I have always felt that the best gardens aspired to coppice and that the best woods have all the elements of the very best gardens.
Monty DonRead
I am always more interested in people than plants. Nature doesn't make gardens, people make gardens. And the story of a garden is always the story of a person.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the relationship between people and nature, highlighting that gardens are created by human hands and reflect personal stories.
Monty Don's quote suggests that while nature provides the environment for gardens, it is ultimately people who cultivate and shape them. This indicates that gardens are not just collections of plants, but rather they are expressions of human creativity, experiences, and stories, illustrating the deep connection between humanity and the natural world.
Themes
GardensNaturePeopleStoriesCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
During a gardening workshop, I quoted Monty Don to emphasize the personal touch in creating a garden.
More from Monty Don
All quotes βI just think that gardening is about the future, a slow thing, that is deep and spiritual as well as spiritually rewarding.
Monty DonRead
Sweet peas should smell. Half the point of growing sweet peas is to cut them for the house; they should fill a room with an almost painful olfactory inarticulateness. But most sweet peas smell of nothing. This does not stop them being beautiful, but they are like food with no flavour.
Monty DonRead
Gardening is inevitably a process of constant, remorseless change. It is the constancy of that process that is so comforting, not any fixed moment.
Monty DonRead
I use the period between Christmas and New Year to potter about, think and completely change my mindset. In that easy no-man's-land between Boxing Day and New Year, loins are girded and mettle readied. It is time, as we voyagers bid farewell to the old year, to fare forward.
Monty DonRead
I have learnt that gardens are like happiness: you cannot pursue them as an absolute thing or moment.
Monty DonRead
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"Hear! hear!" screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, "winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it."
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Henry David ThoreauRead