When did you start gardening?

Okay, here's something I've been curious about for a while now! When did you start gardening, and how long have you been at it?

At 29, I don't feel *too* young, but feel a little out of place among my friends because none of them are terribly interested in gardening. A few of them might have a couple of houseplants, or some vegetables in pots outside. But, when it comes to talking about gardening their eyes sort of glaze over when I get into it. They don't understand how I can spend so much time pouring over plant information, etc. Is it uncommon for people my age to take an interest in it? Or, am I just living in the wrong part of the country? (Midwest) I have three sisters, and none of them took an interest in it, either. It's just something that has always appealed to me - my mom would always set aside some dirt in her garden for me. I'd say I started around 10 yrs old. And in college, if there was dirt or a yard, I was planting things in it. One of the things I was most excited about when my S.O. and I bought a house last fall was finally being able to have my own garden.

I'm just curious, don't feel like you have to divulge your age if you'd rather not. lol!

I actually came from a very long line of family gardeners but I really didn't get into it big time until after age 45. 'telling off on myself now' lol For one thing my health was very bad and I couldn't do much other than a few pot plants. I have a very close friend that I've known and used to work with since way back in 1980. She is an avid gardener and she's the one who really got me started. She boosted my confidence and I delved in. ;) Been gardening ever since. I've made many many mistakes and learned from them. Not many of my friends, other than my best friend, care anything about gardening. BUT I seem to have influenced both my daughters and I'm thrilled about that. So I have plenty of people to talk to about my gardening experiences. My son owns and operates a landscaping business and we talk plants a lot too. My Mother at age 84 is still gardening. We live close and talk all the time about our plants. She lives very close so I walk over and look at her flowers and plants almost every morning. ;) We have our coffee and chat about flowers. lol
Lin

well lin...i guess i will age me also....i started 2 yrs ago....and that was at a ripe old age of 49; you could have never told me that i would LOVE it ...but i do!!!!; great topic!!!

I started young also. We had a small farm although by the time I came around we had got rid of all the animals but the chickens. Then we gave those to my aunt when I was about 5 or 6 and she cooked them. If I had known what she was gonna do with them I wouldn't have tried and help carry one of them to the truck. But anyway we always had a garden and had to help pick the veggies and plant and stuff. Didn't mind most of it except pickin the beans. My arms always got wet and itched. Always helped mom with the plants on the poarch and have had some kind of plant ever since. I'm a SWM 46 but look 45. LOL!

Lin - I really think that growing up around plants/gardening must be a great influence! My mom and grandma are/were really into it, and my grandparents had a strawberry and christmas tree farm. You are lucky to have so many people to talk gardening with. :) My mom is my one source of tips and advice (besides online forums, etc.). I made a bunch of mistakes this first year, but won't let that deter me. Enthusiasm counts for something, right?? lol

Scoolie - I liked picking peas the best, because they are so yummy fresh off the plant! Hehe. I also really liked watching for those first little sprouts in the garden. Still do!

Enthusiasm counts for a LOT! ;) Even through all my mistakes and all the moving of plants I have done I still have that huge enthusiasm. It is truly my 'addiction'. lol I love it!
Lin

Two months ago.

Well, I've had plants most of my life, and I've tried, unsuccessfully, to grow crops in a windowbox on a condo balcony, but when I bought my first house a couple months ago, the first thing I did was put in a vegetable garden.

I'm not young, btw.

Been gardening 36 years now, wish I'd started sooner.

Under duress at a young age. It was two big garden plots and an orchard if we wanted to eat! Me Mum always mixed in a few posies and in later years leaned more to posies and house plants. I am hard pressed to plant more than a few cucumbers, tomatoes, pepper plants. As much as I love fresh vegies, lots of friends keep us well supplied.

I have been exposed to gardening all my life. Grew up on a farm, and the vegetable garden was our sustinance for winter. If the garden was a failure, that meant we didn't have any canned stuff for the winter. However, when I married, the job, the home and the children kept me too busy to do much in the garden. We had a neighbor who tended a garden on some ground we owned, and we went halfers with him. We furnished the land, he the toil. We split the cost of seed. So had access to goodies. But since retirement, have dived into gardening full time. We have 3 gardens, each about 1/2 acre, and supply all the neighbors with fresh veggies, and I can and freeze what we will need for the winter, and also can and freeze for DM and DMIL as they are both 87, and just can't do it anymore. DH does most of the veggies, and I have a trillion flowers and plants in the yard. So glad that we both love the same things.

