It has been a real joy reading these posts
I am pretty sure it was my Great Grandfather that sparked the gardening flame in me. I followed him everywhere outside. Just absolutely enthralled with how he would take seeds from fruit and vegetables we were eating and plant them and by gosh they would grow! I thought he was just amazing

The love of gardening gets passed long in so many ways. I got it from mt Grampa, some kid gets it from planting a row of beans at a neighbor's garden, some other teen picks a few apples and realizes they come from trees.

Anything that introduces people to gardening is good.

I started this thread nearly a year ago and have really enjoyed reading the large number of posts in response. Just wanted to thank the many gardeners who took the time to share their stories. I don't have any personal "gardening friends" so this website gives me the only opportunity I have to share my lifelong hobby with others. My gardening interests now focus primarily on container/patio planting as my pep/vigor/vitality is on the downswing now that I'm fast approaching the ripe old age of 90.

This has been a great thread, Don, and I'm glad you're still gardening. We may have to downsize and slow down a bit, but we can still enjoy our plants.

Thanks for starting this post, Don. I enjoyed it as well. This forum is also my only way of sharing my love of gardens. I am not yet 60 and I am looking forward to downsizing when we retire and move to a home with less to care for. But I will miss seeing all my flowerbeds when I do.

Hey Don
Count me in - I'm one of your gardening friends

Thank you Don. I love reading how everyone's life connects to gardening.

DonfromPA said:I started this thread nearly a year ago and have really enjoyed reading the large number of posts in response. Just wanted to thank the many gardeners who took the time to share their stories. I don't have any personal "gardening friends" so this website gives me the only opportunity I have to share my lifelong hobby with others. My gardening interests now focus primarily on container/patio planting as my pep/vigor/vitality is on the downswing now that I'm fast approaching the ripe old age of 90.

Sometimes we are isolated from people with similar interests. The internet has been wonderful about helping with that. There is no one I know in my neighborhood who actually has a real organized garden. When I have extra heirloom tomato seedlings, there is no one to give them to.

They all seem to just live inside, watch TV, and sometimes go to restaurants. I almost never see anyone outside anymore. It's sad.

It was the same at work before I retired. I asked one co-worker where grapefruits came from and he didn't have the slightest idea. Another thought spinach was leaves from some tree.

That's why I'm HERE and not out watching the newest over-the-top action movie.

So true. People avoid even being outside as though it would bring them harm.

We have one neighbor with her version of a vegetable garden, including a center plot of 50 or more of the same sage just to use up the space, and some tomatoes but lots of arugula. Conversation is limited to arugula though I have given her some dahlias that do survive. Another neighbor gave up all gardening (no vegetables) due to fear of Lyme's disease. Mostly I'm alone out there with the chance of waving to a neighbor as they drive by.

If it weren't for those who walk, or those who walk their dogs, I could believe I really am alone.

I once had a brother-in-law who truly believed spaghetti grew on trees because he saw it in Italy.

My grandkids (from 3 to 25) are aware of how tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, lettuce, peas, beans and raspberries grow and have enjoyed the gardens here.

pirl said:So true. People avoid even being outside as though it would bring them harm.

If it weren't for those who walk, or those who walk their dogs, I could believe I really am alone.

I once had a brother-in-law who truly believed spaghetti grew on trees because he saw it in Italy.

My grandkids (from 3 to 25) are aware of how tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, lettuce, peas, beans and raspberries grow and have enjoyed the gardens here.

I hope your grandkids you saw your garden "move it forward".

My granddaughter is 25 and lives in a NYC apartment but Charles is now 11 and loves raspberries. Little Robbie loves looking at plants and eating cherry tomatoes. I'll encourage them to grow their own food.

pirl said:My granddaughter is 25 and lives in a NYC apartment but Charles is now 11 and loves raspberries. Little Robbie loves looking at plants and eating cherry tomatoes. I'll encourage them to grow their own food.

You never know what one thing will bring the newer generations into gardening.. Paternal Grampa had the big garden. We kids LOVED the circle of raspberry bushes with the everbearing fruit. And I loved picking green beans with Grampa.

But I also remember sitting on the back step with Gramma. She was Pennsylannia Deutch and talked a lot of sense. She lived a calm life. "The hurrier you go, the behinder you get". And for her, that wasn't a cute wall plaque.

And while we sat on the steps destringing snap beans and desilking corn, she said "you are pretty good at this". Well, I was, and still am.

But when you are 10 an Gramma and Grampa say you are good at something, that matters.

And I adored her. I was an earlier riser and so was she. Before the rest of the family woke up and she had to make breakfast (and I helped), we would play rummy.

She gave me no mercy. She said if I wanted to learn to play games (and she knew I did) I had to know what it was like to lose. And see how to win. I learned a lot sitting at her side. Cooking, cards, family.

Gramma was a wicked-good card player. Any game. I learned some of the strangest solotaire games from her you ever heard of. (Go ahead and name one, LOL)

The whole family played a game called "Cinch" or "Setback" related to Eucre I think each evening. Gramma would say "Oh, I filled" and we knew we were all doomed.

