Such Sweet Sorrow
UT that is one thing about gardening; it builds character. Its chief element is struggle-the pitting of man’s cunning against ruthless caterpillar and rapacious wireworm; the indomitable determination to. make two parsnips grow where only one grew. hefore — and that
‘one fatally punctured by wood-bugs. . The gardener is a stout soul. He has to have the will to conquer in spite of _ drought, flood, frost, ' sparrows, cats, and the neighbours’ fowls. Even while he’s sowing his
seeds the sparrows are lined up on the fence waiting to blitz them as soon as he takes his eyes off them. What they leave the cats scratch up; and if any refugee seedlings do poke their faces above ground, the neighbouring fowls get through the fence and outflank them. Then there’s the weather. Anything that needs lots of sun withers from frostbite. Plants which depend for life on lashings of rain, fold up in the usual dry spell. Tall plants take the count in gales and short plants get washed away in cloud-bursts. If Shakespeare had thought of it he could have written "Gardening is such sweet sorrow."-("Come Into the Garden, Maud!": Ken Alexander, 2YA, May 29).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 156, 19 June 1942, Page 3
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197Such Sweet Sorrow New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 156, 19 June 1942, Page 3
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