I started gardening when I was 5. We lived on a small farm in Ohio, 5 acres of farm animals and vegetable gardens and orchards. I have gardened whenever I had the opportunity for the last 40 years, but only recently have I had room to begin any large projects. I am now the chair of the Landscape Committee for my homeowners assn. (5 acres of green meatballs that have to be renovated over the next 5 years). We have a mandate from the board of directors to reduce water use by 25%, and reduce maintenance costs as much as possible along the way. Oh, and raise homeowner value. My problems now are bentonite clay, vandalizing kids, and an ancient sprinkler system. On the plus side, I can tear out 100 aging juniper bushes this winter and everyone will think we are doing a fabulous job....

It's heredity with me, too. Grandma's on both sides and my mom & her 13 siblings- all flower/plant lovers. We always had a vegie garden (that was too much like work, thou) and gladiola's & canna's on the side and Moms flower bed out back. I can remember going to Grandmas and I could only pick the volunteer petunia's coming up by the sidewalk, but I oogled over all the rest. Grandpa ran a sawmill and had dairy cattle and Grandma raised chickens and guinea's (and a few litters of pups and kittens). Her gardens were imaculate (and well fertilized). She'd crush bugs between her thumb and index finger, and I thought that was the GROSSEST! My favorite was her fire bush, almost fern looking, cylinder-like light green in summer and blazing orange/red in the fall (can't remember the name). Same spot every year. I've tried to grow it but can't find seed anymore. Rose moss in the old rinse tub... peaches, apricots, and strawberries in summer, too. My passion/addiction has develped over the last 10 years. Grandma has been gone for 15 years now, but her hen & chicks (the plants) still grace a sunny slope in my yard (and anyone else who will take some off my hands). Thanks Ignote, great thread!

When I was a kid, my sisters and I were made to do yard work, so I never liked working in the yard. Any kind, until dh and I got our home and did a veggie garden. Our first experience, we planted 63 tomatoe plants and 23 hills of zucchini, lol My mom and dad laughed at me, I can't remember how many rows of beans we planted or corn and cucumbers, But I had enough veggies for the whole neighbor hood and then some rofl. I got rid of 20 of the zuccini plants as my dad told me 3 would be for more than enough, We also planted water melons and cantaloupe. Trust me, I got burned out of gardening fast, I never wanted to can another can of tomatoes let alone see a tomatoe lol.
But we learned thru that not to plant so much, The 2nd year, we planted sweet corn, indian corn and pop corn, didn't know you had to seperate them, what a mess roflmbo,
We stopped planting a veggie garden 2 yrs ago when I broke my right knee in two places.

I have had house plants, as many as 179 at one time. Now I only have a few, but in May of this year, I told dh that I wanted to do a flower garden in front, he said ok, so now I have got many plans for the back yard for next year :o), wish we had the time and money to do it now. I love it.
I am going to try my hand at winter sowing, hope all servive, got places I want to put all the seeds I have collect from some of the members here. I will be 53 in October and wish I would have taken an interest in this 33 years ago, when dh and I bought our home. But it's never to late to plant a plant :o)

Connie

I'm 52, and I'm just starting. I think I got the gardening bug from my grandmother. She loved to garden, and oh did she have a green thumb. She could make a stick grow. My mother never inherited the green thumb, but she didn't really like gardening. She just wanted things to look nice for the neighbors. She didn't love the plants for themselves.

I think plants can tell. I really do.

