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Yet the wonder of it all is that, while engaged in a seemingly endless struggle, the Israelis have managed to turn a desert into a garden.

And all around is the desert; a corner of the mournful kingdom of sand.

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

A garden is to be a world unto itself, it had better make room for the darker shades of feeling as well as the sunny ones.

Every time I imagine a garden in an architectural setting, it turns into a magical place. I think of gardens I have seen, that I believe I have seen, that I long to see, surrounded by simple walls, columns, arcades or the facades of buildings - sheltered places of great intimacy where I want to stay for a long time.

How deeply seated in the human heart is the liking for gardens and gardening.

The 'Desert' sweeps up to the walls of Baghdad, but it is a misnomer to call the vast level of rich, stoneless, alluvial soil a desert. It is a dead flat of uninhabited earth; orange colocynth balls, a little wormwood, and some alkaline plants which camels eat, being its chief products. After the inundations, reedy grass grows in the hollows.

These gardens may be called the gardens of the respectable working classes.

The desert is natural; when you are out there, you can get in tune with your environment, something you lose when you live in the city.