The Gardener’s Hymn

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful, the lord god made them all

But what we never mention, though gardeners know it’s true
Is when He made the goodies, He made the baddies too

All things spray and swattable, disasters great and small
All things parasquatable, the Lord God made them all

The greenfly on the roses, the maggots in the peas
Manure that fills our noses, He also gave us these

The fungus on the goose-gogs, the club root on the greens
The slugs that eat the lettuce and chew the aubergines

The drought that kills the fuchsias, the frost that nips the buids
The rain that drowns the seedlings, the blight that hits the spuds

The midges and the mosquitoes, the nettles and the weeds
The pigeons in the green stuff, the sparrows on the seeds

The fly that get the carrots, the wasp that eats the plums
How black the gardeners’s outlook, though green may be his thumb

But still gardeners labour, midst vegetables and flowers
And pray that what hits neighbours, will somehow bypass ours

All things bright and beautiful

Happy Xmas to all our gardenerstalk gardeners....