My Grandparents and my Mom all had veggie gardens. That was the most important thing then, food.
But I have always loved flowers and pretty plants. I worked out of the home for over 30 yrs. and with that and my health I couldn't do much in the way of gardening. When my health began to improve and I had more energy my girlfriend and I planted some roses in pots. Hers thrived! Mine didn't do so well but I didn't give up. She could do anything with roses. Had the most beautiful ones I'd ever seen. But she was really the person that inspired me. Once I got into it and found I could grow something that didn't die I was hooked. ;) Other than my grandchildren gardening is the most fun thing I do! ;)
Lin

Great stories! Each new one has been fun to read. :)

I started gardening when I bought my first house - I was 27yrs old & knew nothing. I remember my
dad (who is an avid gardener) visted me right after I bought the place, he handed me $20 and said
"go buy some peat moss". We dug it in and now I was ready to plant. I got some help from a local
nursery with a plan. I'd buy a shrub or tree whenever I had a few dollars - I ate a lot of raman noodles!
(8/$1 at that time). I eventually bought a bigger place next to a marvelous gardening couple. They
really taught me a lot - at 34 yrs old I started a garden club. Oh what grand fun that was!!! We'd go on
plant buying trips and visit each others gardens. Then when I was 39yrs old I found a 10 acre farm
that had southern exposure, terrific old stone walls and a stream with boggy areas.

That's where I live now. I'm totally addicted to horticulture. Love starting seeds in the winter. Love
planting... love cutting flowers... love weeding (well maybe don't_mind weeding is more honest)...
love digging in new beds... LOVE buying new plants... just love it all.

So I was bitten around the same age as you. I'm 47yrs old and hope I'm strong enough to keep up
the pace for the next 47yrs.

Tam

Hi all.

I started gardening...well, let's see. I guess I'd say "earlier this year" in reality, although I managed to keep a few spider plants (C.comosum) alive for the past few years. It's only in the past four or five months that I've really developed a keen interest in the hobby.

I'm 27, so I guess I have some company in the "younger" crowd. :) I suppose that I don't feel "weird" having this as a hobby because I have a few other hobbies that aren't commonly held by folks in my age bracket, such as woodworking and ham radio. I kinda get a kick out of the deal.

I knew that I had found a goldmine when I came across DG. I try to find a forum for all of my hobbies; I have one for woodworking (www.woodnet.net), dogs (www.lab-retriever.net), photography (www.nikonians.org), and ham radio (www.qrz.com). I happily paid the membership fee knowing that it would pay for itself in the long run.


Regards,
David

Family on both sides all had gardens when I was small, but the kids' jobs were either weeding or picking potato bugs off the plants. When I was about twelve I discovered I could grow flowers, and had a big bed of cosmos and zinnias alongside our back door. Everywhere I've lived I've had flower gardens, with a few tomatos and vegetables thrown in for variety. I don't can or freeze much anymore, except for sweet corn, and I plant fewer vegetables every year but I still mix them in with the flowers. I'm just starting to get interested in labeling the day llilies and other perennials, and broadening my horizons. Told the DH when I can't get out and play in the dirt anymore, just haul me off to the old folk's home and leave me there.

I didn't care for the garden work when I was a kid. Both Grandma's and an Aunt did flowers and vegetables. I guess I started getting interested in 1977 after I planted a tree. I was 20.

As a child I used to love helping my mom with yard work and I loved mowing the lawn with a gas powered mower. Both sets of grandparents raised some edibles and nice flowers as well. I desperately wanted a vegetable garden but my parents said no so I just helped with the flowers until I left home.
When I was about 20, I spent 7 months in Italy and Spain. In those days the women went to the market every day and bought fresh vegetables for the day. I was reminded how much better fresh vegetables taste than those in the grocery store and vowed to grow my own.
So when I graduated from college, I had little space and tried just growing a few geraniums. In New Orleans, where I grew up, you took a cutting of a geranium, stuck it in the ground and before long you had a bush. In New Mexico, where I live now and where I settled after college, you take some geranium cuttings and stick them in the grown and watch them dessicate. I was back to square one.
Someone recommended a book on gardening in New Mexico that was a life saver. I learned the magic of compost and manure on our soil which has very little organic matter and can be very alkaline. I learned to water. Then things started to do better.
It took me about 20 years to get a house big enough for a vegetable garden and my first try was pathetic. I had some nice trees and shrubs though.
Now I finally have a nice big lot, at least for my town which is completely surrounded by government land and Indian reservations. I have flowers and vegetables. i am retired and am in hog heaven. I had to work all my life to get a real garden but it was worth every hour of it.

