Today we celebrate the man who inspired National Simplicity Day (It's dedicated every July 12th). We'll also learn about the tragic death of a Scottish botanist and prolific plant collector. We celebrate the friendship between Charles Darwin and his mentor. And, we also celebrate a woman who started botanizing late in life, yet made a significant impact on the world of horticulture. In Unearthed Words, we celebrate the fern. By this time in July, you are either loving them or digging them out of your garden. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a grilling guide for gardeners. And then we'll wrap things up with a sweet little story about the botanical name for San Francisco. But first, let's catch up on some Greetings from Gardeners around the world and today's curated news.   Subscribe Apple|Google|Spotify|Stitcher|iHeart   Gardener Greetings Wedding Tulle from Amazon   To participate in the Gardener Greetings segment, send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org And, to listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to play The Daily Gardener Podcast. It's that easy.   Curated News I feel as if my garden has finally come of age | Nigel Slater | The Guardian The title of this post definitely caught my eye:  I feel as if my garden has finally come of age.  I thought Nigel did such an excellent job of capturing why he felt that way and what that meant in terms of the evolution of his garden. I wanted to give you a few excerpts that I thought were particularly touching and relatable. "Getting rid of the rectangle of mown grass that passed for a garden was almost the first thing I did when I moved into my new home on a bitterly cold New Year's Day, 20 years ago.  I learned quite quickly that every disaster in the garden is an opportunity in disguise. Then, he writes about how he uses the Chelsea Chop in his garden. This is just a technique where you cut back your perennials to delay bloom time, and you also make the plant a little less leggy. Of late, the garden has settled into a gentle rhythm. Once a year, on a dry spring day shortly after the Chelsea Flower Show, everything gets a serious trim – the "Chelsea Chop" as it is known. Hedges are clipped, topiary is shaped, and overhanging branches of the fig and medlar tree are pruned. A tidy-up that might appeal to the sort of gardener who power-washes their flagstones and scrubs the moss from their pots, but, to me, it feels as if a much-loved and elegantly aging friend has gone in for a round of cosmetic surgery. Not unrecognizable, but slightly cold and distant and, to my mind, a little dishonest. For a couple of weeks a year, the garden doesn't quite feel like mine." I love Nigel's description of how  Chelsea Chopping  his garden makes him feel. It can be tough for gardeners to Chelsea Chop their gardens. New gardeners, especially, will feel a pang of uncertainty as they cut back perfectly good plants for the first time. I know it seems counter-intuitive. I thought it was hilarious that Nigel likens it to a round of cosmetic surgery. Now, I will forever think of the Chelsea Chop through Nigel's eyes.  Finally, I wanted to share Nigel's perspective on his garden today. I found it particularly touching: I would like to say that the garden I have now will probably be my last. Twenty years on from digging up the lawn, I have a space that is more inspirational and restful than I could have ever imagined. I feel the garden has come of age. Yet the space still refuses to stand still. Even now, there are changes afoot. This year I reintroduced the vegetables and sweet peas that I missed so much. Tomatoes and calendulas now grow in huge terracotta pots on the kitchen steps, and there is an entire table of culinary herbs. There are tubs of marigolds and stands of bronze fennel. Next year there may be more. The garden will never be "finished." I have no idea what will happen next. All I know is that there won't ever be