Do you have childhood garden memories?

With the holidays and all I am just getting so sentimental about things and this whole journey of starting a garden has been unexpected quite emotional for me. I have these amazing memories of people's gardens throughout my childhood. Perhaps I have always been a gardener at heart and just didn't know it. My childhood was filled with memories of my great-grandmothers garden. I think this is why I gravitate toward the cottage gardening style, as hers was half flowers and half veggies, lots of hollyhocks and who knows what else. We would pick the flowers and put them in our dolls hair to dress them up for the party in the apple tree. Fall was spent picking apples, canning beans and making jam. I remember the sun streaming in as 4 generations sat and talked about everything from family to politics.

Hers wasn't the only garden I remember though. My mom had a few snapdragons she would try to grow and we would snap the flowers off and get the to "talk" to each other or pretend they were animals sneaking through the grass. My grandmother had this huge clematis growing on the south side of their house. I just remember thinking how beautiful it was. Her neighbor always gave us candies so we would head over to her house for entertainment and sweets. She had this long garden that always seemed to have butterflies in it. I just remember running around chasing butterflies.

My mom has since moved into an apartment, and my grandmother and great-grandmother have passed away. I also have young boys. 7, 6, 3, and twins that are 2. We just moved from a typical suburb house (all packed in, very little yard) to a house on over an acre of land. There is a hope in my heart to give these boys just a touch of what I had growing up. Maybe that they would love to work in the ground, grow some veggies, spend time out in the sun chasing a few butterflies and a little less time on the computer and watching TV.

Do you have childhood memories of gardens that inspired you to have your own, or is this just something you found on your own?

Hi Lissa - good topic!

(Here in Mass.) My maternal grandma lived next door to us and she always had sweet peas growing up an old bed spring, lilacs (which we always picked for the Memorial Day parade, to carry to the cemetery), and a tiny veggie garden behind the outhouse! (She finally got indoor plumbing in the mid 60's.)

My dad was an avid gardener - he specialized in veggies and strawberries. He always said, "you can't eat flowers". He had some flowers around - lily of the valley, sweet william, tulips - nothing worth "maintaining", though. And we had this big honkin' blackberry bush right outside the kitchen door! Oh, and we would go about 1/2 mile or so up in the woods behind the house to pick wild blueberries.

My parents had a friend whose family were the only rich ones in our small town (they even had a maid!). They raised horses and show dogs, and their grounds were impressive. They had a secret, sunken garden that was to die for! My whole life I've wanted one!

So, for me, I'd say it's in the blood.

It's part of my childhood, too. We lived with my grandparents until I was 15 in a huge old frame house, with lots of relatives in and around, coming and going. I just remember all the bustle. Granny had flowers and a big rose bush that came from her old home place in the mountains. It was pink and smelled delicious. I have no idea what cultivar it was. She always planted pansies (her name was Pansy) and Sweet Williams, zinnias, some phlox and stocks, marigolds, hyacinths, tulips, irises and daffodils. She kept chickens, so we always had plenty of aged chicken manure for the flowers. I remember that whenever we went for a Sunday afternoon drive, she would want to get some woods dirt for the flowers, so we'd go out for a drive and come back with boxes or buckets of dirt!

My aunts had flowers, too, but I don't remember anybody having anything out of the ordinary back then. Truth be told, nobody had much extra money for flowers other than common things and most of what Granny grew was from seed, except for that rose bush.

My mother has always had flowers and actually began trying new cultivars as she began to have more disposable income, meaning as we children began to marry and leave home! She had azaleas, Sweet Williams, ageratum, irises, tulips, daffs, a few lilies, Rose of Sharon, an umbrella tree, snake plants. There was always a snake plant in the house somewhere. Mother also tried her hand at veggie gardening one year, but it must have been too large, as we never had one again. It had potatoes, beans, corn, tomatoes, everything good!

Oh, yes, gardens and flowers are very much a part of my fondest memories of my dear family, so many departed from me now. My mother still lives and one aunt; they are left out of seven children of my grandparents. Happy memories, indeed.

Wonderful memories! I love the buckets of dirt.

I never paid much attention to the kinds of things they grew, I kind of wish now that I had. I did find out from my grandfathers current wife that the clematis is still growing out by the garage and there are 3 peony plants that were my grandmothers. She is willing to give me cuttings of the clem and one full clump of the peony. I am very excited to have just a touch of that heritage in my yard.

