When did you start gardening?

Oh dear, your stories sound just like mine, Grandma started me out in gardening at age 4.5 yrs old. So I have been gardening exactly 70 yrs now, and still enjoy it. I grow fruit trees but mainly succulents , but progressed to recently to succulents, 30 yrs ago. But now I've really got serious about the plants the last 13 years, and study every night. I've enjoyed many new friends, and volunteer at the Huntington Gardens doing what, growing succulents. My first visit there was when I was 4.5 year old and I remember driving up the stone lined driveway in my aunts model A. I got to ride in the rumble seat, no seat belt of course. I also had no one to talk to about plants. I was the only child that I knew had had a veggie garden, and flower garden. I didn't know there where clubs that I could have belonged. We didn't have email or forums.
Would you believe my maiden name is Gartner (English translatiion Gardner)

Oh, I like that. I painted the picture in my mind. The sound of the Model A on the stone, the wind blowing in your face and the eager anticipation of the things you'd see. How appropriate, you maiden name. You are an inspiration! Thank you for sharing. Reminds us all to share our love of gardening.. you may never know how you've touched someones life.

Can I jump in here? I have been in the garden for over 50 years. My mom always wanted me to plant the peppers; she said that I was the only one that could get them to grow. I've been doing it ever since. However, In the past 20 years I've done a lot of planting, potting, & re-doing that I thought that what I knew was sufficient...that's what I get for thinking! (LOL) I have learned more in the past year & DG's...a true education. I always wanted to take horticulture classes...I guess I'll just do horticulture in water! ~ Aquaculture!

This does bring back many memories. And makes one wonder what we ever did without computers!

So true, wish I mom was more acceptable to computers, she has 10 siblings that she could converse with + DG +all the googleing she could do... she is 75 and thinks she's too old to learn.. I will NEVER be too old to learn.. just think, music, it all started with a pepper plant! cool!

AuntB,
You can tell your mom she is never too old to learn to use a computer. My grandmother is 94 and the family got her a computer a few years ago. She loves being able to send e-mails and comunicate with the family, which is spread out all accros the country.

BTW, she is the one that got me started gardening when I was 4 or 5. I remember she grew strawberries and vegatables in the back yard. Those were the sweetest strawberries I have ever eaten to this day. She had a fence covered in roses and morning glories seperating the front from the back yards. Her front yard was full of flowers, I especially remember loving the beautiful big peonies and hydrengia blossoms.

DawninTx, Never heard of Nevada, TX, where is it?

Barbur, your granddaughter is adorable!

Loving everyone's stories.

Ignote, I love the idea of fragrance as an alternative!

Any age is a good age!

I have always loved gardening. I am 52 and none of my friends or family are interested in gardening. I would dig up baby Sago Palms that are very expensive here and beg people to take them. This past year I became a Louisiana Master Gardener and now I have a whole group of friends that love it as much as I do.

barbur,
Love the picture of your grandbaby helping in the garden!
Nevada is a small town northeast of Dallas. The town was mostly destroyed by a tornado in 1927, and never really rebuilt to it's former glory. However, my grandmother's garden was in Ohio. It was quite a culture shock for me when I moved from Ohio to Texas. I had to learn all about clay soil and incredibly hot summers. I'm still learning.

hi there, my grandmother raised me and was always in the garden...I'm such a scatter brain when it comes to indoor plants that it's best I buy a close resemblance in plastic...however, since I paint and enjoy looking at blooms, waterdrops etc. I have been spending a lot of time gardening..the home I just purchased was unloved...I am making flower garden rooms and enjoy painting works of art to enhance the flower or rather the flowers enhance my work...I am truly addicted...as well, I work in Toronto and travel 100 miles EACH way daily.....I have approx 5 hrs. per day to sit and visit with all of you on the computer sooooo I joined DG and am in awe of your gardening endeavours.....I'm hooked...if I ever figure out how to post pictures, I will add some showing the progress I am making....can't compete with mature gardens but I sure can picture what mine will be like in the next few years.....enjoy and keep posting...love reading about your gardening antics....

Welcome! to post on DG, see the box below the "Your message" one where you type.
Its got "Image: above it and a button with "Browse..." next to it. Click the "Browse..."
button. It will bring up a file list on your PC. Kind of like what you'd see in "windows explorer".
Keep clicking through the folders 'til you find the one with your photo. Then just double
click the photo you want to share.

Tam

DawninTx, I've lived in Texas my whole life and thought clay soil was normal. My family were farmers and they always had crops growing. I didn't know you could ammend the soil (except for adding comercial fertilizer), I can't remember my Mom or Grandmas doing it although they always had flower gardens. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention when they did.