But it was the gardening that organized their house. Every day, there was corn to pick, beans to harvest, a few potatoes, some beets, etc. And they did it so naturally. They simply lived on their land, easily and calmly.

I cant match their lives. But I'm trying...

When my mom died I was already in my late 30's. I went into some kind of depression due to the fact that my father had passed on just a couple of months before. My uncle was murdered in a robbery the day before my father passed away from a sickness, so my mom lost her brother and her husband in less than 24 hours; she, being very sick with diabetes and on dialysis only lasted two more months. My mom used to garden roses in New York. When I went for my mother's burial I dugout some roses from her garden and brought them with me to Florida.

To ease my depression I started to plant all kinds of roses, I had 47 rose bushes back in the 90's and early 2K's. I sold that house since, and have moved twice within Central Florida, but still very much in love with gardening.

That's what got me going out in the back yard

I was adopted into a family with a long farming history. My dad was born on the farm here in Alberta and Mom was born in a farm house in Nebraska. When I was adopted dad was a businessman here in the city and continued farming with my granddad and my Aunt, the homestead only being a couple miles outside of Calgary. I was the youngest and mom would drop me off with her best friend (our preachers wife, she is 100yrs old this year) when she had appointments to keep. Her friend's home was so interesting. And the lady always talked to me about each of her house plants and then It was a tour of her flower gardens. So when I was about 6yrs Mom and I were at the grocery store and there was a tiny little umbrella plant and I asked mom to buy it for me and she did. I took it home and planted it in a peanut butter tin and I had that plant for 20yrs. I was hooked a with that first plant.
When I was 11yrs old mom wanted out of the city and dad moved us to the farm and built mom a new house. So I began to actually learn farming, raising crops and helping dad with his pampered herd of Herefords. In my teens I took over growing the garden and really got into it.
Years go buy and I lived in a couple different city but returned to the farm for the last year before we moved mom and dad back into Calgary.
I went to work with my brothers but when Dad needed care I opted to remain at home. I looked after mom for the last 10yrs of her life and in appreciation she bought me a greenhouse. So while looking after mom I began a small gardening business and continue it to this day. It grows a little each year. My big sellers are my Petunias and tomato plants.
I will be 52yrs in a couple months, the age my dad was when he moved us out to the farm. And it was the best move he ever made. I loved that life.

I have watched my mom work in her yard for 26 years trying to grow roses that never seem to work, daises taking over on the side of the house, dealing with beavers cutting down her trees, her dogs trampling a path through her beds and how she is able to grow sooo many chicks and hens.

When I finally got my own place I became interested in my own house plants due to limited space of apartment living. We took a class in making terrariums and I fell in love. Then dabbling in container gardening. Now with my own house and yard I look forward to working in it. As a child I hated helping out. But as an adult I love it. I take pride in the transformation of my yard and to see the fruits of my labor. The only time I ask my husband for help in the yard is with weed wacking which for whatever reason I can never quite get a handle over nor start the darn thing!

Now I itch for our final frost to come so I can spend my weekends in the yard.

I'm grateful that this thread has awoken me to a better awareness of the people who have influenced me with their appreciation of plants.

I can't identify a specific event that sparked my love of gardening. It's more like a bunch of bright threads than ran through the tapestry of my youth and added richness, beauty, good food, and a sense of heritage. I grew up in southern CA; my dad was from Provo, Utah and reveled in the opportunity to grow new things that would thrive in the warm climate. My parents shared their enthusiasm for the delicious food, which was common to the area, what might have seamed ultra ordinary to us kids, was seen as wonderful and exotic. Persimmons, kumquats, the most delicious table grapes, oranges, and avocados.

My mom taught me to make tea with our lemongrass plant. My sister and I would have tea parties all summer. When we moved to Washington state, my mom would load up the kids and bikes and take us to the Skaggit Valley tulip fields. That's when I fell in love with flowers.

Grandma and grandpa grew as much food as they could on their city lot and canned (literally) thousands of their own quarts of produce. Raspberries and apricots were such a treat when we visited for family reunions.

All of these things and so many more cultivated the connection that plants meant health, beauty, and delicious food, but my inner gardener was dormant until I started my own family and moved to the country. It was land ownership than inspired me to nurture the soil and make it productive. My dad flew out and helped me start a vegetable plot. I started perennials from seed (because I couldn't afford to buy them). I splurged on an order of tulips from Roozengaarde and reveled in the lovely display the next spring.

It's time I wrap up this novel. Gardening is grand, but hollow without people to share it with!

Cosette, you certainly have a rich background in gardening. I think your tea parties sound wonderful!

Your writing flows so well that I felt like I was reading a beautiful novel. Do you write for a living? I think you have a gift for it. I know that our dear friend Sharon, whom we lost last year, would have appreciated your style. Here is a link to her blog as an example of what a great storyteller she was.

https://garden.org/blogs/view/...

All such powerful stories. That's why are all here, I guess. Gardening means something from the past but connected to our present and future..