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The attractions of gardening, I think, at least for a certain number of gardeners, are neurotic and moral. Whenever life seems pointless and difficult to grasp, you can always get out in the garden and get something done. Also, your paternal or maternal instincts come into play because helpless living things are depending on you, require training and encouragement and protection from enemies. In some cases, as with beans and cucumbers, your children—as it were, begin to turn upon you in massive numbers, growing more and more each morning and threatening to follow you into the house to strangle you in their vines.
我想，至少對一部分園丁來說，園藝的吸引力是精神上的。每當生活看上去毫無意義并難以把握的時候，你在園子里都可以得到解脫并且找到事情來做。此外，你身上的父性或母性的本能開始起作用，因為那些無助的生命依賴著你，需要你去培養(yǎng)、鼓勵，并需要你去保護它們免受敵人的侵害。很多時候，那些豆子和黃瓜，可以說是你的孩子——開始群起攻擊你，每天清晨不斷地生長，急迫地要跟著你走進房子，使你窒息在他們的藤蔓中。
Gardening is a moral occupation as well, because you always start in spring resolved to keep it looking neat this year, just like the pictures in the catalogues. But by July, you once again face the chaos of unthinned carrots, lettuce and beets. This is when my wife becomes—openly now—mistress of the garden. A consumer of vast quantities of vegetables, she does the thinning and hand-cultivating of the tiny plants. Squatting, she patiently moves down each row selecting which plants shall live and which she will cast aside.
園藝也是一種有道德要求的職業(yè)，因為你總是在開春時決心這一年要把菜園弄得井井有條，就像目錄中的圖片一樣整齊。但是到了 7月，還未被間苗的胡蘿卜、萵苣和甜菜又變得一團糟。這時，我的妻子公然成了菜園的情人。她特別喜愛吃蔬菜。她會親手為這些小植物間苗，精心培育它們。她耐心地蹲著撥弄每一壟幼苗，選擇哪些該留下來，哪些要丟棄。
