When did you realise you were a 'proper' gardener?

[Suky]

I know I am one now 'cos my Mum told me so! She saw me rubbing off caterpillar eggs and blackfly without the rubber gloves LOL.
Well, I was so cross that they were back in just 3 hours I didn't stop to think.

[Alison Adams]

When we limited our holidays to how long we could leave the watering and weeding !

[janeyo]

2 things - one when someone asked me for advice on something she was trying to grow, and being referred to at my son's school as the mum with the chickens and veggies in the garden.


Was well chuffed!

ps, I still don't think of myself as a proper gardener!

[OllieMartin]

Still not

But I do rub caterpillar eggs off without gloves, but then I am a boy!

[bluemoon]

When I got my first greenhouse. Both my granddads were proper gardeners and they both had greenhouses. It was a graduation present....in fact it was all my graduation presents. My brothers, their wives and my cousins all ended up with prezzies that I thought were, well to be frank, rubbish. I'm not the sort to enjoy a heap of gold watches, expensive fountain pens and the like and in desperation I sighed; 'Can't you all just have a whip-round and buy me a greenhouse?' I'm really pleased I spoke up now, I ended up with a far better quality one than those I'd been looking at, a man came to put it up properly and I got all the staging and a paraffin heater too. I should probably point out that I was 33 at the time though so I'd done a fair number of years gardening without it and really treasure it. 17 years later it's still going strong, another advantage to the fact that it's a good one rather than a flimsy one.

[Dianne1234567]

When I don't want to buy any veg at supermarket, just want to eat my own and also the amount of times I need to check on plants, how they are doing and wha is growing.

[Sweepster]

When I asked for manure as a 30th birthday present

[taff]

All my spare time this year has been spent in the greenhouse and in the garden. Even when it's raining cats and dogs...like tonight. Even when it's dark and I go round with a storm lamp.And when I started making nettle tea and bought comfrey and knew which type to buy to avoid it taking over the garden.

[digthatchick]

When my first client paid me, bought me a bottle of wine and asked if I could come back next week, I still do her garden now

[Snadger]

When I realised that however long I scrub my weeding finger and thumb I can't ever get them clean!

[Alice]

This is crazy.
But after 30 years of growing a beautiful ornamental garden, with flowers, shrubs and trees grown from seeds or seedlings, I felt like a proper gardener when I was dibbing holes and dropping leeks in.
Must have been brain washed.

[Tam]

I am so aged that I should be a "proper" gardener, but I don't think I'll ever make it.

[digthatchick]

When I realised that however long I scrub my weeding finger and thumb I can't ever get them clean!

Nice to know there is someone else that doesn't wear gloves

[Flobalob]

Picking my first veg this year ( radish ) was a defining moment.
The true moments I think of myself as a gardener are when my relatives call round and I walk around the garden, filling bags of vegetables for them.

[rustylady]

Nice to know there is someone else that doesn't wear gloves

me too, not just weeding but podding broad beans leaves your fingers black