What kickstarted your love of Gardening?

Was it a particular event or person that inspired you?

Heres , my story:-

For me, back in summer 2003, I had moved into my first house (council) with my (now) wife and 1 yo son (13 now!). The front garden was horrific, literally 3/4 foot deep in junk left by the previous occupant, it took the best part of a year to clear it. It was a large garden, lots of large shrubs, some large Lilacs which I hated, a nice Photinia Red Robin and a huge Japanese Quince and Forsythia which had become 1 massive shrub. Just imagine an overgrown scrap yard, and your not far off.

The first year was spent clearing the garden. In 2004, I planted some bedding plants, I had no idea at the time and couldn't tell Lobelia from Petunia, but in 2005 I started to do a few pots, hanging baskets, etc, nothing too exciting.

In spring 2006, I remember watching a gardening program, "How to be a Gardener" with Alan Titchmarsh. There was one bit of advice which was to be the catalyst for my obsession with gardening. I remember it well, and that was not to be afraid of taking out a large plant if its in the wrong place. The next day, I set about taking out those large Japanese Quince and Forsythia. At this stage, I must point out that I found various car parts buried in the garden, including a rear seat and front windscreen. All of a sudden, I had lots of space to play with, and fill with plants.

At this point, I became a sponge for anything gardening related, books, magazines, I even bought a copy of some old Geoff Hamilton videos (yes VHS), I just couldnt get enough of it. My Mother in Law was, and still is a keen gardener and entered and won the Norwich in Bloom competition.

In 2008, I tried my luck with NIB and got 2x3rds and a 2nd place. 2009 I had won 2 categories of Norwich in Bloom, my MIL wont the other.

Sadly, we moved house in late 2010 so can no longer enter, but my new build house was a blank canvas and delighted with what I have done so far.

 

Sadly there are no local competitions although I am giving serious thought to trying to start something myself.

 

What started me off on gardening?
I remember when I was very young - 5 years or so, my dad gave a decent patch of land (maybe 4 x 8 foot)for my brother and I to grow what we wanted. But not really much advice on what we could grow. So not taken to look at flower seeds, for example. I suppose when he was young, his dad had lots of flower seeds, so he didn't think it through, as to what we might grow. Anyway, apart from a packet of wallflower seeds that I bought out of my pocket money, we only had access to the family's veg seeds, which didn't inspire us at all. My brother didn't like plants, and was actually frightened of bindweed "it climbs so fast!". You've probably guessed it, we didn't do that much with the patch, so the following year dad planted it with Jerusalem artichokes.

...but by then I'd got the bug. I would find scraps of garden that weren't being cultivated at all, and clear them, and plant them. Often they would then get claimed by dad, but not always. I would buy snowdrop bulbs individually with change from my dinner money, on the way home, and then plant them.... Houseplant spent soil was added to a concrete strip by the side of the drive, and then houseleeks, primroses, wallflowers were grown there. (The ability to grow with poor soil stood me in good stead when I lived in the chalky Chilterns!) In another area, brambles and ivy were cleared away to get access to some actual proper soil, and a shadey garden developed.

Then, in my late teens, i developed a talent for taking cuttings and a love of lavender. Two favourite things that have stayed with me ever since!

 

Some of my earliest memories are of helping (hindering!?) my Grandparents on their allotment before I even started school back in the 60's. My Mum was also a very keen gardener. My Dad built her a very small raised bed in the backyard of their first house. It was very shady but I sowed snapdragon seeds with my Granddad and was chuffed to bits when they started growing. I still love snapdragons to this day.

After studying at Uni, I lived in a succession of flats so didn't really have the space to grow anything. Due to one thing and another, I didn't start gardening again until my 40's. I was amazed that I still remembered all of the gardening advice and tips that my Mum and Grandparents passed on to me.

 

My garden obsession! Was started by my wonderful Nan, she had a very narrow back garden but there wasn't a centimetre unused! She had a corrugated plastic greenhouse, where she would sit & bring on all her bedding plants! A pond, a shed, tomato plants, roses, forsythia, bird boxes, you name it was there somewhere! She gardened everyday, she would sometimes just sweep, sometimes weed, sometimes pot on! Her & her best friend also had an allotment with a mature cooking Apple tree, it was wonderful, I'd help dig & plant up & get in the way of course! Then when my mum was housed in her council house nan did her garden too. Nan always had a cut or scratch or gardening wound but she didn't seem to mind. I have some wonderful memories of being in her garden

 

Long time ago now, but I think it started with my neighbour giving me some beetroot to plant out when I was about 7

Followed up by reading gardening books & Mr Digwell, comic strip about gardening which I think was in the Daily Mirror, then Jolly Geoff on Gardeners World & then seriously studying wild flowers and forraging

 

Its in my blood like it or not. Family are farmers and as im not growing crops ive an irrational need to grow palms, flowers and garlic ?

 

My mother was always a keen gardener, but I didn't get bitten by the bug until I lived in the Lake District in 1976 or 7. We went to the Rose show at Holker Hall because the Red Arrows were visiting and the boys, 4 and 1 ,were plane mad. (The Vulcan flew over our house every day)
I have never forgotten going into the Rose marquee. I couldn't believe the colour and the scent. That night when I went to bed, when I closed my eyes , I could still see the banks of blooms.

 

Some great stories here, although I had an interest in plants as a child, nobody in my family was ever remotely interested in gardening. My dad wonders where I get it from, maybe the postman was a keen gardener .

 

I only started gardening because i found i was severally vit d deficient because of being so sick with my ME and not really leaving the ouse for a year. So I took the tablets the dr prescribed and ended up with double the amount of vit d you should have so wanted to get try and get it naturally again in stead.

I was too sick to really do much other than sit up so i started with a couple of pots by the back door with plants that needed minimal attention so all hardy and drought resistant and just dead headed them now and then. As I have learnt to manage and live with my illness and my body got stronger i started changing the whole of the garden and doing more gardening.

I wasn't actually inspired by anyone or anything just did it because i needed vit d for my health so needed a reason to be outside. Plus since I'm still mostly housebound (unless someone take me out) having a nice garden means i have something to look at and it feels like i am going out rather than stuck in a house.

 

I only started "proper" gardening 7 years ago when I got totally sick of cutting grass and "turfed" out my front and back lawns completely. Had to put something in their place so that's what happened to me!

 

Have a look at the Blog entry I have just made http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/entries/gardening-kickstart.75/
Did stop gardening when A levels and University interfered, but began again when we got a house.
Oh and don't actually grow Sweet peas any more.

 

My father grew a lot of our vegetables, though I have no recollection of helping him. His family
come from a long line of farmers in his native Italy. So maybe it is in my roots.

I do remember when I was about 8 years old my father gave me a bucket of soil and a
potato, and it was a sense of wonder when that plant had all these little potatoes
in the pot.

When I was in my early married years and we had a council house with a long
garden, I turned one half into a vegetable bed, and we got the children a duck.

So things have progressed over the years, I went on to read so many books
about growing anything, how seeds develop, and I think it is one of those
subjects, the more you read, the more you want to know. Once the bug bites, it
never leaves you.