some things change
In 1933, Rose Wilder Lane had this to say about gardening: "No thoughtful gardener believes in God, nor in the mechanistically reasonable universe. Use Black Flag for aphis, arsenate of lead for beetles, corrosive sublimate for root-rot, keep your fingers crossed, pray for rain, and peppergrass will still eat up your yard."

In 1917, Rose had viewed gardening a bit differently. Here's the beginning of a story-article published in the Oakland Tribune titled Garden---the Giver of Life:

My little neighbor came and leaned over the trim green-painted fence and said:

"While I was working in my garden today I realized suddenly that I have found the secret of happiness.

"And a year ago I thought I would never be happy again.

"So few of us know how to be happy! We learn so many things--how to add sums, and how to make money, and how to serve dinners, and how to dress--and all these things mean nothing at all when we haven't learned happiness.

"Now that I have learned it at last, I know that living will never be so hard for me again, though none of the things that hurt me are changed. Being happy, after all, is not a matter of environment, it is a matter of adjustment. I never saw that until today.

"A soft mist was falling. It covered the hills, and the live-oaks in the glen behind the house, with a thin gray veil. My white fleur-de-lys shimmered like delicate silver gauze through the tiny raindrops on their petals.

"The breeze against my cheeks was cool and damp, but the brown earth was warm. I felt the warmth of it through my gardening gloves, as I turned it with my trowel, and patted it down around the little roots. I was humming to myself.

"Suddenly I stopped, cuddling a baby lobelia in my hand. I almost said the words aloud in my surprise, 'Why, I'm happy!'"

I uploaded a scan of the entire article HERE. Doesn't it sound like it could have been ghost-written by Laura Ingalls Wilder?
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:23 PM