Wisdom, insight, and humor, from Addison to Zola, about the world's most popular hobby....This collection of wisdom, insight, and humor from Diane Ackerman to Emile Zola, captures the essence of the world's most popular hobby. Here are more than four hundred quotations - both one-line zingers and stanzas of verse and full paragraphs of narrative - on the endless fascination of gardening. The great gardening writers of the past and present are amply represented, but these varied selections also range the entirety of recorded literature, from the Bible and tenth-century Japanese diarist Sei Shonagon through Chaucer and Shakespeare to Dickens, Whitman, and even Prince Charles. For anyone who counts their hours in the soil as their most valued, The Quotable Gardener is an invaluable inspiration during the gardening months, and a treasured companion during the long desperate winter.