I've loved reading your stories. I was raised on a farm and was so glad to get away from it when I married. But---it's in my blood. I've done research on my family and always, always, always find that my ancestors were farmers. It's so consistant that I suspect I'm not on the right family line if I find someone who isn't a farmer. I found that Gregor Mendel the botanist who's experiments with the breeding of garden peas led to the development of the science of genetics was my 3rd cousin, 4 times removed. Recently when I went to Germany and Czech Republic I felt such kindred to the people when I saw them working in their beautiful gardens just like my grandparents and parents did. In the last 3 years I've fallen in love with gardening again. But its flowers that I love to grow---none of that picking beans and cutting okra. I'm a professtional artist and have found that ALL the principles of art apply to landscaping and it's so exciting to try to apply that to my garden. It's like painting a living picture. The only difference is the media is plants and one has to keep them growing!

Barbur, my Mom wasn't an outdoor person, but she could sit at the sewing machine all day. I can't sew, but can be outside all day. Mom and I quilted, but with different materials.

Great thread!!! My maternal grandmother lived with us when I was growing up and we had the most beautiful gardens . . . we lived in a pretty ordinary neighborhood and our yard was considered an oasis!! I inherited the bug from my grandma and had my first gardens when I was 23 and my first dh and I bought our home. I have pretty much gardened all the time since then, although there were a few years in between dh's that I lived in apartments and only had balconies to garden on. I'm so addicted now, though, that it's almost ridiculous!!! I'll be 62 in September and am healthy as a horse - I think a lot of it has to do with gardening.

Way to go Murmer! I hope to stay in shape too. I'm 49.

I read that gardeners have a 4X reduction in risk for alzeimers! Its just good for us in every way!
Physical, mentally and spiritually!ly

Tammy, you have my utmost admiration for all that you have done with several different homes - and I sure hope you're right about the 4x reduction in risk for Alzheimer's - my mother has that dreaded disease (and did not garden much - only when she had to). Her mother, the one I inherited the passion from, did NOT get Alzheimer's, although her last couple years she was not well and a bit confused. But definitely not like my poor mom.

No matter what, I don't think there's anything as good for people as being connected to nature and experiencing the thrill of watching things grow (and being a part of it!).

Lin, glad your health has improved over the years so you can enjoy gardening - so often it's the other way around!!!!

I am so enjoying this thread - so many great stories!

Cool thread. I started when I bought my house in the burbs ten years ago. I was 33 then. I had no idea whatsoever that I would become the fanatic I have. I figured I'd do the typical Italian thing - grow some tomatoes, basil, etc., and take care of the lawn. Man was I wrong on all counts. I hate the lawn. (I don't use chemicals and don't waste water on the lawn.) I started my first Fall with some bulbs and have never looked back. Trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, bulbs, vines, fruit, veggies, water garden. I've come to love it all. On the down side, I'm running out of room and my chronic back pain (including a herniated disk) is limiting me. Need a new back and some more property! Anyone have either??

Victor

I agree about it being good for us "physically, mentally, and spiritually." My life has changed so much since I started gardening! After a stressful day at work, I just go pull weeds. I forget that it's work until I'm sore later. And things growing in the garden remind me of all that there is to be thankful for. It is definitely a therapy of sorts for me. :-)

Very well said, Ignote!

Hi: I am 64 and can remember piddling around in our veg. garden when I was about 3. Have pixs of me with a hoe in hand. It was during WWII and you practically had to have a garden to survive. After my mother and father divorced in mid-50's, my mother married a man who loved to garden. So we always had a big garden. My mom owned the lot between our house and the one next door. My step-father always planted corn with climbing vegs. in between. It would make a nice jungle to play in. The man and woman next door to us had a lot of arguments and I can remember us kids sneaking down the rows of corn and getting close to their house and listening and laughing to them fussing and fighting. No one had AC in those days and they were a source of amusement in the neighborhood, especially when she would chase after him with a broom out the door of their side porch. They moved when I was about 13 or 14 and a blind man and his family moved in. They were very quiet. He caned chairs for a living. I would sneak down the corn rows to watch him. One day he looked up and told me he heard me and invited me to come and watch him. Very interesting. He could cane a chair bottom in about 1/2 hr. My mom and grandmother always had flower beds around the house and I always helped with them. One year the poinsettias grew taller than the house. The next yr. we had a freeze in FL and it killed them to the ground. My first husband was in the marines and everywhere we lived I tried to have a garden or potted plants. My 2nd husband was a Navy officer for 30 yrs and we moved from coast to coast several times. Still had gardens and potted plants. Now I have large flower beds and many ornamentals planted. Am going blind and willl not be able to work in them much longer. We will probably let all the beds go back to grass which my husband can just cut on the riding mower. I hate this is happening because I will miss the colors and shapes of the flowers so very much. Oh well, such is life. Good gardening to all of you. Have a safe and happy summer. Liz

