About the song
A folk-parlor argument about who gets to hold the gate. They let the wild ones in for the colour, then teach them not to sting.
Who tends the gate tends the garden / Who holds the ledger holds the spring
About these notes
AI-assisted song notes, based on the sources shown here. Not yet human-reviewed.
Words from the artist’s archive
THE GATE AND THE GARDEN lyrics
Artist-supplied lyric sheet, matched by title. The sheet may differ from this released performance. Production notes and alternate promotional cuts are omitted.
Read the lyric sheet
Verse 1
Ten summers back in a rented hall The floor had a lean you could see on the wall Letters got loose and the chairwoman left By the side door nobody uses The scale had a thumb, I won't say it didn't The papers were warm before the race was run But when they counted it clean, she had won it plain A tilted floor is not a stolen claim
Verse 2
They never burn the wild seed, understand They pot it on the sill where it can't spread They cut the bloom to wear on their lapel And quietly compost the roots to hell They call the killing frost "electability" They call the fence "the way it's always been" And half of them believe it when they say Somebody has to tend it, or the thorns tear it away
Chorus
Who tends the gate tends the garden Who holds the ledger holds the spring They let the wildflowers in for the color Then teach them not to sting Oh, the gate and the garden One hand on both is a dangerous thing
Verse 3
Now it's twenty twenty-six and the rows run red-and-rose Wild ones winning boroughs on a shoestring and expensive clothes An old chair wags a finger at the toolshed Out west a late frost took one all the... anyway The rules got loosened after all that thunder The crowns weigh less than they weighed before But money moves like water finding low ground And the fence gets rebuilt one town over from the war
Chorus
Who tends the gate tends the garden Who holds the ledger holds the spring They let the wildflowers in for the color Then teach them not to sting Oh, the gate and the garden One hand on both is a dangerous thing
Bridge
Nobody is born a hedge A hedge is a wildflower that won Then got scared of the seeds outside it Hold a gate long enough You forget which side you came in from
Chorus
Who tends the gate tends the garden Who holds the ledger holds the spring They let the wildflowers in for the color Then teach them not to sting Oh, the gate and the garden Someday the wild will be holding that ring
Outro
Tend it open Tend it open Tend it open
Inside the recording
Ten summers back in a rented hall The floor had a lean you could see on the wall
Who tends the gate tends the garden Who holds the ledger holds the spring
Tend it open Tend it open
Excerpts from artist-supplied lyric files matched by title. Lyric sheets may differ from the released performance.