Green Thoughts

Though the purpose of horticulture is all about control — asking nature and particularly plants to submit to cultivation at our hands — it’s also where everything is totally out of control. Things die when they feel like it (making big holes). Others self-sow where you didn’t place them, outlining and then coloring in prettier pictures than the ones you intended, but for which you can take credit if you desire, making use of words like “serendipity” or “happy accident” with false modesty (and perhaps a sense of relief that something looks really good).

—Margaret Roach
    The Backyard Parables (Grand Central Publishing, 2013)

mum and birdbath