I think of myself as Team First Generation, because although both of my parents came from farming backgrounds in North Dakota, they also each escaped the family business as fast as they could, ending up in Southern California, never to raise anything more demanding than a ficus benjamina houseplant, with professionals to keep their lawn and shrubs groomed.
When I married I was so surprised to discover how gratifying it was to grow my own pretty flowers in my first garden in our Monterey Peninsula California home--and how relatively easy it was in that temperate climate with a year-round growing season and perhaps one night of frost occurring every 10 years! Then we moved to New England and I learned how little I really knew about so many things, particularly gardening with the seasons! Thank heavens for books, generous advice from other gardeners, and the internet. I discovered organic vegetable gardening and love my veggies and herbs, but flowers, flowering shrubs, bulbs and foliage plants (and Japanese Maples) will always be my first loves. And seed starting and Winter Sowing which are so fun!

Emily- I hear that story about your parents a lot. Seems there are many who "escaped the farm" and never had any desire to garden at all after that.

Although we weren't raised on a farm, by brother has had no desire at all to grow vegetables of any sort. Like you, I found a surprising amount of joy and satisfaction in the process.

My people farmed cotton in Arkansas since before the Civil Rights Movement.
I got as far away as I could as soon as I could.
I had no idea how much I'd love "playing in the dirt" until I started at the first house I owned, when I was 30.
I didn't really get going though until I move to Pittsburgh in 2003 and had a fenced yard.
I can't stop!
I step outside to do one small thing and I end up out there for hours.
And in the Winter, I garden online - THANKS TO DAVE AND TRISH!

But a rote beginner when I started.

plantsANDpets said:
And in the Winter, I garden online - THANKS TO DAVE AND TRISH!

Online gardening is fun too! Helps keep those winter doldrums away.

Although my mom kept a small vegetable garden in the outskirts of Seattle, I don't recall doing anything other than pick and eat raspberries as a child. Mom's garden beds were narrow regimental straight beds around the perimeter of the yard and Dad (ex-Marine drill instructor) regularly mowed anything that dared to cross the soil/grass line. I lived in my first house for 7 years and only recall planting nasturtiums (grossly engulfed with aphids) and the stray tomato. The house was tiny, the yard tinier, and I don't really recall any foundation planting when I moved in. Was likely pretty sterile looking.

Pregnant with our first son, we quit our city jobs, and moved to a small rural community an hour north of the city, purchasing undeveloped acreage with the thought of living off the land. This was back in the 70s when Mother Earth News was a subsistence magazine and REI was a local outdoors equipment co-op in the basement of a warehouse. Over the ensuing 30 plus years, we cultivated a large vegetable garden, planted numerous fruit trees, raised all sorts of farm animals, and slowly built a house (7 year cash project). Eventually I became aware of and interested in flowering plants, which now pretty much consume my spare time. I've never looked back with any regret, and have learned an overwhelming amount about horticulture.

So, definitely First Generation, and hoping I've inspired my boys to become Second Generationers!