My parents were really not big gardeners until late in my Dad's life. Then it was a vegetable garden. I had tried different things through the years and just got caught up in planting all around the homes we have lived in. This is my second home that I started from scratch and I feel I vastly improved...one thing we have more money now that the children are all grown..LOL.and I can buy just about anything I want..I do save my money starting in fall for the spring, summer growing season. I have more time to do the work and find it very relaxing. I like to try different flowers but have to come up with a way to incorporate more plants in my area....I just love all types and kinds of flowers ,perennials and annuals..I look forward to gardening every day in our growing season.
Mum and dad weren't gardeners, altho now I have sorted mums garden out, she is starting to dabble, but my maternal grandad was and is a very very keen gardener and an Uncle in Devon had his own gardening business and the family reakon I am similar to him. I gardened with Grandad for as long as I can remember and loved watching gardening programs on TV. I remember collecting paper bags from the supermarkets and collecting seed heads from different plants from other peoples gardens and getting great joy when I sowed them and they grew. Now it is a way of life for me, both job, hobby and greengrocer.
I started thinking about gardening a few years back when I realized how many poisons we are consuming in our food . We started buying organic food which is much more expensive and one is still not sure about how organic it is . Started composting , started growing in a very small way , still very small , but have plans to feed my family eventually from the land . The bonus is that it is such a satisfying experience to pluck a ripe tomato and eat it on the spot .
The only gardening my Mom did was planting Daiseys around the trees in yards of every home we lived in. We did have a small vegie garden one year when we lived in Arkansas but that was only to put food on the table. My grandparents grew tomatoes and jalapenos for a few years. So basically there was no gardening guru for me to learn from. When I was about 9 or 10, I found a small plant nursery a few blocks away from where we lived and went there to wander thru the plants every chance I got. Over the years I dabbled here and there but never had the time to really get a garden growing. It wasn't until about 7 years ago that I actually started putting plants out in the yard, but I was also reading a lot of gardening books and magazines at the time....they were great to look at but frankly they scared me, made me believe that gardening was so hard to do and involved so many must have things that I just was overwhelmed and gave up the idea of having a garden several times. I finally decided to get started the way I figured my great-great-great grandmother probably had....trial and error. Stick it in the ground and if it doesn't grow don't buy another one of those, if it does then buy a different plant and see what happens.
I started gardening or growing plants because of its flowers, especially the scent from the flowers or foliage to camouflage a wall or simply to beautify my home. I lived in a masionette apartment so at the moment I could only enjoy container gardening at my 8' x 3' balcony and get pleasure from viewing my darlings from my bedroom window. At present, Vertical Garden appears is an in thing in Singapore. The Vertical Garden relies on a new way to grow plants without any soil. I am not sure if you have read about Patrick Blanc's Vertical Garden but I think it is worth a visit. http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/. I should start exploring as I have a 16' wall to experiment!
My grandmother always had a HUGE veggie garden when I was growing up. She has always been an inspiration to me, the kind of woman I want to be (corny, I know, but it's how I feel all the same). She doesn't garden much anymore, but I feel I am carrying on the family tradition of gardening, even if I am an amateur!
Both sets of grandparents had smallholdings and veggie gardens. Both grandmothers also had a flower garden with lots of colourful annuals and perennials in a very small space. I used to "help" since before I remember. Mother took off and dived whole-heartedly into gardening when she got her own home with some room outside. I had my own little patch with strawberries and a few annuals since I was 9. I liked the plethora of plants and flowers a lot more than grass, so I started to make a garden as soon as I had a bit of space to garden in. I probably got bit by the gardening bug at a very young age. I'm very fortunate since my husband also shares the interest, and we're busy introducing the girls to gardening too. I've realized that no matter how much I learn, it's never enough, so I'll keep learning for as long as I'm gardening.
In the first place because I was Car sick and then later because my wife said "Just dig it over for me!"
When I was a kid my Mother always had a large vegetable garden and she made us kids weed it. I hated it. I did not care to learn about gardening then so here I am now over 50 and I want to garden not only to put food on the table but to have food without pesticides and chemicals. I have to learn everything!
I have always been around gardens both vegetable and flowers. There is just something very therapeutic about working with plants for me. I also like to be able to see what I have accomplished. A well maintained garden shows this well.
I've always loved flowers as long as I can remember. My Dad in his later retired years, always had a vegetable garden and I always loved the fresh veges more than anything. I haven't had the time or nerve to start a vege garden but am thinking about maybe some toms and squash next year, but my flower garden started a few years after I moved into my house, when I finally had some money to make it happen. It's really my salvation some days, I love to dig in the dirt. I'm always adding or moving something. I'm anxious to get my new space under way but time and money have put that on hold till spring. But it gives me something to look forward to and that will see me through the winter. I did have very small, window box size areas, in some of the appartments I've had over the years but that does not compare to actual garden space on your own property. It's such a thrill in the spring when the plants start to grow and green and later when they flower. Flowers just make me happy. That's why I love this site. So many different ones from everywhere and in the winter when I'm starting to worry if spring will ever arrive, y'all make me know that it will....with your lovely flowers!
our first house with nothing? We have an acre and a half with a couple fruit trees, slowly I have managed to plant abot maybe 1/4 so far with tulips, blackeye susans, cosmos, purple iris and many more! My grandparents always had a small garden and thats where it comes from, growing up and helping them! It has become addicting now though!
My mom always had a garden and one year she grew really cool stuff for us kids. She grew pop corn and Spaghetti Squash. Fresh tomatoes off the vine and I remember a round 3 tiered planter in the yard that was full of Marigolds that she taught me how to collect seeds from. Also in Texas I remember the yellow roses outside my window and the Gladiolas in front and back and the honeysuckle that I use to chew on as a youngster running the neighborhood..lol I wanted to grow all those things when I finally got my own place. This is my first year in a real house so I am trying to find all I need to fill up my childhood memories. I have the Glads and Tomatoes and many other veggies but still no Honeysuckle yet. I have had the best time watching them grow this last summer. Will have many new things next spring and I cant wait!!
There were two main reasons for my early love of plants and gardening... My Mum, still very much a gardener on the Isle of Wight, UK and now aged 70. [/img] And my Nan; sadly diseased but remaining an inspirational role-model. Thanks both. X
When I was little (under 7) we lived in northern B.C.and we would spend Summers in the south of the province at my grandmother's house. I can smell the sweet peas to this day! I can taste the carrots fresh from her garden. Back up north, I would pick dandilions for my mother. She always accepted them graciously. I was totally devastated when a neighbour kid told me they were a weed When we moved to southern B.C., my mother always had a flower and veggie garden and fruit trees. I have planted flowers and vegetables wherever I lived. We just moved into a new (to us) house and I'm truly looking forward to starting another garden. Everytime I smell a sweet pea or bite into a carrot fresh from the garden, it takes me back to my grandmother's garden. And I love dandilions[/u]