A secret sunken garden. What in the world is that? Sounds enchanting. We have a sunken garage that goes under the house. We don't use it as a garage anymore (i refuse to drive down the steep slope into a garage bay that is only six inches wider than the car!) and will someday enclose it into a family room, and I have pictured making a winding path down there with a waterfall and terraced gardens that you would see from that family room. Big plans! LOL.

I laughed when you said "sunken garage" - I envisioned it in quicksand or something!

A secret garden is, of course, one that's hidden or out of the way. A sunken garden is one that's below average yard level. As I can remember, this one was sunken and surrounded with some kind of shrub border. You couldn't even tell it was there.

My first garden memory is decieding to 'plant' radishes like my Mum did. I went and dug all her radishes and some of the beets, walked across the yard and 'planted' then in a big hole full of water. She could not figure out what had eaten them until I showed her my garden. Lol. I think I was 4.

She always had beutiful gardens with daisys, batchlor buttons, flax, and winding pathways. We lived in Truckee CA at the time, one of the coldest places in the US. So the crocus and daffidils got all of us excited. We had the evil rose of doom until we took it out. It was a giant wild rose that took up a good 10ft (?I don't know, I was much shorter then:)) right on the walk to the house. It finaly came out after my big brother stuck my little sister into the bush, again.

My great aunt Dotty had this wonderful garden in WA. I loved going out and picking berries or peas or whatever. It was about an acre of veggies and flowers and wiskey barels with mountains of nasturtiums trailing down the sides. Great uncel Vern had a place like that too. Sigh. If I had the land that's what I'd like.

Wonderful topic.

Secret garden was one of my favorite books! Always wanted a walled, hidden garden. But all my gardens have secrets, tiny faries sitting on benches, a table with a tea set, and my potted pinapple has a griffen to gaurd it.

Duchess: I'd love to see photos of your fairies!

I'm terrible with photos. But I'll try:)

Great idea for a thread. I have many many wonderful memories of gardens and their gardeners.

As a child my parent's garden was a necessity. I can't remember that either of them especially loved to garden, but they were both very good at it out of experience.. We all would set for hours picking beans and snapping beans.. wonderful tomatoes, sweet corn, lettuce, etc.. It wasn't until later in their lives when they had more time , that my Mother planted almost as many flowers as vegetables. She then seemed to enjoy it.. and she loved to know that there was plenty of food stored up for the winter.

My Aunt Helen loved to garden.. Her garden was an expression of herself and I always felt she went there to get away from the hustle and busy bustle of the kitchen.. Whenever I went there though, I always helped her in the garden.. I remember planting peas.. They weren't spaced correctly.. I had to painstakinly take each seed up and replant it with the correct spacing..

My Husband's Grandmother's garden was a fascinating one for me.. She had black raspberries growing along her fence, and "spring" onions.. I thought that was a great idea! to plant the perrenials on the side. I still have some of those raspberry plants.. and hope that someday I can plant them in a row like she always wanted.. The gardeners in my husband's family always had that row of zinnias for cuttings and bringing in the house for bouquets...

The sunken garden sounds really interesting.

I have tons of garden memories. My parents and both grandparents had gardens every year, Dad still does. They grew vegetables and it was all canned at the end of the summer. I never knew that anyone didn't garden! But my favorite memories are of my Mom's and Grandmas zinnias and roses. The men would say that water should not be wasted on flowers(it was a desert after all!) but they all grew them outside the kitchen door. They would empty the dishwater on the flowers and be rewarded with beautiful blooms. I have some plants in my yard that came from their homes. Iris from one Grandma and old fashioned daylilies from another. Great to see another New Mexican here at DG! How long have you been a gardener?

This message was edited Dec 17, 2008 9:53 AM

About 4 months, cactus! : ) It is something that I never really thought of much, but always admired and hoped for someday. Then we bought a property that needs a lot of work. It is on an acre of land in a very agricultural area (Corrales) where people have orchards and vineyards etc. Out of necessity I started researching seeds and such and found this place. I am very excited to be starting out on this journey.