About hot summers (and autumns), I just thought that was normal too. Before AC (we didn't have a fan in our bedroom either) I remember fanning ourselves till we fell asleep. When we got a new pastor and family from Iowa 2 years ago I was so concerned about them the first summer they were here. I could see them suffering through our summer and felt very sorry for them. Then it dawned on me that I've lived through 64 of those hot, humid summers--so I started feeling sorry for me instead!

But the good side of all of that is that we're about to begin our second growing season while the gardeners up north will be preparing for winter. And next Easter when we are enjoying wild flowers and our spring flowers they will still have snow.

barbur,
You are so right about our longer growing season. My mother (who still lives in Ohio,) is always complaining about her soil. Her yard is very sandy and the water runs right through it. I tease her that I will send a truckload of dirt from my yard and bring back a truckload of hers. And I do enjoy talking to mom and telling her my daffodils are blooming when she still has snow on the ground.

My Mom grew up in The Big City and I think was a frustrated gardener while we were growing up. She had yellow roses, pansies (that interbred to make some weird looking flowers) and bearded irises. One year we had cherry tomatoes that took over the driveway while we were on vacation. I didn't think much of it and by the age of 10 or so, I'd forgotten all about it - until we visited the Buchart Gardens in Canada. Oooh, wow, cool! Then I discovered Boys and forgot about plants again. But in high school, our band went on tour to a bunch of really tiny towns where our band often had more people in it than the whole elementary, middle and high school had combined. We stayed at the homes of local families - and I learned to milk a cow, feed chickens and eat sweet corn raw from the stalk. From that week forward, in the back of my mind, I knew I was headed back towards the land. Maybe it triggered the gene in me from my Dad's pineapple plantation roots. Several years in my early 20s in rural Georgia convinced me that dirt was where it was at. I moved back in with Mom and Dad with my kids in tow after my first husband passed away and didn't do much more that putter around with a hand full of irises or daffodils while other areas of my life moved at breakneck speed: got remarried to a wonderful man that my girls call Dad, raised up the girls and added a boy, started a career... and started plotting my escape back to the dirt. One year ago, we finally moved to a place with some space and I've been going plant-happy ever since. Trees, lovely trees, basil all summer - and some tall bearded irises in the ground this week! Spring bulbs on order. I'm in garden addict heaven (when I'm not fighting the chipmunk and rabbit war). I'd love to quit my job and play with dirt and sand and plants all day, but then I couldn't afford my habbit. My kids all think I'm nuts, but that is just because they don't recall the person I was on an old piece of cow pasture in GA :-)

I found out a few years back that the reason Mom always has a yellow rose growing is because her mom had yellow roses and that is one of the good things she remembers from her childhood. Ever since, I've also kept a yellow rose. When my eldest had her first Mother's Day, I gave her a yellow rose. I wonder if she will give her daughter a yellow rose when it's her turn to be a Mommy.

Have really enjoyed reading all your stories. Thank you for sharing.

Karla

PS I am encouraged to know there is hope for my husband! It only took my kids 10 years to learn to call home when they were going to be late - took my DH 15 years and a trip to Iraq to learn to do so!

Wonderful story, Karla - thank you for sharing it.

I am growing a yellow rose in memory and honor of my beloved auntie - it's called St Patrick's Rose and,not only did she love yellow roses, she also adored St. Patrick's Day and St. Pat's Day of this year was the last time any of us saw her (except for her children) as she died two days later. I will always grow that variety of rose for her - it helps me deal with losing her. I have two in pots for her daughters, but they want me to wait until next year to give them to them.

karla - I LOVE your story. & the yellow rose tradition. We've got Christmas Cactus that are my
family's equivalent. Grandma started one when my Mother was born (70+ years ago) - I don't know
the history earlier than that). Mom started a baby from her's when I was born (47yrs ago).

Murmur - I've heard wonderful things about St. Patricks Day rose - especially known for handling the
heat. Are you in eastern Washington?

Tam

Tam, I'm in Western Washington, close to the water, but the St. Patrick's Rose did survive some really hot days this Summer. I was very happy with it's behavior - the fragrance is quite nice (not as strong as I like, but still delightful) and the blooms lasted forever, both on the bush and in a vase. The yellow color is soft and when some sort of bug got to it early this Summer, it recovered nicely and grew new ones quickly.

I have Christmas cactus that has been around a long time, too - not sure how long, but I remember it at my great aunt and uncle's house when I was a child and I'm almost 62 now (gulp - startles me when I say that!). My mother, as she developed Alzheimer's, let the mother plant die, but I have a couple really good offspring which my cousins gave me to "save" after their mom passed away. She'd been living with one daughter, and the son who was living in and taking care of her home wasn't much of a plant person so they were in pretty sad shape. I'm thrilled to say they have not only survived, but are doing well. I'm not much of a house plant person, but both the Christmas cactus and an orchid that she'd had at the hospital are doing beautifully.

