Summer: Why Gardening is Like Proofreading and Editing

When surveying a garden with the intent to clean out weeds, the shapes and colors of their leaves stand out and catch the eye. Similarly, typos and design inconsistencies grab the attention of a proofreader or editor.

Gardeners pull out weeds like editors delete extraneous and incorrect words. Transplanting from one area to another—moving plants where they will do better in the sun or shade and dividing overgrown plants—is like re-ordering paragraphs and trimming verbose sentences.

And the end result is often beautiful, magical, and rewarding.