Ground Rules For a Garden that Lasts

Suddenly, the whole world has burst into bloom and started to turn green. The abrupt transition happens every year, even if the miracle of it always seems to take us by surprise.

Sometimes you just have to state the obvious: Spring is joyful. In a dynamic, temperate plant world such as ours, the burgeoning of the leaves and blossoms stirs a corresponding growth in our spirits. There is also work to be done in the spring, but amid this natural reawakening, it doesn’t seem like real toil.

If you want to channel this ebullience into something more lasting, it helps to think of principles that tra...