Words to Garden By

Contributed by Carol Herwig, TWiG committee chair

Henry Mitchell was the garden columnist for The Washington Post, appearing weekly in the
feature section for more than 25 years. He must shoulder some of the blame for my interest in gardens and plants and trees, although he was more of a azalea man than an oak fan.
He wrote about the right way to dig an iris bed, about how to adorn the fence between your
and your neighbor’s yard, about how to plant a clematis (dig deep, spread the roots and wait
three years).
His columns were collected in a series of books – my collection includes The Essential
Earthman and Henry Mitchell on Gardening – that I have returned to over the years. When I
prepared to move and was culling books, they were packed as essential material. So it was a pleasure to see Henry Mitchell on the shelves at Left Bank Books this winter. Although he died in 1993, he still is relevant, He wrote about gardening in the mid-Atlantic as a
Southerner, and some of his tastes and plant choices are out of date, but reading him still gives me a lift – an antidote for chilling winter days.
Among his new year’s resolutions: “Start saving for money to buy next fall’s bulbs.”
“Feed the birds.”
“Feed squirrels.”
“Do not throw rocks at cats”.
“Do not chop holes in ice. Fish in the pool do not need air holes.”
And finally “A gardener must not feel sorry for himself, even in winter, and no matter how great the cause.”