Home gardens produce delicious food. But that's not their main virtue.
Imagine a plate holding two strawberries, identical in appearance. One came out of a supermarket box, probably harvested unripe.
The other was picked from a garden minutes before being eaten. The first one will probably taste like a slightly sour grape while the second is likely to be sweet and rich in flavour.
Supermarket strawberries are not entirely without advantages. They are convenient and available in the northern globe even in February. But the two berries differ from each other in the same way that hearing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in a concert hall differs from listening to it on an old tape.
Other people, however, believe gardening a waste of time. But the same could be said of cooking. There are cheap and decent restaurants around, so why bother to make your own meals? They mistake the product for the purpose.
Actually, a garden, especially in the early years, can produce little but frustration（挫败感）. New gardeners may plant the wrong crops for their soil. Rabbits have an annoying habit of taking single bites of vegetable, then leaving the rest to go bad. No matter. The real joy of single bites of vegetable, then leaving the rest to go bad gardening is the time spent doing it. The deepest pleasure - as with cooking, writing, bringing up children or almost anything worthwhile - is in the work itself. A gardener's memories revolve not around the food produced, but around long afternoons with hands in the dirt.
A. No one can ever avoid this hard stage.
B. So why don't we start home gardening for delicious food?
C. This might explain why many people desire a home garden.
D. These people misunderstand the ultimate appeal of gardening.
E. By the time it reached the plate it may have been off the plant for days.
F. To garden is to patiently and lovingly help life grow, in the ground and above it.
G. And even expert gardeners can lose a season's harvest to uncooperative weather.
