Oldest DG Gardener?

i feel the oldest lately! ;) darn back!!!!!!!!!

Well I'll be 60 on the outside next month, but the inside stopped about halfway, can't work out where the time went somehow. I started gardening at around 2 with my Grandpa, used to 'help' on his allotment in the UK just after the war. He grew all our fruit and veg 'cos everything was rationed. Dads family had a commercial orchard in New Zealand so he was a fruit tree buff. Under their influence I always regarded flowers as a waste of good space, but DH is a flower gardener and after 40 years together hes begining to overcome the early indoctrination! Now the flowers have the main chunk but there is still a patch for my melons tomatos and peppers next year. I'm not sure salads will grow in Texas but I'm going to try.

Gosh, everyone has such wonderful stories! I am 47 and have really only been gardening for about 4 years. I also grew up on a farm until I was 16 and then headed to the big city! Boy, do I appreciate those good old days now.

Hi, I'm 51. I've had a very slow start in gardening, living in apartments most of my adult life. My heart was always in gardening though; I always had house plants, and I currently have 70-80 indoor tropicals. 3 years ago I bought a house and now have three small garden beds that I can play in, as well as a large terrace that I fill with containers of annuals and some vegetables.

I'm 36 and just started this year. Maybe by the time I'm 60, I'll have a great garden, and some stories to tell.

Carol Ann, Loose leaf lettuces grow great in Texas. Also I am growing the best romaine I've ever tasted. They won't survive in the summer though so plant romaine in Sept-Nov.

You mean plant them now? Gosh I wouldn't have thought about that!
Jdee it will be great way before your 60, if you don't move house a lot. It takes around 6 years to get a garden looking good, another 6- 10 for it to become really mature and then you have to hack things down and start again cos it just looks overgrown!! You never win, but its great fun trying.

yep....my romaine is going strong now and I still plan to plant some more. They grow quickly and they will be fine until a hard freeze and with them or any kind of loose leaf lettuce you can start picking the leaves as soon as they are up instead of having to wait until a head is formed.

I might as well jump in on this. I'm 67 but really 27 in my heart but my body won't believe it!
My first garden was back in the early 40's during WW II. Because everything was rationed everyone was encouraged to grow a "Victory Garden". I lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY in a three story apartment with a tenant on each floor. The building was built in the mid 1850's and we lived on the bottom floor and there was a fair size garden out back that no one tended. My father bought a packet of Victory seeds that contained tomatoes, peppers, stringbeans and eggplant. I don't know how old I was, probably 5 or 6, but he made the rows and let me plant the seed. Don't know how they grew because the ground was mostly coal ash waste from the old furnaces(Before oil burners)but grow they did and without fertilizer because it was unknown unless you could scoop up horse manure from the passing peddlers in their horsecarts. Yet grow they did and I was so proud and hooked on gardening. Thank You for taking that trip down Memory Lane.

I knew that there would be some great stories and there really are, funny and heart warming. I always feel younger and content in the garden maybe because there are no rules or time limits. I think it is the freedom of doing what we please when we please. Its the best , just like Daves a great place for ole foggies like me!
Meem

Great story, Tplant!

Baldeagle posted that he is 85!

That's who I was waiting for, Lilypon. I dropped him a note, but maybe he's been away from home and hasn't gotten it. He and Sparks42 are both in their 80's. :)

I prob should have done the same. ;)

I am 61.I was raised for about the first 12 years of my life in hotels because my dad was hotel manager. We moved a lot, too, because the chains transferred him around.
This is a true story: I used to walk 6 blocks to school when we lived in NYC. One day, I came upon a utility crew who were breaking up pavement with one of those really loud and scary hydraulic jacks. I was cowering against the far side of the sidewalk way before I got parellel to them. But at one point, another worker was beginning to dig dirt out. I was so stunned that I went right over and looked down in the hole to see the dirt, even forgetting about the scary loud jack. The only placed I had ever seen dirt was in potted palms in lobbies and in Central Park!
I did get to visit a wonderful aunt and uncle in Connecticutt and they were great gardeners. He was prize-winning dahlia grower so I was inspired.
Then we moved to Savannah. The camillias were blooming. A park every other block. Gardens everywhere. After a year or two, we bought a house on a tidal creek. My mother was given an Easter Lily and after it finished blooming, I planted it. The next year I had 3 blooming and 10 babies. I was hooked.
But over the years we kept moving and then my first marriage was to a man in the Air Force and he wouldn't even let me plant annuals. I dumped that guy!
Now I've been married for 36 years to a sweet man who likes to grow things too. The last dozen years we started with a small rock garden and then terraced some of our steep property. I need more land, lol.

I loved reading all your stories! There is so much experience here! I feel like such a baby - at 59, at least in gardening terms! Never did much gardening as a child. Had houseplants in apts., seeds and roses in PA, added other things in UK, TX, VA, and relearning everything in FL! LOL! Just makes life interesting!
Jen

I am amazed at how you young whippersnappers talk about gardening at an advanced age. I hit, or fell over, 86 on October 9 this year and I still roto till and enjoy working in the garden, trim bushes with the hedge trimmer and park my fanny on the lawn mower to mow the grass. I admit I have always hated to pull weeds out of the flower bed, but can still bend over and yank them out by the roots. And above all, I love the easy part of my hobby, using the computer for knowledge and for fun. Good luck to all of you and I hope that you out last me by many years, Woody

Woody, its the labors of love that keep us flexable. I just pull and pull and pull. Around here its much harder to keep things from growing than it is to grow them. Your use of the computer is just amazing.
My best friend lives out of Riedsville, so I know your red clay does't give up weed roots easily. I'm hoping you keep gardening for years and years more. I'm only 58, so I know I'm a novice. Sidney

Ahhh, we knew you'd come crawlin' out of the wood grain here shortly! (or should that be, the 'garden soil' ?) .. heehee ..

