1. Group Discussion

1) People garden in order to make something grow; to interact with nature; to share, to find sanctuary, to heal, to honor the earth, to leave a mark. Through gardening, we feel whole as we make our personal work of art upon our land. Do you agree? Give your reasons.

2) How do you understand the Chinese saying “He who plants a garden plants happiness. If you want to be happy for a lifetime, plant a garden.”

2. Debating

A garden is meant to be useful or for joy.

Gardening is the purest of human pleasures. -- Francis Bacon

People who love this world, people who pay attention, are gardeners. People who are invested, people who are aware. They are gardeners regardless of whether or not they have ever picked up a trowel. Because gardening is not just about digging. Or planting, for that matter. Gardening is about cherishing. ---Terry Hershey

A garden is the place millions of people go to touch the earth, to smell flowers---to use some of that fabled human brainpower in the cause of better participating with natural processes in the place they call home. It serves as an art project, an organic produce market, a spiritual practice, a pharmacy. It offers ongoing lessons in ecology, biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology. Gardening imparts an organic perspective on the passage of time. It bestows on its practitioners a genuine sense of admiration for the plants, the soil, the sun, the water.-Jim Nollman

There are as many kinds of gardens as there are gardeners, and they define themselves across sharp aesthetic and philosophical lines: utility versus beauty; vegetables versus ornamentals; chemicals versus organics; formal style versus naturalistic. Different countries breed different gardeners.---Abby Adams

A small garden, accordingly, gives its owner a far greater opportunity to express himself. in a garden any man may be an artist, may experiment with all the subtleties or simplicities of line, mass, color, and composition, and taste the god-like joys of the creator. - H. G. Dwigh

To garden, you open your personal space to admit a few, a great many, or thousands of plants which exude charm, pleasure, beauty, oxygen, conversation, friendship, confidence, and other rewards should you succeed in meeting their basic needs. This is why people garden. It can be easy but challenging, and the rewards are priceless.-Tom Clothier