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Article: Henry Mitchell on Gardening.
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- June 5, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Reading about gardening is more fun than actually gardening, at least some of the time. The tired feet are on the ottoman; the back, throbbing from a day of digging and hauling, is ensconced on the couch; and the aching hands, scratched and red, are doing nothing more than turning pages and lifting a cup of coffee. The garden you imagine on the couch is glorious and fully grown. The gardener sees the project in all its finished perfection, conveniently omitting visions of the labor, the failures, and natural disasters that must go into making a garden.
The late Henry Mitchell, a Washington Post reporter, wrote his weekly "Earthman" column for the Post for twenty ...