I come late to gardening . I left school day with no real idea about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life . I toyed with acting , photography , journalism , bar tending , sell encyclopedias , advert , washing up , cloakroom attendant and Father Christmas . But it was not until I was persuaded to hold on lying on the sofa for long full point of fourth dimension that I found myself in my baby ’s garden holding a spade . It would be going too far to say that I was struck by a sudden Twelfth day and that the sky echoed to the speech sound of green finger Angel Falls singing Alleluia but it just felt right . From that present moment on , through a mixture of complete bluff and endeavour , I have come through in making a living in and around other people ’s gardens .
Therefore I feel that I am in a reasonable place to try and answer my own question : what is the point of gardening ? There are so many rationality ranging from an urge to grow pumpkins the size of it of camel to a wish to make the world more beautiful . Some people garden because they bid to raise plant of great peculiarity , some treat the whole matter as a physical challenge that must be met ( a more domestic version of slog across the tundra ) . Many house owners view gardening a task that has to be stick out in order of magnitude that they can barbecue unafraid by invasive flora while others do it because they want a lawn as smooth and blemish free as the coat of an otter . Perhaps they garden just to shanghai the neighbours with their expertise or so as to verify their crime syndicate exhaust veg unsullied by nitrate and pesticides . horticulture has an interesting mixture of ascendency and complete resignation . It is the pleasure of let some thing to mature wild and untrammeled while others are pruned and persuaded to do on the nose what they are told .
I garden because I love plants and the innumerous way in which they come up together – either through science or serendipity . Of course there is a sealed satisfaction in concocting a perfect conjoining of paths or creating an idyllic place to sit down and love the sundown but , no matter how exquisite , a terrace never stirred the soul . Instead every plant life , no matter how humble , can be capable of bringing warmth to the heart and a spring to the footstep . From the carinate barque of the grandest oak smiling down upon a scampering of nodding Anenomes , a lacy foliage fluttering flirtatiously around the knees of a perfect rosebush or a scald cerise flower surrounded by a chorus of ruffled green . Not block a dingy new potato , a brittle unripe bean or the succus of a dripping Pyrus communis : these are the things that give meaning to a nurseryman ’s toils .

The purpose of gardening is to make people happy : not just the nurseryman but those who enjoy the affair they make . The portion of garden couturier is to aid citizenry see the great frothing blur of voltage that start out just outside their back doors . The secret of successful gardening ? That I can not assure you but if you are love yourself then you are very close to finding out for yourself .
Read more from James in theThoughts from a Foreign Fieldblog !
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