Getting to know you

[Rosee]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum, love it already! Everyone's so friendly and helpful..

Can I ask, why do you grow your own? What inspires you to continue year after year? Are you from a growing background? Is it something your parents/other family members did? Do you get the whole family involved?

For me it's out of interest, the idea of eating something that hasn't travelled hundreds of miles appeals to me, and mostly I want my son to grow up with an understanding of where fresh food comes from and what goes into growing it, non of my family really GTO, my grandad often has tomatoes/strawberries and peas but he's more of a flower gardener

[Feral007]

We like to know what went into the fruit and veg. And what didn't. We enjoy doing the gardening. And we all try things that we probably wouldn't bother to buy, because we grew it.

We're really not happy to keep doing the chemicals thing, we want to put nice things into our body, and do nice things with the soil.

On a more practical slant, it's cheaper than going shopping. And also I really like eating things that are in season. Or frozen from when they were. Bit over forced food. But mostly we just enjoy growing it.

[Hayley]

Hi Rosee, welcome to the forum

I have only started growing this year. As a child i always went to my grandad and grandmas house before and after nursery while my mum & dad went to work. My grandad had an alotment and always took me with him (got to be better than sat in front of the tv or playing on computer games right?). I always had my own little patch and 'rescued' a few of the seedlings he'd throw away when pricking out. To be fair he did most of the maintenance work while i could usually be found sat on the greenhouse step with a bag full of strawberries, tomatoes and anything else i could find to eat.

Unfortunatly i grew up and my grandad getting on in years gave up his allotment. I now have my own home and a little patch once again. I dont really eat a lot of fruit & veg partly due to price and partly due to them being in big bags and going off before i get round to eating them. I brought a punnet of strawberries the other day only for them to go mouldy days later.

I love being outside so decided to set up again to hopefully improve our diet and as a bit of a hobby / relaxation after a long day at work.

[veggiechicken]

Like Hayley, my Grampy had an allotment and I used to "help" him I've had several allotments over the years but found that I couldn't give them enough time to keep on top of it. So I grow at home, mixing up fruit, flowers and veg in an edible jungle! I've just wandered around the garden and picked my salad lunch - it doesn't come fresher than that. No chemicals, no food miles, no money and no washing of leaves because they look clean enough to me

[Tinabalerina]

Its hard to explain why I garden. I'm not from a gardening family as such although as a kid I spent many an enjoyable summer at my Auntie and Uncle's house in Herne Bay. He was an excellent gardener and grew many things and I wish he was around today for lots of advice and gardening chats, i'm sure he'd be pleased to see me lovin it. Occasionally I would be allowed to dead-head the roses in the front garden but that was all and I was definitely the only other person allowed to "help" in the garden.
Having said all that I hadn't touched anything in a garden until last yr when it seemed to come over me all of a sudden, for no apparent reason. Now I love it, I go out every morning before leaving for work and every afternoon when I get home without fail .....why? I have no idea, rarely has anything changed in that time, I just like to look

The best feeling is when something is just starting to show through the soil and you get the feeling its going to burst out (god I sound like Carol Klein ).
I love picking and cooking/eating what I've grown, I love showing of my veg and flowers and it makes me proud. I love that I can actually grow something

[Glutton4...]

I'm another to have been inspired by Grandparents. My sister and I got packed off to Mum's parents most weekends, when we were little. I don't ever remember 'helping' very much, but I have vivid memories of sitting there scoffing fresh strawberries, and the juice running down my chin. Also shelling peas, and being told off for eating them raw, because there wasn't enough left for tea.

When I grew up, I lost interest in vegetables, as I found them to be bland and boring. But tasting home-grown veggies from friends and roadside purchases had me itching to grow my own. My Husband isn't interested in growing (shame, coz he's an ace hand-weeder!) but much prefers to eat home-grown. So, that's enough incentive to keep me at it, even if it is only a few spuds in tubs, and roadside tommy plants against the back of the house, this year.

[Florence Fennel]

Some of my family had allotments. My brother brought me some big herb plants he was getting rid of, so that's how I started. Progressed to growing veg in tubs and at some point became hooked. Now I pinch lawn at every opportunity to grow more veg! Welcome to the Vine Rosee

[Kirk]

To grow a small amount of what I eat, oddly for the exercise - worked in the computer field for years and you are sat at a desk or terminal a hell of a lot. Occasionally just to have a go at growing something different - does mean lots fail or at least not overly succesful. Suppose I started with several apple trees grafted from Brogdale.

One odd reason is I had a small rectangle of ground a bit isolated and was suitable for a veg patch. Once the soil was improved so that a fork pushed in didn't bend.

[Dotty Sarah]

Hi Rosee, glad you're enjoying the vine. Thought you might like to read this thread from a few weeks ago:

What got you into gardening?

