Creating a garden or creating artwork?  Great advice, which can be applied to both, come from Gertrude Jekyll’s  ‘A Gardening Credo’.   An excellent gardener and a fine writer, Gertrude learned by doing… and she did a lot!  Born in London in 1843, Gertrude designed about 400 gardens in England, Europe and America, and was also a painter and photographer.

The real way is to try and learn a little from everybody and from everyplace…It is no use asking me or anyone else how to dig…Better go and watch a man digging, and then take a spade and try to do it, and go on trying till it comes, and you gain the knack that is to be learnt with all tools, of doubling the power and halving the effort; and meanwhile you will be learning other things…and perhaps a little robin will come and give you moral support, and at the same time keep a sharp look-out for any worms you may happen to turn up…

Whether creating a garden or a painting (or most anything, for that matter) follow Gertrude’s sage advice and you’ll discover for yourself that

…there are all sorts of ways of learning, not only from people and books, but from sheer trying.

Thanks, Gertrude.

Find out more about Ms. Jekyll at http://gertrudejekyll.co.uk/