How did you get hooked on gardening?

I found you first! Nanner nanner nanner! LOL

Somehow, growing grass doesn't seem like gardening to me, anymore. In the desert of Utah, and even in Denver, it was a bit of a challenge, but here in Houston, planting grass reminds me of Mickey in Fantasia - how do we make it stop (before the HOA sends us nasty letters).

My gardening time is occupied by a greater part of clearing the weeds! It seems to be part of it. Without we doing it, it just grows wild! I've to do all by myself.

Dinu - tell me about your gardens. What have you got growing that I can drool over. I tell this zone envy I have for warmer than me is insatiable.

Nothing in particular, but a few shrubs (all planted by me) and a couple of trees (not planted by me) and some seasonals. The best way to get a glimpse is to visit my homepage here and see some of the threads under photos or the plants I have contributed to the PF.

My parents both gardened. My mother grew beautiful flowers, while my father grew the vegetables we ate, and kept the garden tidy. My brother and I were given the task of mowing the lawn, as soon as we were big enough to push the mower. I had no interest in gardening whatsoever when I lived at home. At the age of 17 I left home and went to live in a hostel with no garden. Suddenly, I wanted plants in my life. One of the caretakers gave me a shoebox-shaped polystyrene container, which was filled with dusty, impoverished dirt that she had grown bulbs in, and I put it on my windowsill and started filling it with little succulents and cacti. From this start I graduated to an apartment and a balcony filled with planters, and houseplants of all kinds. Then I finally got an outdoor garden to play with. I just kept discovering different kinds of plant and wanting to grow all of them. I went through a miniature conifer phase, a fuchsia phase, a heathers phase, an old-fashioned roses phase, an alpines phase, a cacti phase, and so on. The actual practical side of gardening I learned by trial and error, since I had not paid attention to what my parents were doing in their garden!

Very interesting, June. The gene is in you and it exposes itself at one time or other. It has to. "He" will provide avenues for that.

Thanks to ALL of you. Everyone's stories are unique. I wish I'd had a mentor way back when. I'm not conplaining. My mother had enough to do with us five kids. She raised us right (although we can still get "The Look") and we never went without. Her Gardenia bush was the only treasure. The smell of those flowers will stay with me forever. My grandparents when I knew them did not want to be bothered with such things.

Do I sound like a "Movie of the Week" yet?

There is a man down the block from us that likes to trade things with his neighbors and he can spin a yarn!!! That man will talk for hours about his garden mostly. I'm lucky to have found him. He has a fellow that lives next to him that is very envious and refuses to talk to anyone about anything. We sneak in and talk to his wife when he's not home. LOL

Where was I going with this? I'm not sure except to say thanks to DG and all the fine folks here that have helped me with my gardens. You all are just plain fun!

Kwanjin

Gardenia bush Oh now there is a fragrance from the past! Mother had 3 of the along the front foundation of our home in Wautauga TX when I lived there as a kid. Won't grow here. I've tried them in the house and it just doesn't survive. Oh to smell those again.

I can't smell it anymore with seeing the old house in my head! Yeah, talk about memories!!!

yeah, and thanks I needed a little reminder. Woke up from a stupid dream I don't even remember any more and now I can not go back to sleep for the life of me. A little glass of wine and perhaps that will do the trick. Or memories of gardenias that could be my ticket as well Thanx again

When I was a teen there was a house not far from my grandparents that had a flowerbed about 15 feet deep that ran the full length of the front yard. It was this amazing bright quilt of low growing flowers that I was totally inspired by. My grandmother had a long bed of iris cross the full length of their yard and another bed closer to the house that held roses and other perennials. My mom had a flower bed the length of the house on 2 sides.

I asked my Mom if she would let ME develop a flower bed across the length of our front yard against the road. I wanted to recreate that first flowerbed that I mentioned. My mom not only said YES, she said she'd pay for the flowers I needed!!! I was on my way to a life-long passion and did not even know it then. My first flower bed was a success and my neighbor asked me to create a small version for her. She was home bound and on oxygen for 24/7 and she wanted something she could see from her back door (flower garden #2).