[TonyO]

Hi Rosee,

Glad that you like the vine, a warm welcome aboard Hon.

I've always been lucky enough to have a small garden wherever I've lived, my interest in gardening grew up (pardon the pun) in primary school where we grew mustard & cress on blotting paper left on the classroom windowsill, whenever we had carrots, I would ask my Nan for the tops & put them in a saucer of water and saw how the greenery on the top would just shoot up before the carrot top rotted away.(the silly things we do as kids!!)

As I grew older I grew flowers, mostly, roses, begonias tulips freesias etc.... then I started growing runner beans (scarlet Emperor), tomatoes (moneymaker) radishes, Strawberries, Raspberries & gooseberries.

after moving house, I was unable to do any gardening as I was the full time carer for a sick relative, and I just couldn't spare the time.

Now I live in a flat with a very small garden, and have been growing fruit & veg in it for the past six years, I do it as a form of relaxation after doing 12 hour shifts at work. I control what's put in the soil - im a lot more organically minded than I used to be, its a lot cleaner chemically speaking, and you cant beat the freshness, from plot to plate in 30 mins with a near zero carbon footprint (depending on how far the seeds have had to come from.)

I always try different varieties of the fruit & veggies I like. some old neighbours of mine who are dear friends and live just around the corner, have put in their requests for cauliflowers & beetroot's already!!

I'm trying for the first time to grow outdoor cucumbers - the plants are around 8 inches high so far so fingers crossed!!

[sammy_roser]

Well no one in my family grows anything, my granddad grew fruit and veg but I did not spend a lot of time with him and no time can I remember helping him with it. Apart from planting a few bizzy lizzies as a child I have never grown anything until...

About 4 years ago my cat died and had to be buried in the garden. Our garden was a mess. We would cut the grass a couple of times a year but that was it. I couldn't however let my cat be buried in such a state so I started doing up the garden. Not much just a border with some plants. Then in a garden centre I discovered shallots reduced to clear so for the hell of it planted them in a couple of pots and was fascinated by them growing, I was excited like I've never been through flower growing. The next year I tried growing courgettes, raspberries and potatoes. Whilst the courgettes were the only thing that did well (the raspberries randomly died and the potatoes got blight) I was hooked! I have learnt the importance of growing flowers to attract beneficial insects but my love is fruit and veg. I'm planning my whole garden around growing the stuff.

Alys Fowler's The edible garden series and book have also helped my love as I'm not the growing in rows kind of person and it gave me the inspiration to just throw it in the ground, if it does well then great I will do the same again, if it doesn't I will have learnt something

Oh and then there's the fact it tastes so much better and my food is pretty much chemical free.

[Distortedclarity]

Gardening is in my family, my Grandad had a magnificent garden - grape vines spanning the length, cucumbers, apples, toms... a bit of everything. Not only fruit and veg, but lovely flowers, creative rockeries and wild life ponds! He passed the bug on to a lot of my family, my uncle especially who is lucky enough to have an allotment site at the back of his garden, a few years ago he snagged the plot that was directly behind his house - so lucky He would bring me his spare cucumber plants, share bag fulls of runners and let me have first tastes of his weird and wonderful berries. From then on I was hooked and started experimenting with container veg growing.

I have found that I love it so much that I am saving for a proper greenhouse, considering an allotment AND mulling over cultivating my sloped garden (just a grass at the mo) so I can cram more stuff in. I am addicted to the joy of picking the first ripe tom, cheering when seedlings first poke their head through the soil, eating the first fresh salad from the garden - there is no other feeling like it!

[out in the cold]

My grandparents grew their own, as did their brothers and sisters.

My dad was a flower and shrub gardener, although I remember us having spuds and onions and the like when i was a kid.

We lived in a flat for over ten years, so probably the idea of having somewhere to plant a few cabbages and carrots appeals because of that and partly because it is "greener" to do it that way.

[Ananke]

My mother grew lots of flowers and shrubs etc but it has to be the idea of 4 or 5 tiny seeds becoming a plate of food that does it for me.

[Jonthefish]

What a brilliant read I've had from you lot off this page, big thumbs up.

My grandparents and uncle grew vegetables, and i have always been interested in wildlife and plants, but i havent grown vegetables until this year.

We had twins four months ago and it ran home how many nappies were being thrown into the landfill, plus all our other rubbish, so i got a wormery (to play with bugs really) to try and reduce our table scraps going into the bin. So i had worm tea to play with (i know this must appear mad lol), so had to get a raised bed for veg to use the tea and the soil adventually the worms would create. Then got a poly tunnel, then a green house, lots of small containers and pots. A compost bin, 2 rain butts.Then theres the bigger greenhouse i am planning.

I have read so much, have become alot more savvy about what i am putting onto my plate and into my mouth and in the future my childrens mouths.