So happy to hear you're one super spunky gardener Woody!!

Computer and internet technology is a most wonderful and useful tool for all of us isn't it !?! (Ref: " And above all, I love the easy part of my hobby, using the computer for knowledge and for fun.")

Much joy, many blessings, and far greater a many 'happy returns' .. are wished for you Woody - to DG and to grace the lives of the rest of us, 'whippersnap-etts' !! .. hee ..

- Magpye

Thanks for the note GW. I was glad for the opportunity to respond. It reminds me of the story of the 81 year old Grandfather who took his Granddaughter to the annual Town Meeting. As usual, at the close of the meeting, a prize was offered to the oldest attendee. They ask all over 70 years of age to stand and then increased the age 1 year at a time. After they called for age 80 there were just two who remained standing. When they called for age 81, the Grandfather had to sit down, but the other person remained standing. Grandfather said to his G'daughter, dagnabit, he beat me last year too! 'Tis sure nice to have such good friends, who are appreciated at any age. Woody

This message was edited Nov 3, 2004 1:55 PM

LOL
Hadn't heard that one. :)

LOL good one. Gotta wonder though, maybe there was one even older than couldn't stay standing until they got to his age one year at a time :-)

LOL Woody! You are quite a character.

I just realized who else is missing! I think Sparks should be here too. Last I read though, his wife was ill.

Gene and Eleanor moved to Georgia a couple months ago, and I think Gene's just not gotten back into the DG habit. Woody, have you heard from him?

I talked to him this week. He and his SIL are erecting a building to set up Gene's woodworking equipment. I see him on line just occasionally, as he is using a different email address most of the time. Eleanor is slowly improving and can now walk fairly well with the 4 legged contraption she uses. Her left arm is coming along much slower. She fell a few weeks ago and hurt her back and shoulder. I believe she is doing much better now, although getting in and out of a car can bring the pain back again. As you recall they are living in a lower apartment in their older daughter's house. Gene takes care of here as is needed and Kathy comes by after work and stays over night often as it is closer to her work than is her house.

I'm 34 and a baby gardener. I'm just now starting to learn as much as I can, and I'm so glad to have all of ya to learn from!! :) Great stories!

Susan McCoy

Woody, You inspire us all! I bet you could tell some great stories, as a matter of fact we wish you would!!!! I think without a doubt you are winning this contest. Your prize is definitely a whole lot of admiration and respect . Thanks.
Meems

Amen!

86! Mr. Woody, you are my hero! How wonderful you are to be able to garden as you do!
And plunk on the puter, too! Hooray! and God Bless!
Jen

Well, gollygee, at 74 I guess I'm still a youngster. Have gardened, off and on, always. Can't use age as an excuse to ignore those weeds! Look out, Johnson grass, here I come! Yuska

Dear Baldeagle, you've got it right! My husband's wonderful grandparents are all refusing to slow down and, you guessed it, they're healthier than horses :) Grandpa L. didn't retire til he hit/ "fell over" 83 and he was chopping wood last summer at 86. Grandma M. still has flowers and veggies that she personally works on quite a bit at 88 :) They get so annoyed when anyone acts like its a big deal for them to do the things they've been doing since they got married 60 years ago. "For Pete's sake, I can certainly carry one piddly load of laundry!" Yes, Gramma, but maybe it's be better if you didn't carry it down 2 flights of stairs! :) Keep on! Never retire from living the life you're given!

I'm only 51 but DW and I never had kids (human ones). The Dobes may beg to differ. Never had to be a role model. Local kids think of me as that old guy with a white beard who rides a wicked fast bike. DW has no grey hair but is 4 months older than me. Shhh. She's the crazy lady with the dogs and grows dalias so big people think they are fake. Frank

Welcome Yuska .. from San Antone .. !!

Doggone it, that Woody would get in ahead of me or I would probably be the oldest for awhile. Every year I get closer to him, percentage wise, but it seems he just stays 5 years ahead of me. I like raised beds but I can't build any until the shop is finished. SIL has quite a few power tools also. Things are getting a little easier here and soon I hope to start composting and regenerate the worm farm. I shore do need some animal fertilizer though, have a line on the horse type but for me the chicken kind is hotter and better for composting. I think these old bones are still in good enough shape to dig the 20" deep holes for the boxes.

We hope to start Eleanor on out-patient therapy in the next week or two, she is finished with in home therapy. Doing much better but still a ways to go.

Hopefully I will start being able to spend more time with Dave's Garden and all the friends that have been such great moral support through our rough times.

Hey Sparks...good to see you...you're still just a "spring chicken" Kisses...Jo

Thanks Jo, I chicken but a lot of the spring is gone. I have missed DGs but will be coming back more often from now on.

Glad to hear it, Sparks. I don't have a quarter of your get up'n go, and I'm not even half your age.