Barbara Damrosch

"Oddly enough, modern gardens have become more and more scentless. Bigger, hardier, more beed flowers are the goal of the hybridizers, and while the new plants are often superior in many ways to old favorites, they are rarely more fragrant. Scent is a ghost you find in old gardens, or in plantings of old-fashioned varieties. It is also found aplenty in gardens for the blind, who are particularly attuned to scent, and in herb beds where the subtle scents of foliage are treasured."

"You just can't put roses in the ground and hope they'll thrive ... If you want a lot of show and color but no work, then plant easy things like that don't take much work."

"Lamb's quarters. '. How this weed got to be associated with so many animals I'll never know, but it also goes by the names pigweed, fat hen, and white goosefoot. An annual that likes any garden soil, it has ragged-edged leaves and grows as tall as 6 feet. On the plus side, it's easy to pull out and is delicious cooked like . But it grows very fast, and unless you consume an awful lot of creamed greens there is always too much of it."

"Why tussle with a when you can walk outside, spend time in fresh air and come in with an armful of fresh food?"

"One thing we can control, if we want to embark on it, is getting our own food supply. I think that, for a lot of people, it could be an economic necessity or improvement. In my case, it's much more the satisfaction of knowing how fresh it is, what's gone into growing it, how it tastes, the fact that it's right out there — I can go grab it — you know, that kind of thing."

"When we think of eating homegrown food during the cold season, we often think of staples such as potatoes squirreled away in the , or of vegetables like stashed in a cool, dry place. But many s are discovering the joys of harvesting fresh produce all winter long, which allows for feasts of cold-hardy crops that are just-picked and just right for the time of year. ... Winter fare is about leaves, stems, and roots, which mature more and more slowly as the weather cools and the days shorten. Better still, winter vegetables sweeten with the cold. If you’ve ever tasted a winter-pulled carrot or winter-cut , you’re familiar with the treasures winter gardening can bring. ... ... Winter has always been a good season for a wide array of crops in the southern states, and in the northern tier of the United States, you can grow the same crops if you use a winter-protection device to broaden your garden’s productive season. This might be a , a simple , the quick-hoop system, or just a layer or two of floating row cover, often called Reemay. All of these season-extension devices capture some of the earth’s natural warmth, especially at night, and block the chilling, drying effect of wind."