When you were a kid, did you ever destroy plants?

I was thinking about something today, and it sort of made me laugh, but I also felt a little bit bad. I have always been involved in gardening. My father started me out with my own radish patch when I wasn't much more than four or five years old, and I was always involved with taking care of our roses and shrubs. However, we also lived in a wooded area isolated from the rest of the world, and I can recall having a lot of fun destroying plants, something that seems completely alien to me now that I can easily spend 10 hours a day out in the garden babying plants like they were made of crystal. I can remember smashing up ferns, having fun stripping the branches off of beautiful birch trees, and having tug of wars with Sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina), a scrubby, aromatic shrub that grew wild all over the property I grew up on. Recently, a couple of kids came down to my garden and vandalized some daylilies, some irises, and foxgloves. I caught them, and I think I gave them the scare of their lives. At the same time, I was thinking about what my own attitude towards plants was when I was younger. I would never go onto another person's property and smash up their plants, and I wouldn't even think of harming one of my father's plants, but it was pretty much open season on the wild plants in the area. Was I just a particularly nasty little boy? Or are there others out there that converted from thoughtless youngsters (especially towards plants) into fanatical gardeners, that even feel a twinge of guilt when pulling up a piece of crabgrass (well, not that much guilt)?

-Greg

This message was edited Aug 12, 2005 11:44 PM

lol!! You were a rebellious one, weren't you?!

I was thinking about that the other day, too (my relationship to plants as a kid) and I recall finding pretty plants in the woods.....plants with variegation (even though I didn't know what that word meant, back then) especially fascinated me.

I remember once riding my bike down the road and seeing this pretty flower growing right alongside the road in the *gravel*....I dug it up and took it home to my Mom...turns out it was a plain old Mossrose (Portulaca).

But...my parents didn't involve me in taking care of plants and gardening as yours did.

I remember a friend and I cutting all the leaves off of her Mom's rhubarb to make hats. LOL I also remember her Mom being very unhappy with us.

Nan, it's funny that you mention the Portulaca because that was the first plant that I grew entirely by myself, starting from seed, when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I think by about that age, any desire to ruin plants was gone and my thoughts had turned completely how to make plants grow. When I was around 13, I helped my father design and plant a gigantic new rose bed, and that really got me hooked on gardening for good. Strangely, though my early experiences were with vegetable gardening, I have essentially been a ornamental gardener since I started gardening seriously, and have had little interest in growing edible plants. Eating a stray ditchlily bud here and there is about the extent of my food gardening these days.


And Joan, at least your destruction was fairly innocent compared to mine, lol! I used to destroy the wild growing plants out of boredom, plain aggression, or for no reason at all. That was what made me so mad about the kids that came down and vandalized some of my plants. They were bored, and mindless, probably not even getting that much enjoyment out of trying to wreck part of my garden. On the other hand, a few weeks ago, I watched a couple of little girls from the neighborhood sneak into my backyard field. About ten minutes later, they came out with a bunch of Joe Pye Weed flowers and cat tails. They did a job on the Eupatorium plants, really shredding the stems to get the flowers off, but I couldn't get mad at them for it because they seemed so happy about the flowers and the cat tails, and just let them walk away without talking to them or complaining to their parents. They damaged my plants, of course, but there was no malicious intent behind it at all. They just knew they liked the plants, and were too young to either know or care about the propriety of coming onto someone else's property and taking plants without permission. So using rhubarb plants for hats certainly does count as destroying a plant, but at least you didn't do it out of youthful nastiness like I used to, lol!

When my dad (he's 65) was a kid he and his brothers went to the neighbors and turned all their potted plants upside down! Needless to say they were in trouble!

Nicole

gregr18, I also grew up helping my grandparents with their enormous vegetable gardens every spring and summer.....so destroying plants would never have crossed my mind. Like you however, I have very little interest in growing vegetables in my garden now. Particularly because the garden is too small to grow both veggies and pretty flowers effectively. Once the kids' have outgrown their swing set though, I'll likely start in with several veggie patches :-)

-Julie

I, too, helped in the large vegetable gardens when I was growing up and the only thing I can ever remember doing was ... the age old thing girlds do with flowers ...
he loves me ...
he loves me not
(pluck off petal)
*smile*

I thought of this post today -- as my little destoyers took all the flowers off my Martha Washingtons while I wasn't looking. Aren't thye cute little huns? (as in ATILLA!) LOL! My DD (in yellow) and her friend.

My de-nuded Marthas. They practically pulled them out of the pot to get the flowers. But - no evil intent, they wanted to make the kalkanoche (I KNOW i spelled that wrong) pretty. I just fussed at them a little and made them help me re-plant them.

They are so cute! They can come over and pull my flowers anytime!!!