Corrales is a wonderful area. I always say if I had to live near Albq. I would want to live there! I know you will enjoy gardening there. DG is a great place to check out lots of gardening help. I will be glad to give any advice, as I have been gardening all my life. But I realize we are different zones, I am down here in the desert.

This message was edited Dec 18, 2008 3:55 AM

What a lovely idea for a thread! It does seem so much of the Cottage garden appeal is in the nostalgia of it.

Gardening for me has always been very entwined with keeping the memories of loved ones alive. I loved flowers as a young child, and I grew up hearing from my mother how much I was like her mother (who died before I was born) in that regard. At Memorial Day our family would get together with flowers from their yards to decorate the graves. My paternal grandmother always had peonies, my aunt had iris, and Mom had a red climbing rose that we'd fill the cemetery vases with. I loved seeing all the flowers gathered together.

Dad raised a vegetable garden, and Mom had a few favorite flowers she kept; some mums and glads along the side of the house, a couple of lilacs and the climbing rose in the yard. There are so many plants I can't look at without a loved one coming to mind.

And lots of enchanting childhood memories of just being in the gardens. Being showered with petals as the apple blooms fell, the scents of lilac in spring and lily of the valley at my grandmother's, and hiding under big forsythias- so many times a waft of fragrance or an image takes me back to those times.

This message was edited Dec 21, 2008 7:21 AM

My Papaw's roses....I pulled as a 4 yr old tow headed lil girl. I have a picture of him holding me next to his roses.....pre-pulling episode. Thank goodness he loved me....LOL

He was also owned a small neighborhood grocery store w/ his living quarters in the back of the store. I remember staying the night,sleeping in a tall 4 poster bed under home sewn feather filled quilts and sneaking into the store late at night to filtch bananas....thank goodness he loved me.

He also had some grape vines out back and I remember he told me NOT to eat the green grapes because they weren't ripe but as all hard headed little girls...I ate a bunch and the after effects were....shall we say...explosive and the clean up wasn't pleasant....LOL Thank Goodness he loved me.

I also remember my great grandparents farm...picking cotton,churning butter,knocking potato bugs of the plants w/stick into a can of kerosine ,drawing water in a bucket from a well and tossing out the frog before you took it in....yummy...as much as a little girl could do of those chores. Sleeping on the porch in summer,watching granny quilt from a frame hung from the ceiling by the light of kerosine lantern...running for my life from the rooster to the outhouse in the back corner of the chicken yard. Takng a bath behind an outbuilding in a big old tin wash tub and walking up the dusty road to the little wooden high porched store that had pickled eggs and pigfeet in big jars on the counter. Going to the church in the woods in GGD's farm wagon pulled by his mules ,eating lunch on the ground from a cardboard box or old lard can after services.

Peggy

Peggy, that sounds like a dream! Wonderful, wonderful memories!

Peggy: You have a talent, too, and lovely memories! Thank goodness he loved you! And how fortunate for you to have had him in your life.

Merry Christmas.

Why...thank you. Not so much as talent but fond memories.

My GM...darling nor dear,fit this fiesty ole lady....use to "pop" chicken's heads off and I remember the darn headless things chasing me thur the yard....I know it was just a nerve reaction but ya couldn't tell a scare lil girl that....LOL I remember the glass eggs in the nesting boxes to fool the snakes.

House were off the ground a lot more than they are now and I remember my aunt,keeping chickens under the house of all place. Don't ask me why.

Peggy, thank you so much for sharing your memories with us. That is wonderful.

I bet those glass eggs are worth a pretty penny these days! Did the snakes actually try to swallow them?

My grandmother used to keep chickens, but what I remember the glass eggs being used for was to make a hen lay again if she had stopped laying. Maybe I'm not remember correctly. Have to check with my mother and see about this.

Hemophobic, I recall hearing stories about fake eggs used to show the hens where to nest. I'd forgotten till you mentioned it.

maybe that's why they were in there....I'm old, I sleep...I forget....LOL


I know someone told me to put plastic easter eggs in the boxes to stop my hens from busting and eating eggs. Haven't tried it yet.

Wow, this is bringing up lots of old memories for me too. I recall using the old lard cans as a lunch pail too!

oddly enough...I have few memories of Christmas. Memories...yes but none that really stand out

I'm sure the glass eggs would nip that bad habit (eating their eggs) in the bud! Whoever has a chipped beak gets turned loose, LOL.

LOL