Liz -- neat stories! Very sorry to hear about your loss of vision, it would be a sad day indeed to no longer be able to enjoy flowers like that. Could you maybe keep a smaller garden for fragrance?

Liz - you definitely had a lifetime of gardening! Starting out at 3yrs old. Wow. I had really bad allergies as a child
and spent limited time in the garden. I grew moss roses in the front, gourds & sunflowers in the section of the
veggie garden my folks gave to me. By the time I was in college, I thought of myself as a "big city girl" destined
to live in an urban environment. No interest in gardening.

I think Ignote has an interesting idea. I imagine you could have containers filled with fragrant plants? They'd be
easier to take care of & would give you the sensual pleasure of fragrance even if you can no longer enjoy their
colors.

Tam

Hi,
I have been into gardening for about five years now. I am 39. Both my parents loved to work in the yard, they had ten acres, that was constantly planted with flowers veggies, berries, and trees. I would rather do anything then work in the yard back then. When my dh and I moved into out current home, I got bit by the gardening bug! When a friend from my teen years came over to see the house and I was showing her the yards, she inquired what was under the tarp in the back corner of the yard when I told her that was my compost pile and then preceeded to tell her all about it she placed her hand on my forehead and asked if I was feeling okay, what had happened to me, I was excited about dirt. She stills laughs about it.
I have surpassed my parents in some of my gardening knowledge and I get a kick when my mom calls me and asks me a question about a plant problem she is having. I love reading gardening books, and I get so excited when the seed/bulb catalogues start to arrive in the mailbox.
Right now I am really into my glads and dahlias, I have had my heart broken by iris' so I gave them up for two seasons, but I think I need to plant some more this year. I am learning the hard way about light and soil. It is an ever learning process which I am enjoying so much.

This thread should never stop. **My eyes are watering** From all of your stories, gardening at any age isn't soon enough. It's therapeutic for whatever ails you and brings back fond memories of family and of simpler times.
After working for one company for 29 years, and living in the same house on 3 acres of land for 27 years and raising a husband, 2 boys, one cat and 3 dogs, I finally planted my first blooming flower in my yard last spring. I'm still planting.

LOL I hope your husband turned out ok.

After 31 years, he's trained & house-broken!HEEHEE

Cordele, sometimes I think "late bloomers" in the gardening arena enjoy it even more! Glad you now have the opportunity to plant and plant and plant! And glad your dh is all raised, etc.!! They sure can be the biggest challenge!

Liz, I do hope you find a way to continue gardening even if its not in the same way as you have in the past. What good memories you have to enjoy. You made me think of my grandaughter who is 28 months old has been enjoying gardening for about 6 months! She follows me everywhere I go and tries to do everything I do, even copying every position that I stand when I'm gardening. I didn't realize that when I'm gardening I usually stand with one foot on the lawn and the other in the flower bed till she started doing the same thing. One day I wasn't in the "correct" position and she said "Mamaw put your foot here" indicating that I should put one foot in the flower bed like she was doing. Her favorite thing to do is watering, I remember one day I was potting some plants and she wanted to "help." So, to distract her I turned the water sprayer barely on and she "watered" everything in site including herself and me. I won't ever forget the site of the sun shining on the mist of water that was like a dew on the ringlets of her hair. I hope some day she will be participating in a DG forum and telling how it was that she began gardening.

Awww.. so many beautiful memories come from gardening! I love your story &
picture barbur!