What got you into growing?

[Kristen]

I did things my parents didn't ... my Mother couldn't make Choux pastry so aged around 10 I read the recipe and discovered I could make it (no doubt my Mother could too, if she had just stuck to the recipe!).

My Parents didn't garden, so I decided to do that. Bought myself a greenhouse with all my savings aged around 14 - Parents probably worried I should have been spending it on something much more inappropriate! Grew veg for the house, later planted up a large shrub garden when I was about 17 ... by which time my parents were getting into gardening and became mad keen by the time they retired ...

Don't remember my Mother ever making choux pastry though ...

Have built 3 large gardens over the years as we moved house. Current is the most ambitious (and hopefully the last!),in addition to a vegetable plot the size of about 2 allotments we have Rose garden, Topiary, Shrubbery, Hot Herbaceous, Espalier Fruit & Nut walk, Hydrangea garden, Holly maze, Exotic, Woodland walk and this year hopefully! building the final two "rooms" which will be a White garden and an Oriental themed garden.

[Bacchus]

I grew up on a farm so growing and rearing things to eat has always been there. While I still live on the farm I don't work it as I earn so much more in by day job, but the land is still mine and the plan is to retire as early as I possibly can (as soon as the mortgage is paid off) and revert to that agricultural lifestyle.

[JanieB]

My parents bought a house with 3 1/2 acres of land, mostly garden but there was a small paddock. They had problems finding a gardener and the bloke they employed would only deal with fruit and veg and even then not the orchard. So my Dad decided us children had to deal with the rest. My brother got the plum job of mowing the grass on a sit on lawnmower, me and my sister got pruning the roses and weeding the flowerbeds. I hated the herbaceous border with a vengeance, but loved the roses.

In my mid-teens my sister and I were allowed to pick any excess fruit and vegetables and sell them for extra pocket money (my brother went to boarding school), so managed to get an agreement with a local greengrocer to buy the produce from us. We also had the job of picking the fruit in the orchard, my Dad would freeze/bottle the soft fruit and we wrapped the apples and pears in newspaper and stored them in an Apple Store. (Sorry it's the spill chucker insisting on capital letters).

When I got married my father-in-law gave me a corner of his veggie garden to grow my own. I rapidly found out that he was interfering and so made what had been flower beds in my own small garden into veggie beds.

So I went from enforced hated gardening to necessity. I'm no longer forced to garden, nor do I do it because I need to. I do it because I like growing things. I find it eternally fascinating that a small seed turns into a plant that produces food and flowers.

[noviceveggrower]

Think my family have always grown stuff. Both sets of grand parents had allotments. My grandparents on my moms side moved to a farm with a bit of land so they could grow their own stuff. My nan was also a private dog breeder so also kept chickens and rabbits.
In the early 80's when my dad was made redundant again he dug up part of the back garden to grow veg. My nan and granddad had a massive poly tunnel and use to help my mom and dad out with plants and early potatoes.
After moving about a bit in 1990 my mom and dad moved to Peterhead in Scotland to an old croft. We grew all our fruit and veg and also had chickens.
Now I have my own plot at an allotment. I don't think I could live in a big town or city. I think all the time I have spent out side with various generations has influenced me. I think it also helps bridge the generation gaps having a common interest.
I have an allotment now to help financially but also because I think its important that my kids understand where food comes from. It also helps them learn about nature and what we can do to help and support it.

[ioan]

When I was aged about four I contract a serious illness, I was taken to a remote ( as it was then ) place in Wales
called Craig a nos, almost a castle with a lovely garden, that was gifted by madam Pattie the famous opera singer, to the nation.
I had for one reason or another very few visitors, but what I did have each and every day was a view of that garden.
The garden was a friend to me then, and a friend to me now, I am pleased to say that I survived to cherish that memory and make my own little craig a nos, minus the castle,66yrs on.
kind regards
ioan

[Martin H]

My mum and dad loved their flower garden. I well remember "helping" my dad trenching the flower borders in our front garden with bucketfuls of partly-decomposed kitchen waste from the compost heap.
The only veg they grew were tomatoes in the little greenhouse, and lettuces.

I didn't really catch the gardening bug until I had grown up and shared a ground floor flat with a garden that needed tending.

[veggiechicken]

Craig y Nos is a beautiful place, Ioan I visited it, as part of my work, and was privileged to be allowed back stage, behind the theatre that Adelina Patti had built for her private recitals. I even went under the stage and saw the wooden mechanism that was used to raise the pitch of the floor. Even more exciting, I had a little tickle of the ivories of the upright piano that Madame Patti had played.
Happy memories

[ioan]

Hi veg
Madam Patti even had her own railway station at Craig y nos.
Remarkable lady. Remarkable garden.
Thanks for sorting my spelling out veg ( still working on that )
kind regards
ioan

[Gillykat]

My dad was always pottering about in the garden and so I just naturally followed him around. When I was around 3 years old he gave me my very own tiny patch in the corner of the back garden and I filled it with various flowers like Virginia Stock, Nasturtiums, Candytuft etc ~ all the cheap 'n' cheerful hardy annuals that grow quickly and flower all summer long. After that I always had something green around me as I just love plants, full stop!

[veggiechicken]

I grew up in a little terraced house with no garden whatsoever. My grandparents lived nearby in a similar house but my Grampy had an allotment alongside the railway line (as he used to work on the railways). It was a secret world there, through the ramshackle black door, alongside the railway bridge, down the steps on the embankment and on to the narrow strip of land that was his, as long as he wanted it.
I'd "help" him, picking flowers and bunches of mint to sell to the neighbours for a couple of pennies on a Sunday. Ate carrots fresh pulled from the soil, picked raspberries and strawberries, sun-warmed tomatoes.............
Later, whenever I moved house, I looked first at the garden, not the house. I can't imagine life without a garden!
I have my own "secret world" now, and mooching around it always makes me happy