Green Thoughts Quotes

“And above all, the fear of putting land to good use.”
― Eleanor Perenyi, Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden

“Sooner or later every gardener must face the fact that certain things are going to die on him. It is a temptation to be anthropomorphic about plants, to suspect they do it to annoy. One knows, after all, that they lead lives of their own: plant the lily bulb in the center of the bed and watch it come up under a brick near the edge; pull up a sick little bush and throw it on the compost heap, and ten to one, it will obstinately revive. Usually, though, gardening failures, like airplane crashes, are the result of 'human error', of not reading the directions or paying attention.”
― Eleanor Perenyi, Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden

“The double hoops for peonies are beyond description maddening to unfold and set in place. Two people are needed, one of them with better control of his temper than I have.”
― Eleanor Perenyi, Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden

“I am rather amused that crab grass is millet, and I pass the fact along because it may come in handy in some doomsday future when those who have survived the nuclear war some of our politicians think is ‘winnable’ will be scratching around looking for a crop of edible grain whose ‘survivability’ is only too well known.”
― Eleanor Perenyi, Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden

“A little studied negligence is becoming to a garden:”
― Eleanor Perenyi, Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden

“I ordered a modern purple martin house myself and proceeded to construct a dreadful object: unpainted, it looked like a cheap motel; painted blue and white, it looked like a cheap Greek motel and had to be thrown out.”
― Eleanor Perenyi, Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden