Who inspired you to garden/grow veg?

[selfraising]

Hi I just wondered who people were inspired by to garden and grow veg. Was it your parents or your grandparents or someone else?

In my case it was definitely my best friend. Although my dad did a lot of gardening, I wasn't really allowed to get involved. My friend however, was very much into gardening and veg growing. Every time I went round there, she was digging or planting or pruning something. After a while, I became curious and started to ask questions. She would be very laid back about the whole thing and just said 'stick it in the ground and it will grow. if it doesn't don't worry about it'. This approach gave me confidence to have a go myself and I haven't looked back since

[bazzaboy]

As a young kid (early 1950s! eek!) I was always interested to do anything alongside Dad which on Sundays at least was often gardening. But i found it a bit frustrating coz such a slow process but became a dab hand at hunting down slugs and snails... (still am! ) The GYO bug really got to me in my post-student Suffolk days in the 1970s when some good friends ran a hip restaurant and grew most of the veg/herbs themselves which I thought was pretty cool.... I've never stopped growing fruit, veg and herbs since then (though no allotment now) and still find the whole process extraordinary. b.

[mrshopeful]

I think my Grandad grew veg but he died when I was very young so I've never seen anyone growing veg, vaguely remember Grandma growing flowers though.

I don't really know why I've gotten so enthusiastic about giving it a go, it's kind of hit me all of a sudden a month or two ago. Main reasons I think are for fresh tasty veg without lots of chemicals for us to eat and for me to get some fresh air and exercise for a change.

Mind you if I'd have realised how much hard work it was I may not have started but I'm not quitting now

[lyndap]

Both my grandads and my nan grew veggies and my mom grows flowers.My nan used to say to me that the veg growing bug must of skipped a generation,as niether my dad or aunt had a clue about gardening!

[TonyF]

I come from a family of total non-gardeners, no parents gardening - I did their garden for them - and my grandparents hated gardening. My first gardening inspiration was the Dad of a girl I was engaged to back in the 1960's, dear old Charlie Marriott. He had a real old fashioned kitchen garden and he allowed me to help him in it sometimes, look back at that very fondly.

When I got my own place I sort of made it up as I went along until I started to watch Gardener's World on the tele.

Main personal inspiration has been Geoff Hamilton - my sort of gardener, very hands on and 'down to earth' and a bit of a recycling Womble which appeals to me no end. And more recently, Joy Larkcom, who's approach to gardening and growing veggies seem to encapsulate everything I want my garden to be.

[lettucegrow!]

Plants and gardening seems to have been all around me from childhood, I remember my Grandparents pub in Dover had flowers (fuchsias, I remember popping the buds as they were opening!) and some veg. on some very dry,pale soil and I think it's been a case of not will I get into gardening but when. It's a bit of a family thing.
I'm with you TonyF about Joy Larkcom - her style is an inspiration- pretty and practical. I love her book Creative Vegetable Gardening, it's wonderful.

[kentvegplot]

Parents were always in the garden when I was small- and trips to Grandad were heaven because he had a big garden and we always came back with something wrapped in newspaper. Grandma always grew lots of flowers (the hop pickers used to come and buy from her on their way back up to London after the harvest) so I couldn't really NOT be a gardener.

Despite years of working in the City, I now realise I am only truly at peace when working in the garden.

[Flummery]

My Dad grew veg at home in the 50s. I remember as a kid going with him to a local sort of allotment shop - only there were no allotments - only people's back gardens - to buy bunches of bare-rooted cabbage plants wrapped in damp newspaper. He grew Outdoor Girl and Sigma Bush toms and the most fantastic (looking back on them) dwarf french beans, which at the time I detested! I remember the great treat of being allowed to dig up a root of new potatoes and pull a few small carrots to cook for supper.
His parents too, Nanna and Grandad, had a long garden with a lot of fruit bushes at the end. It's definitely from that side of the family.

[bluemoon]

Both my Grandads grew veg, but in very different ways. One was 'old school' lots of manure and attracting bees and ladybirds, these days of course he'd be considered quite up-to-date. The other one covered everything in chemicals and actually sneered at the first one for being too old fashioned, he could grow anything from seed though and his greenhouse was unbelievable. I've cherry picked what I learned from each of them, though I often think that today Grandad number one would be the one doing the sneering if he was still around.

[veggielover]

Jamie Oliver was who inspired me...... i love to cook and enjoy cooking programmes. His Jamie at home series was as it says. he went into his vast garden, picked his veg then went into the kitchen and cooked with the veg he'd picked just 10 mins earlier!

He does have a helper for his garden though, and this man gave tips on how to grow particular varieties of veg.

[lavender lou]

i got my gardening bug from my dad and grandad. My dad's sister also loves her garden and has got an allotment. On my mum's side there was only my great grandfather that loved is garden and also grew veg and fruit. My mum also loves to garden.
As a child i always remembered going to grandad's and helping him in the garden and looking at his tomatoes in the greenhouse and everything growing in the garden and also helping my dad in his garden.
I also remember my dad growing tomatoes in every window sill in the house and then putting them in the greenhouse when they were big enough. And of him and my auntie going in the garden and pinching all the pea pods and eating them as they looked around the veg patch!!

I've grown up with vegetable gardening and loved it, and like my dad says we were eating organically before it was even thought off!!!

so i would say i was inspired by my dad and my grandfather.

I've even got my dad to do his garden again this year he's not done it in the last 12 years, so my gardening bug has rubbed off back onto him.

[yellow strawberry]

when we where kids we had a big garden ,,dad had half for his veg we had the other half i can always remember picking off beans peas etc

then watching the Jamie program i really wanted to grow,,we had a little bed and pots in our back garden last year ,,dad got an allotment so we thought he would try for one we where one of the lucky ones, was only on the list for 2 weeks and had 3 to choose from

[maytreefrannie]

My dad grew veg in our garden when I was a child, he kept gardening all in his life. In fact, he died in the garden at almost 81, back in the 1980s. A gentle passing.

After he died, his tomato plants in pots were given out to anyone in the family that wanted them, that's what started me off on tomatoes.

[rogesse]

My Mum. She was very much into ethnobotany (and recycling) long before I was born. Dad always said she was a witch (in a nice way) because of her growing herbal remedies - and because she came from The Isle of Man! I'm still pretty devastated that without warning she collapsed and died 6 months ago - but she has given me a fantastic gift in my love of growing things. Mum would have loved the new BBC series Grow your own drugs - because she would have sat through the whole thing and picked it to pieces

[di]

Being brought up out in the sticks GYO was still a way of life for most of my family...both sets of Grandparents.Mum & Dad weren't quite so keen,but still had a veggie patch.Our neighbour at the time had her garden open to the public & when she needed more space she borrowed some of ours...& three eager to help children!
As a nipper I don't think I totally appreciated just how much work she put into it...you'd never go round & see her sat...always either in the garden or cooking or preserving or writing.
I still often look at her books for reference...& can reccomend to anyone that's interested to look them up...(Peggy Cole AKA Akenfield.)...not only lots of gardening tips,but also winemaking/cooking & preserving.