I continued maintaining those 2 flower beds until I married and moved with my husband into an apartment. It was there that it hit me how much I missed my flowers, I had sort of taken them for granted until then. Five years later when we moved back to our home town, we moved into a series of rental houses before buying our first house. Even in the rentals I filled the flower beds with annuals.

The first thing I did when we moved into the first home we bought was start to work on the flower beds. I was several months pregnant with a 5 year old and 1 year old. I cleared tumble weed and shoveled the area I wanted terraced. Every nap time I would be outside working on getting those flower beds ready.

Over the years as my life has changed, my flower beds have changed. Later in life, when I went back to college, I stopped trying to have huge full flower beds to having whiskey barrels of annuals sitting on expanses of red rock. I starting relying more on design with "garden art" and less on flowers. I added wagon wheels and cowboy boots to help boost interest and cut maintenance. In another garden area bird houses on posts with various size metal wash basins full of annuals between them on expanses of bark.

I've gone though a few houses since then and I'm back to wanting that FULL lush flower bed with lots of variety, in height and color. I still add garden art and I have begun to make my own with a cement hobby. In a life full of changing hobbies, flowers have been the ONLY hobby that has remained my constant through life.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing. We have to use our memories and our hearts to post here, and that is so special!

We all go back to the thing we love, huh, Psychw2? Whenever I think it's getting to be too much, I take a step back and look at what's REALLY there. Then I can go back to work because it's SO worth it!

I loved reading this thread. I grew up with a gardening mom. As a young child, it was mostly vegetables and a few flowers grown from seed because my parents were very young and didn't have much money. Over the years, more and more flowers were introduced to the yard and I can remember my mother spending hours and hours bent over weeding. I used to wonder how she could do something so boring for so long! Even though she spent so much time in the garden, I never remember it being particularly pretty.

When I got married and bought a house, I immediately wanted to make the yard look nice but I really knew nothing about gardening (except how to weed which I hated, LOL). I can't tell you how many plants fell victim to my ignorance - because I didn't know daisies, roses and black-eyed susans wouldn't grow in almost complete shade! So for about 10 years I just dabbled. Every spring I'd get "the bug" so I'd buy a few plants and start tackling a new area of the overgrown wilderness called my yard. But every summer, by mid-late June I would invariably give up, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task, my limited knowledge and because I didn't have the money to do what I really wanted (a total makeover). Then about 3 years ago, something changed. I don't know what it was exactly. The gardening bug had been there all along, but now it was a full-blown obsession that I took to with every ounce of energy I had and I haven't stopped since. I think it might have been partly due to the fact that I have a stressful job and I literally craved a place of peaceful solitude where I could escape when I needed to rest. Being a nature lover, that meant bringing some of my favorite things in nature into my yard. The first major project I tackled was a water garden. I absolutely love the sound of running water so I had to have a stream and waterfalls. Then I needed lots and lots of plants surrounding the watergarden - and little hidden alcoves where I could sit and relax. After 3 years of spending every spare minute, penny and energy in gardening, I only have about 1/3 of my yard "done". Yet I'm no longer overwhelmed by it - I'm already planning next year's projects and I spend all winter reading gardening books and magazines. There is nothing in the world as therapeutic and relaxing as working in my garden. I even enjoy weeding now!

Thanks for starting this thread!

Yes, the garden is so goooooood for the soul! When I went thru a divorce and I knew the house was going up for sale, my oldest son found me out planting tulips and finishing the cement and rock border I had started. "Why are you doing this? You know you have to sell the house?" "Because I started this project, it is MY design and I want to see it complete and in bloom. Because I NEVER have a negative thought out working in my garden. Because it gives me peace and pleasure."

I got to see the finished landscaping, all in full bloom before I put the house up for sale and it was worth of penny and minute I put into it. I'm so happy to finally be in a situation where I'm gardening again.

I grew up on a small farm in northern Indiana, so I always remember vegetable gardens and a huge hard of flower beds. My dad had been a truck farmer at one time, so he grew several gardens of sweet corn and tomatoes every year. Mom grew flowers. My grandmother was a gardener, as well. I guess it is in my genetics!

