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When did everyone start gardening? At what age did you really take an interest? I believe I was about 26.

JaelLorraine 4 June 18
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1

My parents cultivated my interest in gardening whether they intended to or not. Every summer for as long as I can remember they would go to a local nursery and buy a bunch of bedding plants - mostly sweet alyssum in purple and white and a variety of color of petunias. Then the whole family would participate in transplanting what we purchased into gardens along the walkway in the front of the house and beds around the patio in the back. They also had peonies that lined the driveway in alternating colors pink and white, daffodils and tulips under trees in the front and next to the peonies along with hyacinth. We also had something special that went across from the front door that my mom typically chose - snap dragons, sweet william, or sometning else that caught her fancy. One year when I was seven or eight, I was given a small tray of marigolds seeds in vermiculite. The lid to the tray had places to pierce with a pencil and to add water. Before long, the seeds sprouted and the lid was to be turned upside down to act as a mini greenhouse, and it eventually came off as the seedling grew larger. That year, my marigolds were planted along with our annual ritual. My grandparents always had a garden too. Theirs was a vegetable garden with corn, beans, tomatos, and whatever else they decided to grow that year.

RussRAB Level 8 June 19, 2019
0

Early twenties, but the influence was from my grandmother. She had a serious green thumb, with plants in and out. Her back yard was full of gardens, lining every walk, wall or fence, and she had a bunch of trees, some which bore fruit. It was a great yard for us kids.

2

My grandpa was an amazing gardener. Mom caught the gardening bug from him, and we all worked a nice family plot that grew modestly over the years. But I was 10 years old when I first ordered some mailorder ornamentals, driven by my own curiosity. It was 3 rose bushes, and that started my rose growing hobby that has lasted over 40 years.

So you still have rose bushes? Any favorites?

@JaelLorraine Oh yes! There are so many thousands of roses. My favorites back in Seattle where I grew up have not always been the best performers in the Deep South. So keep that in mind. I like to browse rose varieties on online nursery sites, then look them up on thehelpmefind.com/roses web site to check pictures and read people comments on their experiences with given varieties.

@JaelLorraine I currently have almost 40 bushes. I enjoy the variety and noticing how every variety has various quirks in its own response to growing conditions.
I am personally fond of florist style blooms, which usually means hybrid teas. I also like minis and minifloras. I have three climbers, but they are all new, too early to judge, as I just bought my house one year ago. Most of the roses spent years in pots, but I now have them in the ground, in raised beds to compensate for the heavy clay of my yard.

Some of my favorites at this time:
Bride's Dream
Veteran's Honor
Wedding Bells
Sweetness
Oklahoma
Paradise
Osiana
Dr. John Dickman
Daddy Frank
Joy
Tiffany
Autumn Splendor

The list evolves over time. I have lately become more interested in highly disease resistant varieties coming out. Kordes of Germany has bred some really impressively blackspot resistant roses. Wedding Bells is one of those. I am not usually a fan of medium pink roses (so ordinary), but Wedding Bells has won me over with totally disease-free foliage for me, even when I skip spraying. Plus, the blooms are consistently shapely, very fragrant, and last well. What more can you ask for. 😙

@MikeInBatonRouge you spray your roses? With what?

@JaelLorraine Bayer Advanced Disease Control. It is only available at Lowe's, as far as I know. Active ingredient is tebuconozole. I avoid the 3-in-one version, available at other garden centers, that includes insecticide. Trying not to poison pollenators.

2

My folks always planted a large garden, six kids on a brick mason's salary where the work stops in the cold of winter, my folks needed to supplement. My grandparents had gardens, and my mom grew up on a farm. I have moved 20 times in my life post high school, and some places I had a garden.

2

It was my summer job. probably 10 - 12.

2

I did some vegetable gardening as a teen-ager. Bit, I did not start real gardening until I bought my first home at the age of 37.

wordywalt Level 9 June 18, 2019
3

I remember planting bean with my mom probably six because I remember bringing string beans to my kindergarten teacher . I probably started turning over the garden with a spading fork around 10 every year till I moved out at 22 and have always planted a vegetable garden sense then . I dug all her rose beds also

Besalbub Level 8 June 18, 2019
3

Dad was always in the garden; planting this, harvesting that....I had to have been very young...

Robecology Level 9 June 18, 2019
4

When I was young , my brother and I shared the kitchen , until , eventually , my father built two additional bedrooms onto the house . When they had dug out the trench for the foundation , they'd left a lot of hard red clay around the new rooms . Mom suggested that I make a garden under my bedroom window . I got a wheel barrow full of fertilizer from the former chicken coop , and dumped it there , making a half circle . I found some wild strawberry plants , up in the back acreage , and thought the leaves would make a nice green against the rocks I used to outline my garden . My aunt gave me some yellow day lilies , which I continued to grow for years . And I bought a package of basal flowers , which were very happy there . As it turned out , the strawberries decided they preferred a shadier side of the house , so they sent out runners , which took root , and the ones in the sun died out . Never thought plants would move themselves if they didn't like the climate .

Cast1es Level 9 June 18, 2019

It's funny how plants (like the strawberries) decide where they want to be. 🙂

3

I was raised with gardens, both flower and vegetable, so I know it was sometime before I was 6. My first garden I planted was radishes and parsely in the first grade. We had 6 large flower beds, fruit trees and a vege garden. with a greenhouse as well as tons of houseplants.

glennlab Level 10 June 18, 2019

I learned a lot more in the family garden from my dad than I ever dreamed. Came in very useful l decided to start growing. Dad had a green thumb too.

@freeofgod My grandmother was the gardener, and like you said, you learn an awful lot, just being with them in the garden.

We bought our first home last November. So now, I can garden much more freely than in the shared garden space available to me at the apartment complex I use to live. As yet, no greenhouse. Maybe in the future.

@JaelLorraine When you decide on your greenhouse, site it for maximum winter heat, I use my hot tub enclosure to protect my tender plants in the winter. Dual purpose and it adds some life in the winter.

5

Other than working in the family vegetable garden when I was a kid I didn't garden again until I was 21. Cannabis. At age thirty I got into every decorative flower or plant I cold find. Wound up with three acres covered in them. Loved to garden.

freeofgod Level 8 June 18, 2019
3

Twenties somewhere.

Hathacat Level 9 June 18, 2019
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