Nicole

Thinking back many years ago when I was 7 or 8 years old. We only had dirt in our back yard. When Mothers Day came around, or my mothers birthday, I would take an empty tin can or bottle and go down the alley til I saw a nice yard and go in and pick their flowers so I would have a nice bouquet for my mother. I couldn't understand why she was upset when I felt she should have been happy. Oh, I was chased several times by the persons yard I was in, pulling up their flowers, but wasn't caught!

Greg, I'm with you-- I destroyed lots of plants as a kid. For me it was just in play, though. We lived in a pretty rural area, so we were surrounded by plants. As a kid, naturally we used plants as "props" for our adventures. Althouth this often resulted in destroying them, we certainly didn't think of it that way.

Of course I did loves me, loves me not, made flower necklaces, and picked boquets, but we often made swords from the sword ferns and arrows from the snake grass. We used trees as carnival rides and leaves as the tickets. We tried to make things out of madrona bark like the native Americans. We used to make puppets out of leaves and sticks. We also made "boats" out of plants had had races down the stream. We made miniature clear cuts between the trees as forts, and used my dad's machete to make trails. Once my brother and I stripped a tree at my grandma's of its bark as we were playing house. We didn't realize it would kill the tree. My grandma was sad, but not mad since we didn't know. I remember being intrigued that she would be sad over a dead tree.

WOW this thread brings back some memories!! I wish I had that great of an imagination now. My life would be so much fun. :)

--Dana

Oh Dana you just brought back a memory that may get me in trouble! I hope no one hates me for this post...

I was VERY VERY little mind you and had not a clue I was doing anything wrong. Believe me!!

Myself and my next door neighbor would go through the woods into the cemetary next door. We would take all the flowers/pots, etc and arrange them on top of the small mosuleums (sp-gosh I can's spell that word) to make forts! We would put them on the edges so we couldn't see each other. After our play was over we always put the flowers back but I never could quite remember where they went exactly. So basically we ended up rearranging all the flowers! Thinking back it never occurred to me that people actually brought the flowers there. I guess if you had a sense of humor you might find it funny that your flowers are 2 graves over but I don't really think humor comes into play there that much.

Thinking back I am mortified but also find it funny because it was so innocent.

Nicole

We lived in a small 2 room apt. and my momma worked hard as a nurse to raise me by herself. We had no yard or garden of our own. One day on my way home from school, I stopped by a particularly tempting row of yellow tulips. It was just too much! They were too close to the sidewalk. I proceded to pick as many as I felt I needed and headed home. I'm sure my Mom was both pleased and sad at her stolen gift. As I recall she admonished me and threatened to make me go back to the ladys house and apologize. All my life, every time I went by that house, I recalled the yellow tulips. I wonder if they are still there after 60 years and how many other young theives have yielded to temptation.
I suppose this should be on another thread because some of us did not have ill intent to just destroy plants, but rather admire them so much we wanted to share the beauty.Greg- I don't think you were all bad since you only did it in the wild, not in someone's yard or garden.

unfortunately, i don't remember the details, but my dad used to tell us that one summer he and a pal would pick flowers out of someone's garden, then sell the bouquets to folks several blocks away.

marsha :-)

I used to pick all of the neighbors flowers. I am sure they hated me. My mom always made me return them to our unhappy neighbors. It didn't stop me though. I think she should have gotten me involved in my own garden. I can't really think back as to what was going on in my mind but I suppose I was fascinated with the flowers.

Greg, must be a male thing! I know lots of boys that have to pick up sticks and wield them at helpless plants growing nearby. Annoying if you are the owner of those plants! I never destroyed plants as a child. The closest I came would be carefully picking some leaves as bedding for my captured lizards which I kept in shoeboxes, but mostly we used TP as bedding. My parents' houses was adjacent to miles and miles of reserve area, so lots of woodlands, creeks, and wildlife for us to play with and explore. As a teen it became the place to go for drinking, smoking illegal stuff, and necking - of course I never did any of that. A thoroughly satisfying place for a youngster to grow up!

Gwendalou

I remember walking past a house that was right on the sidewalk. A lot of houses in our town had the house right up to the sidewalk with the windows and doors stepping right onto the cement. Some had a little patch of grass in front big enough to plant a row of shrubs or flowers in.
My cousins and I used to pick petunias out of one of the "yards" when we walked past. One day, the lady caught us and came out with a broom in her hand and threatened us with it. LOL
My one cousin was quite little and tripped and fell and skinned her knees as we were running away. It was a pretty dramatic scene.
We never picked her petunias again. I used to think that things on the street were growing wild. It never occurred to me that someone had planted them there. I thought the lady was some sort of kook at the time.

My father was a wonderful flower gardener. He raised lovely dahlias in particular and everywhere we lived he grew flowers of some sort. We learned at a young age to respect flowers and those that grew them. He would have tanned our hides if we had destroyed anyone's hard work. Of course, my dog dug up one of his prize-winning dahlia plants one day, and in later years my brother mowed down a couple of gorgeous tree roses learning to ride his bike. But that was different than deliberate destruction. Nothing made him happier than the day I asked him to show me how to plant sweet peas. Of course, all of his sweet peas came up and none of mine did. I still can't grow things from seed worth a hoot, but I have inherited his love of flowers and especially dahlias.

