Quote Of The Day By Martha Stewart: The Joy Of Gardening

Martha Stewart may embody good living in the popular imagination, but her origins were modest, growing up in New Jersey in the 1940s and '50s with five siblings in a Polish immigrant family. During those formative years, Stewart gathered the gardening and cooking skills that would later make her famous. These days she is known for providing excellent tips for growing flowers, as well as guidance on hosting elegant dinner parties. However, not everyone remembers that this best-selling author and television host also had careers as both a model and a Wall Street stockbroker.

After her Wall Street days, she evolved her diverse know-how first into a successful catering business and later into a prosperous lifestyle company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, becoming the first self-made female billionaire until losing her billionaire status in 2002. While her life seemed like the ultimate success story at the time, public perception of Martha Stewart shifted when she served a five year prison sentence in 2005 — not for insider trading as is commonly thought, but for obstruction of justice, lying to federal investigators, and conspiracy.

Although her business empire floundered in the wake of this legal scandal, she bounced back, winning multiple James Beard awards for her television programs and continuing to author books, currently counting over 100 published titles. And in a return to one of the first bullet points on her illustrious resume, at age 81, she made the world's jaw drop by becoming a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model. Yet despite such a rich life and varied history, gardening remains one of her passions, as is attested by her 2020 HGTV show "Martha Knows Best." And that's why Martha Stewart is today's quote of the day.

While she takes no credit for being the originator of this proverb — which by some accounts is either Dutch or Chinese — Martha Stewart mentions it as a saying she likes: "If you want to be happy for a year, get married. If you want to be happy for a decade, get a dog. And if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, make a garden."

The queen of good living offers this quote in the Netflix documentary about her life, entitled "Martha." This film, which was created for Netflix by director R.J. Cutler and released in October 2024, shows Stewart as a cultural icon and touts her as the first lifestyle influencer, while also depicting her personal and professional triumphs and failures. Speaking of her personal ups and downs, those familiar with both Martha Stewart's past divorce and her impressive gardening feats can easily understand why she'd put stock in a saying that rates a garden well above marriage for a life filled with happiness.

This saying that Martha Stewart is fond of illuminates the fleeting nature of certain types of happiness, compared to the long-lasting joy of making a garden. Romantic love can be intense, but doesn't always last in its passion. Likewise, the happiness brought by owning a dog can last for a decade or more, but is replaced with pain when the cherished pet's life ends. Tending a garden, in contrast, allows us to cultivate happiness through a hobby focused on flowers and leaves, seedlings and buds — all of which can be renewed at will.

This quote is a fitting one for Martha Stewart, the queen of the perfect garden, who only found temporary happiness in past romantic partnerships. She also knows the longer-lasting joy of caring for pets, and currently has a five-dog household. But the relationships she's most known for are those she has honed with the land — she's grown gardens since she was a tot, and has had decades of experience turning a "wreck" of a property into an enviable estate with gorgeous landscaping.

Most of us may not have a 150-acre property like Martha, but we can use her inspiration on a smaller scale. You can create a garden anywhere — on a small urban lot, an apartment balcony, or even indoors. In fact, Martha recommends avoiding the gardening mistake of starting too big. Without undervaluing your human or fur-baby relationships, keep an alternate source of happiness strong by cultivating whatever type of garden works for you. When you hit your own 80s, you may not be able to count on landing a magazine cover or publishing a book, but if you know how to grow tomatoes or create a flower patch, you'll find an easy source of happiness.

• "There is no single recipe for success, but there is one essential ingredient: passion." — From her 2012 commencement speech at University of Phoenix
• "If we all paid attention to the great outdoors, our planet would benefit nicely." — From a 2020 CBS News TV appearance

• "Never make a big decision without sleeping on it." — From her 2006 book "The Martha Rules"

• "I think baking cookies is equal to Queen Victoria running an empire. There's no difference in how seriously you take the job." – From a 2000 interview with Oprah Winfrey
  
• "Once you realize that you have identified a passion, invest in yourself. Figure out what you need to know, what kind of experience and expertise you need to develop to do the things that you feel in your heart you will enjoy and that will sustain you both mentally and  economically." – From "The Martha Rules"

• "I have two mottos. One is learn something new every day. And the second one is when you're through changing, you're through."  – From the 2024 Netflix documentary "Martha"