Where does our gardening influence's come from.

I suppose my gardening came from both my grandad and my mum. As a youngster my parents owned a bungalow with a huge plot, the hedge that stretched the width of the frontage was nearly 130ft wide. Can you imagine trimming that with hand shears! During the years of WW2 rationing, my mum used to rear chickens, geese and rabbits. My grandad was in charge of our large vegetable plot that kept not only our family of six fed but the excess was passed on to others. My dad took care of our large lawns and the hedging, he and one of our neighbours would stand at each end of the lawn to send the self driven mower back and forth, this would take half a day.

While I was still young our home was compulsorily purchased with others and a huge estate was built on the ground. We moved on to a new build and down to a 65ft long garden which meant goodbye to the animals. My grandad carried on with a smaller veg plot, which didn't go anywhere near supplying us with what we needed and my mother turned to creating a garden for us. She also became interested in breeding parakeets and finches and eventually the garden had six aviaries too.

Although I was aware of my mum's and grandad's gardening abilities I didn't really take an interest until I was in my early thirties when I laid my first lawn. In at the deep end with no previous knowledge I tackled a retired vegetable plot of about 40 x 40ft at the end of the rest of the lawn. Unfortunately I didn't develop the need to grow vegetables along the way, sorry folks I found it boring, but eventually I moved on to developing the beds in the garden. As my children became more independent and after our move to the island I then got into growing from seeds and cuttings and that has been my passion now for the last 23 years and I still prefer it to gardening.

 

Grandad and nan 1 weren't massive gardeners.. Grandad 2 grew spuds, toms, peas, beans and carrots, Nan 2 would have borders of hydrangeas, snap dragons and sweet peas up until they moved into my parents house (which had no garden except for a small front lawn) when I was 5, we moved into a bungalow with a decent sized garden and there was all sorts, 3 gooseberry bushes, rhubarb, strawbs, a raspberry patch, a huge rockery down one side and a small veg patch on the other. My parents kept the rockery, strawbs, raspberries and the veg plot going for a few years but I wasn't really interested until it was time to pick peas/fruit or a getting a fiver for weeding. Few years later they lawned/decked/patiod over nearly everything and don't grow much except a few roses or bedding.
Moved into my house at 18, started on front lawn, bought a packet of cornflower seed, just for a potch with my daughter and put it in a planter thinking it wouldn't grow. One of them grew huge and it comes back every year.. rogue seed I'm guessing but it spurred me on to grow more. I also had pot envy, my next door neighbour got pots all over her front garden and all we do now is talk about plants, trees, veg and cooking.. I'm 26 and shes 86 and I'd honestly call her a best friend, learnt so much from her

 

Good post.

None of my family have never been interested in gardening other than a few bedding plants and so my interest mostly came from good old Alan Titchmarsh and Ground Force. However, I never really did much gardening until I was in my mid-twenties, I couldnt have told the difference between a Petunia and a Lobelia at that time. I remember buying my mum a couple of Russian Vines for the garden, how badly wrong that went and how I laugh at my naivety now!

When I moved with my partner and young son, into our first house we had a very large, overgrown front garden full of shrubs and set about clearing it which took ages. My mother in law was, and still is a keen gardener and entered the local "In Bloom" competitions, doing rather well. The following year, due to her influence, I decided to clear an area for a few bedding plants. Being quite naive, I planted them too early and they were all killed by frost. But, undeterred, I replanted and found I enjoyed it and set about all sorts of pottering about.

It was the following year though that my interest really kicked off in full force. I watched a program on TV called "How to be a Gardener" with Alan Titchmarsh. There was one bit of advise that prompted me to attack the garden with force, it was simple, if a plants in the wrong place, dont be afraid to move or get rid. In this case he was talking about a large Laurel. My garden was most taken up with a row of Lilacs, and 1 very large Quince and Forsythia which had grown into 1 beast. I set about taking it out and found I had loads of space to play with and now fill. That was it, went mad from there, the following year I entered Norwich in Bloom and won a couple of 3rds, the next I got 2xFirst prizes and a second.

We moved out of that house a few years ago into a new build. Its not very large, and sloped away by about 2 ft from backdoor to fence, but its coming on. I think alot more about design now, I dont have the room for a massive range but still cram alot in!