“But gardening is none of that, really. Strip away the gadgets and the techniques, the books and the magazines and the soil test kits, and what you're left with, at the end of the day, is this: a stretch of freshly turned dirt, a handful of seeds scratched into the surface, and a marker to remember where they went. It is at the same time an incredibly brave and an incredibly simple thing to do, entrusting your seeds to the earth and waiting for them to rise up out of the ground to meet you.”
―
Amy Stewart,
From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden
“People here had redwood trees in their backyards. You were never far from the infinite.” ― Amy Stewart, The Last Bookstore in America
“The male doesn't eat - it doesn't even have a mouth or an anus - so it does nothing but mate until death.” ― Amy Stewart, Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects
“It didn’t help that Norma had all the girlish charm of a boulder” ― Amy Stewart, Girl Waits with Gun
“A poisonous seed will only kill you if you chew it and swallow.” ― Amy Stewart, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
“Eternity can be found in the minuscule, in the place where earthworms, along with billions of unseen soil-dwelling microorganisms, engage in a complex and little-understood dance with the tangle of plant roots that make up their gardens, their cities.” ― Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
“Gardeners are the ultimate mixologists.” ― Amy Stewart, The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks
“I’d always felt that one could read a woman’s discontent in the amount of embroidery in her sitting room. It gave me a crowded and nervous feeling to sit among so much frantic stitchery.” ― Amy Stewart, Lady Cop Makes Trouble
“Perhaps it makes sense that a creature that doesn't get ill and has few enemies among its neighbors would also live agelessly and die without explanation or cause--would simply vanish without a trace.” ― Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
“The rat population thrived in such a horrible mess. Ironically, cats were believed to be the consorts of witches in those days, so they were killed. Persecution of cats during the Middle Ages nearly eliminated populations of the rat's natural predator, just when Europeans could have used the cats' hunting skills the most.” ― Amy Stewart, Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects
“But a male tree produces only small, well-behaved flowers—that is, if your definition of well behaved includes spewing plant sperm into the air for weeks on end.” ― Amy Stewart, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
“Any environment, any single life is in a continuous state of change. This is just more obvious when you pay attention to earthworms. Their work may seem unspectacular at first. They don't chirp or sing, they don't gallop or soar, they don't hunt or make tools or write books. But they do something just as powerful: they consume, they transform, they change the earth.” ― Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
“I have come to understand, like Darwin had, that earthworms are not destroyers, but redeemers. They move through waste and decay in their contemplative way, sifting, turning it into something else, something that is better.” ― Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
“Some growers believe that a particular type of music makes the plants grow faster, but most agree that the best strategy for the plants is to play whatever music the workers like best.” ― Amy Stewart, Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers
“Drunken botanists? Given the role they play in creating the world’s great drinks, it’s a wonder there are any sober botanists at all.” ― Amy Stewart, The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks
“If bacteria can be pictured as teeming black ants under the microscope, imagine fungi as gossamer spider webs. These organisms form long threads called hyphae that stretch between plant roots. Some form into even larger masses called mycelium that can span an entire backyard.” ― Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
“I would’ve never guessed that a life in law enforcement was mostly spent waiting, that catching criminals requires not just clever thinking and a quick step, but a willingness to stand still while the rest of the world moves about, and that what was required was not strength or grit but the ability to get into place and stay there, and to ignore the desperate rising certainty that something more urgent might be happening, somewhere, and that if only one could leave one’s post and tear down the street in pursuit, some kind of prey would surely leap up and allow itself to be caught.” ― Amy Stewart, Lady Cop Makes Trouble
“Epigraph“I got a revolver to protect us.” said Miss Constance, ”and I soon had use for it.” --New York Times, June 3 1915” ― Amy Stewart
“Never had a larger committee been convened to make a decision about the purchase of mustard powder and the replacement of a claw hammer whose handle had split from age and misuse.” ― Amy Stewart, Girl Waits With Gun
“People here had redwood trees in their backyards. You were never far from the infinite.” ― Amy Stewart, The Last Bookstore in America
“The male doesn't eat - it doesn't even have a mouth or an anus - so it does nothing but mate until death.” ― Amy Stewart, Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects
“It didn’t help that Norma had all the girlish charm of a boulder” ― Amy Stewart, Girl Waits with Gun
“A poisonous seed will only kill you if you chew it and swallow.” ― Amy Stewart, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
“Eternity can be found in the minuscule, in the place where earthworms, along with billions of unseen soil-dwelling microorganisms, engage in a complex and little-understood dance with the tangle of plant roots that make up their gardens, their cities.” ― Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
“Gardeners are the ultimate mixologists.” ― Amy Stewart, The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks
“I’d always felt that one could read a woman’s discontent in the amount of embroidery in her sitting room. It gave me a crowded and nervous feeling to sit among so much frantic stitchery.” ― Amy Stewart, Lady Cop Makes Trouble
“Perhaps it makes sense that a creature that doesn't get ill and has few enemies among its neighbors would also live agelessly and die without explanation or cause--would simply vanish without a trace.” ― Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
“The rat population thrived in such a horrible mess. Ironically, cats were believed to be the consorts of witches in those days, so they were killed. Persecution of cats during the Middle Ages nearly eliminated populations of the rat's natural predator, just when Europeans could have used the cats' hunting skills the most.” ― Amy Stewart, Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects
“But a male tree produces only small, well-behaved flowers—that is, if your definition of well behaved includes spewing plant sperm into the air for weeks on end.” ― Amy Stewart, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
“Any environment, any single life is in a continuous state of change. This is just more obvious when you pay attention to earthworms. Their work may seem unspectacular at first. They don't chirp or sing, they don't gallop or soar, they don't hunt or make tools or write books. But they do something just as powerful: they consume, they transform, they change the earth.” ― Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
“I have come to understand, like Darwin had, that earthworms are not destroyers, but redeemers. They move through waste and decay in their contemplative way, sifting, turning it into something else, something that is better.” ― Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
“Some growers believe that a particular type of music makes the plants grow faster, but most agree that the best strategy for the plants is to play whatever music the workers like best.” ― Amy Stewart, Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers
“Drunken botanists? Given the role they play in creating the world’s great drinks, it’s a wonder there are any sober botanists at all.” ― Amy Stewart, The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks
“If bacteria can be pictured as teeming black ants under the microscope, imagine fungi as gossamer spider webs. These organisms form long threads called hyphae that stretch between plant roots. Some form into even larger masses called mycelium that can span an entire backyard.” ― Amy Stewart, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
“I would’ve never guessed that a life in law enforcement was mostly spent waiting, that catching criminals requires not just clever thinking and a quick step, but a willingness to stand still while the rest of the world moves about, and that what was required was not strength or grit but the ability to get into place and stay there, and to ignore the desperate rising certainty that something more urgent might be happening, somewhere, and that if only one could leave one’s post and tear down the street in pursuit, some kind of prey would surely leap up and allow itself to be caught.” ― Amy Stewart, Lady Cop Makes Trouble
“Epigraph“I got a revolver to protect us.” said Miss Constance, ”and I soon had use for it.” --New York Times, June 3 1915” ― Amy Stewart
“Never had a larger committee been convened to make a decision about the purchase of mustard powder and the replacement of a claw hammer whose handle had split from age and misuse.” ― Amy Stewart, Girl Waits With Gun
