." - Phyllis Theroux

"You have to get up and plant the seed and see if it grows, but you can’t just wait around, you have to water it and take care of it. " - Bootsy Collins

"The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there." - George Bernard Shaw

"Every time I imagine a garden in an architectural setting, it turns into a magical place. I think of gardens I have seen, that I believe I have seen, that I long to see, surrounded by simple walls, columns, arcades or the facades of buildings – sheltered places of great intimacy where I want to stay for a long time. " - Peter Zumthor

"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies." - Gertrude Jekyll

"Weather means more when you have a garden. There’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans." - Marcelene Cox

"How deeply seated in the human heart is the liking for gardens and gardening. " - Alexander Smith

"I plant a lot of trees. I am a great believer in planting things for future generations. I loathe the now culture where you just live for today. " - Penelope Keith

"My extravagance is my garden – it’s the first thing I look at every morning when I wake up. It gives me so much pleasure." - Ina Garten