An inviting garden is one that says every morning "come outside, touch, smell, taste, listen and look. Bring your every sense with you. Brush your fingers across the downy, silver leaves and then breathe deeply of their fresh, delicious scent. Nibble on a leaf of chives and enjoy it's mild pungency. Listen to the bird calls coming from places you cannot see, to the swishing sound that tall grasses make in the breeze. See how the first rays of daybreak play through crimson roses, so they seem to glow from within, like stained glass. On cool days, relish the feel of the sun on your cheek, and on a hot afternoon the cool, refreshing shade of the pergola. You are alive and your garden invites you - come, enter and linger".

And finally, gardening satisfies the spirit. It involves a desire to create something of beauty. It has to do with caring and feeling of belonging to the earth. It draws people together to become life long friends on the basis of a common passion for plants and affection for one another.

From the book The Inviting Garden by Allen Lacy -