I always get a sense of satisfaction and peace when working in the soil. Now, at 60, sometimes my projects are less ambitious, and an over jealous day can lay me up for a day or two, but I've become a seasoned gardener and people in my neck of the woods think I'm some sort of expert. Don't tell them any different, I like it!

Your secret is safe with US!!! LOL


Kwanjin

;)

I see the word 'grandmother' running frequently through the thread. They seem to be a very important element to sow the seeds of gardening itself in young minds! True with me as well.

Perhaps grandmothers have more time to spend with us in the garden, Dinu. Teaching a child about flowers not only educates, but it gives them the tools to deal with the stresses in life. I always feel at peace when I'm digging in the soil.

I rarely think of it as "work", it is a pleasure. Admittedly when it's really hot out, not as enjoyable.

I ran a ad on the online classified ads, it was free. I offered to share my perennials if I was given an opportunity to dig/thin some of their's. I actually got two responses from generous ladies. I came home with BOXES of flowers! I'm going to have to work hard to make room for all of them. I had started a huge new flower bed but it's not ready yet.

That sounds like a great idea! One gardener's overflow of plants is another gardener's treasure! If you can't get them all planted, pot them up and put them up against the house and mulch around them. If you've got a bit more autumn for them to restore damaged roots, they'll probably be there for you in the spring.

Yes, I bought potting soil and I'm headed to the thrift store to buy up cheap pots. I'll be scrubbing and disinfecting pots this morning. I'm going to "bank" the pots against the house of those plants that do not have place in the soil yet.

Way to go!

I inherited my love of gardening from my grandmother. Although my thumb will never be as green as hers was....that lady could grow plants out of stone! I was a military brat and we moved about every six months, but from a very early age I always had a need to grow a plant of some kind. There never was much room except for maybe a flower in a little pot or maybe just a single head of lettuce, lol. When we finally moved back to Texas I really got to know my grandmother. My mom called the inside of Granny's house the "jungle" and her garden in the back was absolutely amazing. Flowers and vegetables of every kind. Granny never drove a car but when I was old enough to drive we'd spend hours nursery hopping. Sometimes at one of the nurseries she would even pinch off a piece of a plant and put it in her purse. Once she even stood on the dining chair in a restaurant and pinched off a piece of the plant in the hanging basket above the table, lol. My mother thought it was shocking but that was just my Granny...a true plantaholic. :)

I'm sure she wasn't the only one who did that either. LOL

She was always rooting little pieces of plants that she "borrowed" and sharing them. Yes, she was eccentric and didn't think of it as stealing, lol.

That's too funny! LOL

I think a lot of people in our grandparent's day were used to sharing cuttings of plants and seeds...no nurseries back then,I guess. Favorite plants from the old countries were brought to the USA and shared. It's a great tradition and an obligation to share what has been shared. Of course we pay for ours at the nurseries.....and there is ebay. :0

I grew up in a big family and so did my husband. Between us there are 13 siblings and sharing was a must! If you didn't share, you didn't get. That's why I like being in a community that is build on sharing. Keeping things to yourself doesn't get you anywhere. Know what I mean?

Absolutely! And Dave's members are some of the most generous and sharing people you will find.

I've found that gardeners as a group are the MOST sharing people. They know the value of it because it teaches you that from the start. I don't usually like to make a blanket statement like that but in this case it's true.

*bump*

I have to give credit to friends that have helped me over the years by showing me how to find the seeds on a plant, or how to prune a bush, or how to build a compost pile. I owe a lot to my garden friends, and it's nice to be able to pay them back with my own knowledge from time to time.

It is nice, isn't it?

Yes, it is.

I've learnt most of what I do out there from here in! It gave a whole new perspective to what 'my gardening' which was just digging the soil, plant the seed and keep on watering till it grew and died.

You learn so much more when there's someone to show you than if you try to do it by yourself.

Quite true, Dinu! I've learned a great deal from the folks on Dave's Garden. Thanks to DGers, I have many types of hardy geraniums, aquilegia, and much more. I first began winter sowing after reading posts here on Dave's Garden.