I recall picking hanfuls of grass while bored during an outdoor class or summer camp session-- but otherwise, I think I've always worried about hurting plants.

It is funny that I brought this subject up because something very interesting happened to me on Thursday afternoon. This wasn't a kid though.... I live at the end of a cul-de-sac, with a long driveway leading up to my house, in a pretty isolated area. A lot of my plantings are along the driveway, so I go up there a lot to water and weed and whatnot. On Thursday, I was watering a hosta and a fern (I remember very well, lol), when a car came bombing down my road, and turned around on the cul-de-sac in the wrong direction. The car stopped right in front of one of my daylily beds, and I kind of hunkered down behind some laurel bushes to see what was going on. The next thing I knew, I heard the sound of cans hitting the pavement at the end of my driveway. When this happened, I got mad and started to slowly walk up the driveway so I could confront the guy. When I got close to the end of the driveway, I heard the sound of water hitting the dirt. But it wasn't water, lol. This guy had dumped beer cans on my road, and was now "watering" one of my daylilies. I waited until he closed his car door and jumped into the road to block him from leaving. He was obviously drunk, and he had a couple of drunk buddies in the car with him. I yelled every name in the book at him, and walked around the back of the car to get his license plate number. While I was looking, he screeched away, but I got the number and called the cops. After, I took a look at what he had left for me. Four beer cans and he had generously "watered" my daylily 'Aabachee' for me. That is something I would have never done to another person's garden, lol!

my mother was one of those people who could grow anything, just through her own instincts. i know she never owned a gardening book, and probably never read one. she taught us the utmost respect not only for her gardens, but for everyone else's, too. she would have absolutely killed us if we'd harmed or even thought of harming someone else's property or plants. she took care of my kids before they started school, and they learned the same respect and appreciation at a very young age, which they've carried with them to this day.

my son is in the marines and can't garden, of course. but my daughter is in college in new york city and she has an amazing potted garden on her little asphalt rooftop - veggies and flowers. she calls it her little patch of home in a concrete city. it warms my heart to know my mom's legacy lives on.

marsha

Too bad there are creeps everywhere like the ones you had. They don't have respect for anything or anybody. But then there are the nice ones like the people here at DG and the ones teaching their children to love flowers and animals and to respect what belongs to others--and I really believe we are the majority. We just don't hear much about the good guys.

I am still trying to teach my 3 yr old the difference and my plants and the weeds! He's had a few unintentional plant destroying moments already!

Nicole

Hang in there. He'll get it. And when he does..... you will have made a gardener!!

I always joked I wanted an 18 year old to dig the holes for me. I just didn't realize I would have to GROW one! LOL!!

Nicole

I used to eat alot of things in the yard. Fortunately, I made it to adulthood. I remember chewing citrus leaves, sucking the nectar from vinca flowers, chewing on oxalis stems and the tender parts of grass stems. I tried ornamenatl strawberries and pyracantha berries. I am now very careful about what grows in my yard as I have a 2 and 4 year old. The acorns might not have fallen from the tree.

Barksy, I used to taste quite a few things from my yard also. I am still alive too, I think, but I ate/tasted many things I wouldn't think of eating now. One thing I actually enjoyed eating was Phlox flowers, and I still occasionally taste one. I prefer the taste of the subulata flowers that covered a rock wall at my childhood home to those of the paniculata, which I grow for the most part now. I also liked to eat Oxalis plants, not the best of ideas, but done in small quantities for the nice sour jolt to the tongue. I experienced the bitterness of milkweed juice, though I don't know what prompted me to try it. I remember repeatedly tasting a plant that had spurge-like green flowers that also had a milky fluid inside of it, just because it was so interestingly bitter. I have also foolishly tasted raw pokeberries, which were hideous and made my tongue itch, asparagus berries, which were equally hideous, though didn't make my tongue itch, and also, many times, I tasted the extremely bitter milk contained in the dandelion stems and dandelion roots.

Daring gardeners you are!!

I did a bit of that this Spring but by accident. I threw out a bunch of poppie seeds last Fall. Well... one of them started growing in my previous lettuce bed so I thought - cool, my lettuce made it through the winter! I actually had some in a salad. Didn't realize it till much later when the poppy started blooming!! DUH!!

Nicole

Jeez, you guys! I think all I ever ate was grass. I really led a sheltered existence, didn't I?

HA! Great story, Nicole. :)

Think I would fail a drug test now? LOL!!!

I can hear it now - NO really!! They were just poppy leaves I promise!!

Nicole

Times have changed, Nicole. They would throw away the key now!

You know that's right!!