I also found out recently that the "no named" bearded irises (probably from KMart) that she's been growing were dragged around from the first house that we rented when I was barely walking. I've got a few babies from those plants that I've been bringing around for years, too. I never knew they had such a history. Isn't it wonderful how these plants that are passed around a family can comfort and uplift you? My Mom is getting on in years and I know we don't have many left with her, but I know she'll always be with me every time I stick something in the dirt.

Kmom, yes indeed! My mom is probably nearly the final stages of Alzheimer's and although I have tons of pictures and just as many memories, it will be nice to "touch" the Christmas cactus and know she once nutured the original. She didn't do a whole lot of outside gardening, but she did love house plants at one time. She's 86, by the way, and my dad is 87. I'm a very lucky woman.

It is a blessing to have a Mom who has a plant legacy to pass along.

Sigh....I've had my nose in flowers for as long as I can remember "? 3-4 ?" and still do (57). My dad used to order truckloads of rich black dirt to amend the gardens in spring and my brothers and I would pick out the big fat worms and play with them. He even made his own compost. My parents both gardened and Mom always had houseplants, we would "visit" people and buy African Violets, un-named of course. We had rock gardens, flower gardens, flowering shrubs, and fruit trees and vegetable gardens. I've been driving people crazy wanting to know "what kind of tree or bush is that?" So, it makes perfect sense for me to quit my day job and garden full time and I've never been happier...life is sweet!

How terrific Cindy! You are living my dream. Maybe in another 10 yrs I'll join you in gardening
full time. When I'm 57

I grew up on our tobacco farm, part of the same farm that my house stands on today.My daddy was a county policeman but we also farmed tobacco in the summertimes and I remember getting up early as a child to help unload a tobacco barn only to refill it later in the morning thinking, "when I graduate from college, I will never work on a farm again". But lately, since we finished the renovation of our farm house, I find myself digging holes in the same soil that I used to toil over all summer long, except for this time, I love it. Working the earth is anything but a chore to me now. We finished the house last spring so I guess that is the beginning of my gardening addiction. In my previous homes, I settled for the contractors package, but I think that the difference is for me that this is my forever home. Sandy

How wonderful Sandy, how wonderful that you've come full circle. My mother has kept the property
that my grandfather farmed when she grew up but its far from where we live. Mom's in central Pa in
a small town filled with wonderful people. I live & work in NE, Pa. Grandpa's farm is in southern Mich.
If only Mich were warmer... I surely have wonderful memories of the time I spent on that farm. He
bought two ponies for us girls. Mom was sick with Rheumatic Fever one summer so we stayed at that
farm a full summer and then for several weeks each summer after. I never had to toil on their crops
though. I was a cherished grandchild. I think the most laborious chore we had was to roll a bottle of
cream to make milk.

You're little tale took me down my own memory lane. Thank you.

Tam

Tam,
And your post took me down memory lane as well but for a different reason. One of the most enjoyable vacations that our family ever took was one to Pennsylvania. We visited Philly, Hershey, and of course the Amish country a few years ago, attended an Amish country auction ( I bought some pretty side tables there) and stayed a couple of days in a bed and breakfast run by a Mennonite family. The hills were so green and pretty. What a lovely place. Sandy

Sandy - I do love it here! I took the day off work yesterday & went with friends to an alternate energy fair
in Kempton, Pa. I met wonderful passionate people there and got some ideas for ways to augment our
heating system with solar. We then drove up north to an ice cream place my friend loves. The rolling green
hills w/the golden fields of crops are truly beautiful.

Someday I'm gonna get to visit South Carolina. We spent a long weekend in coastal NC 2 yrs ago and that
was terrific! I loved seeing the Venus Flytraps & Saracenia in their native settings. (We got tours of various
Nature Conservancy properties by some fantastic botanists!) I want to see the beautiful architecture &
small gem-like gardens of Charlestown next.

Tam

Every where I lived have had flowers. I took them all for granted. Then I got divorced in 1993 and lived in apt buildings and rentals. When My current husband bought this house for us in 2004 it had not a one plant that flowered. A few mature trees and ugly globe bushes that did nothing but sit there being green. I wanted to put in two beds in the back and 2 in the front. I now have 13 beds and a pond with plants. I'm 51 by the way.

I always took the plantings that DGM and DM had for granted thinking everyone had flowers in their yards. Now I have some but want more and more.... Once I started I couldn't and don't want to quit.

Its an addiction for which there is no cure.

thank goodness for that!