Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I like dogs because they are not humans.
Earth heals me better than any medicine.
I see myself as a writer who happens to garden.
Tony Blair is a dreadful man; really truly dreadful.
I often eat cakes while my fingers are caked in soil.
Absorbing a healthy amount of dirt builds your immune system.
You can trace the entire history of Britain by looking at gardens.
I love high summer as well, but nothing beats a perfect May morning.
From the ages of 18 to 50 I ran, rowed and lifted weights at my home gym.
I'm bad at sleeping. I get somewhere between three and six hours a night.
Plant breeding has been going on for millennia and it's a gradual process.
You do not need to know anything about a plant to know that it is beautiful.
Trees are complicated, fascinating things, usually older and more beautiful than any of us.
If I'm honest, the thing I am proudest of is my varieties of wild flowers in the hay meadow.
The biggest obstacle to good gardening is the desire to know the answers and not the questions.
In my teens I wanted to be a rock star, I really did. At that time there was nothing I wanted more.
Many gardens are hijacked by their plants and end up looking like a room overstuffed with furniture.
Gardening is easy. Stick it in the ground the right way up and most plants will grow perfectly well.
What I love about French gardens is the combination of formal elegance and intellectual questioning.
I have learnt that gardens are like happiness: you cannot pursue them as an absolute thing or moment.
You get older, you slow down. Failure feels like less of a humiliation and more of a balanced return.
The farm uses up a lot of my creative urges. It's a sort of rough and ready space, I don't film there.
Chickweed is regarded by most gardeners as just that - a weed - but is excellent in sandwiches or salads.
I myself did not officially become organic until 1997, although I was always hopeless at using chemicals.
The thing I like to stress about TV is that it's a team exercise. You really can't have too much of an ego.
When our jewellery business went into receivership we avoided bankruptcy by selling our houses and possessions.
By starting from the ground and tapping into the absolute, uncheatable truth of nature we can make ourselves better
Apples hate strong wind and damp, cold soil so try and place them on well-drained, rich soil in a sheltered position.
Some plants become weeds simply by virtue of their success rather than any other factor. You merely want less of them.
A healthy plant is one that adapts best to the situation in which it finds itself. There is no objective measure of this.
I just think that gardening is about the future, a slow thing, that is deep and spiritual as well as spiritually rewarding.
Bamboos can go from shining health to shabbiness in weeks. The problem is too much wind, too little water and tired compost.
The truth is that wreaths have never really been part of my creative life. I like them and want them and know how to do them.
Woods are rich with biodiversity and, above all, places of trees and light that spangles a thousand greens through the leaves.
I love filming. I love the teamwork. It's a tight-knit group spending months on the road together. All the experience is shared.
When you plant something, you invest in a beautiful future amidst a stressful, chaotic and, at times, downright appalling world.
In the end, color combinations come down to our personal preferences, which we must discover through observation and experiment.
I feel ashamed if my hands are too clean and untouched. It's a measure of how much time I've spent travelling and poncing around.
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.
Ground elder, introduced by the Romans as a vegetable, is difficult to get rid of because it regrows from the smallest trace of root.
I always see gardening as escape, as peace really. If you are angry or troubled, nothing provides the same solace as nurturing the soil.
Gardening is seen as a pastime that is almost like belonging to the Church of England - a sign of maturity and wisdom and right thinking.
We undervalue food in this country, yet Britain has beautiful food and beautiful growing conditions. It is astonishing the range we can grow.
Coppice management depends upon the chosen tree being cut when the shoots are straight, vigorous and, critically, not shading out new growth.
Gardening is inevitably a process of constant, remorseless change. It is the constancy of that process that is so comforting, not any fixed moment.
I loathe nowheres - airports and bland hotels. I would rather be in an unpleasant, uncomfortable place rather than one just adrift, floating around.
I'm a great believer in trying things, so I've eaten witchetty grubs, a mountain frog, ostrich and alligator. I like tongue, I like brains and tripe.
Pulmonarias need splitting every two or three years, as they rapidly develop into a doughnut with an empty centre that quickly gets filled with weeds.
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.
I wouldn't want to be known as Mr Depression, but I found that when I did dip a toe in the water and talk about it, the response from the public was incredible.