What got you into gardening

Hi
I wondered what got you all into gardening? Have you been gardening a long time or new to it like me?
For me I have suffered with my mental health, I have been desperately unhappy for a while and couldn't find any joy(apart from seeing my grandson). Last year, my mum recommended me getting some plants from the local supermarket and having a go, I never thought I would ever be green fingered in my life as never had any interest in the garden or flowers. This has now changed and I'm obsessed with watching gardening/plants/flowers videos on YouTube and can't wait to get my fingers in that soil again.

 

As a youngster I'd rarely show much interest in the garden other than to kick a football around in it.
That changed when I got married. I sowed my first runner beans straight into the ground c1982. They were a huge success and I soon went on to grow a diverse amount of veg. Around the same time I grew marigolds and lupins from seed.
These days nothing fazes me, and by providing the optimum indoor sowing conditions for each variety I get a high germination rate on most of what I sow. Admittedly I avoid known difficult plants or buy those already started. During these last two covid years I've also had an allotment, which has given me a lot of produce with the added benefits of a pleasant outdoor hobby with like minded people. This time of the year is great.. I've got various potatoes chitting, greyhound cabbage seeds and spinach popping up indoors and perennial daisies all coming through.
During the coming weeks I'll be sowing many other veg'es and flowers..happy days :-)
What got me into it? I'd say family life was much enhanced by bringing up a family surrounded by a garden full of flowers and our own veg on the table.

 

Ahh thankyou for sharing, my grandson loved watering all of nannas plants last year and he was only 1 then so this year he will love it being more involved

 

My parents both loved gardening so they gave us all a patch in the garden to do what we wanted with. I remember growing Sweet William, sweet peas and nasturtiums. And lots of lettuce for our tortoises.

As a grown-up I got back into gardening when I got my own tortoise and decided to grow some food for him, which then expanded into growing some edibles for myself and lots of flowers too.

 

Awww thanks for sharing sounds great

 

As an unemployed young man, I offered to do some gardening for my mother in exchange for a coat for my year-old daughter. As I cleared one patch my father said "Look these are Alysum".
We lifted some, put them in some soil in a cardboard box and covered them with a sheet of glass. That was me hooked. A few years later golf came along and got in the way.
Now I am too stiff for golf, we have moved into a house with a big garden, and I am hooked again.

 

Aww glad your back into your gardening again, I couldn't be without it now.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner @Kelc
I'm glad to know your garden has helped you with some difficulties in your life. It has been a soul saver for me too.
I've always been interested in plants though, it must be in my DNA
but it's never too late ... keep going !

 

Thankyou, it's been amazing for me

 

I wouldn't say there was any one thing, more a multitude of steps that pushed us closer and closer until we couldn't get away from it!

It probably started with the loss of our first daughter though, sadly we never got to take her home (just over a month in hospital) and one of the thing's my wife took away from it was at the hospital where she passed away was a desire camellia. It's quite a lovely looking plant and at the time we were also moving house (so lots of stress at the time) but we bought a desire Camellia for our new garden and then it has sort of snowballed from there.

Said Camellia is about 3 and a half years old now and we should be getting blooms from it again in the next month or so (photos will go up when it does). It's a brilliant plant and relatively simple to look after, though it can be a bit finicky when it comes to blooming, in terms of having the right soil, the right moisture conditions and then temperature. One year it bloomed over christmas, this year it has chosen not to yet (though there are buds coming through) and then we have had a year where it chose not to at all.

So yeah it's been one of those things that helped us with the grief of losing our little one I guess, maybe sub-consciously we are still doing it for her idk

 

I was car sick and as a result I found plants. That was the beginning of an obsession. The full story is a bit long for here.

 

I'm so sorry for the loss of your daughter that must of been tough.
Being in a garden around flowers can be a sanctuary for a multitude of reasons.

 

It's amazing how plants can give us new meaning, I couldn't be without them now

 

I love hearing everyone's reasons for getting into gardening