Patience is a Virtue. I use it because I NEVER have enough patience, in the garden or anywhere else. However, it is very valuable to remember in the garden - some of my roses, for example, did not grow into their fabulous mature selves for 10 years or so, and now they are great, whereas if I was someone who demanded excellence within 2-3 years, I would never have seen them in their glory.

Jackie

Progress not Perfection.I use thise for everything, gardening, yoga, housework etc.

My motto would be similar to smithdales...." Perfection is the enemy of the good." If my garden had to be perfect it would never exist. I love the opportunity to have a garden...to be in my garden...to design it and redesign it. I like the freedom to make mistakes.

You know the saying about if you look long into the abyss it'll look in to you? Same with a garden. I like letting plants do their thing to a large extent....if they all have to meet expectations where is the delight in happy surprises? To me you give plants a nudge and they do the rest.

Good enough

Nature is my collaborator, with her own definite ideas. My sister the horticulturalist once described the garden as a go-cart at the top of a hill: you give it a push and it goes, accelerating: the gardener's job is to steer. Which is in line with what I'm hearing in these responses.