I've been gardening for more than 40 years. My first garden was in the 70s and I just wanted to grow vegetables (think John Seymore). I bought a house with a green house so tomatoes were on the agenda. Soon interests broadened; I found a passion for taking cuttings and growing shrubs. Fruit trees found their way in of course and spring bulbs were always a delight. I fell in love with orchards with daffodils and shrub roses growing there too.
Roll on 40 years.....I've never stopped gardening. Three gardens later and now my passion is birds and wildlife gardening. Almost everything I grow and plant now has wildlife in mind; pollinating insects is the beginning of the food chain so always single flowers, seed heads that finches will like, no cutting back of herbaceous plants until well past mid winter, of course there is a pond with mostly native plants and so on. Re veg growing: age has taken it's toll so now I only have raised beds which is sooooo much easier! I still like growing tomatoes and every year I add one or two new varieties to my repertoire; I now have only a small greenhouse. It's great that so many tomato varieties from across the world are now available to us here in the UK. Also one of my pleasures is Mediterranean type plants. I am lucky enough to have some shelter and SE facing walls and have an olive tree and a peach tree.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
I currently have an interest in that which would grow in my garden - zero time for succulents, exotics, palms etc. I favour things that could feel vaguely wild and "native"-ish. Bananas and cannas just feel contrary to me, though, yes, I like Mexican salvias, rose cultivars and things. I really don't understand the urge to recreate holiday spots in one's own garden - a Japanese tea house, Jamaica out the back, South African mountains. It leaves me entirely cold. Strikes me as foolish, tbh. I think we should be where we are and embrace it. Wildlife would probably much happier if we didn't long to turn the Uk into Tenerife.
These days I have more time for plants favoured for their leaves - like heuceras. Most shrubs are still lost on me, but I suspect I would feel very differently if I had a large garden to fill. Colour is still one of my driving forces, but I can see that changing and softening with age.
I like peaches and oranges, but not in my garden. I can't be doing with purple flowers at the moment. Or doubles of anything apart from snowdrops. I deeply appreciate begonias for being able to flower in the dark. All that will change, no doubt.
I used to buy a lot of bedding plants as I didn't know how to grow or care for plants.i think a lot of people start like that.i can't stand begonias or hardy fuschias mainly because my dad used them every year in exactly the same place in his garden.i used to grow my own veg but the last couple of years I got fed up contrary to everyone else in lock down.perhaps I'll return to it one day
I started off with a 4 quid bareroot apple tree from b&q from an end-of-sale bin when we bought our first home with a tiny garden - it was just a 1.5 feet wide space, may be 30 * 2 feet on 2 sides around our end terrace. I didn't even know whether the tree will grow as it was the first time I ever saw a bareroot tree. I didn't know what 'self-fertile' was, all I saw was a lovely, shiny picture of a Golden delicious apple on the tag. Planted it and it grew. So next year, went on a buying spree as soon as bareroots arrived at the same store - this time bought morello cherry, conference pear and a James grieve apple. 3 🏘️ moves later, the first thing as we move into our new home is plant fruit trees. I now have a full back garden with quite a few fruit trees, including figs, grapes and kiwi. Around 2 years ago, after reading @Marlorena's rose thread, I starting growing roses in pots. So from fruit to flowers has been an interesting journey.
Oxford. The City of Dreaming Spires.
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils (roses). Taking a bit of liberty with Wordsworth
@Loxley. I too have a greater appreciation of foliage . All those greens no two the same. Form and texture. If I had the space - actually I probably have - I think I would like a green garden . But only a patch. I need colour too but an enclosed totally green patch would be restful. I could sit on a tuffet but I would forego the curds and whey.
@Fire, I totally agree with you about trying to recreate something exotic when living in the suburbs. It just jars, in my view. Plastic resin buddhas on a plinth might be installed to create tranquility but all they do to me is ramp up the blood pressure a couple of notches.
How thoughtful of begonias to grow in the dark; that means less chance of seeing them.
Very much so. I only really got into gardening properly last year- had made previous attempts that started with great intentions, but never had a very successful outcome and I was disheartened.
The key issue was that I had an ingrained notion of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in gardening, which was entirely based on my parents’ ideas, and popular garden styles when I was a child, namely lawn with borders round the edge filled with annual bedding. Stuff like ornamental grasses and ferns was considered ‘wrong’ and tantamount to weeds.
Neither lawn not annual bedding grows well in much of my garden so when I attempted to replicate this style, it was doomed to failure and disappointment. I like grasses and ferns, and both thrive in my garden - but it took a surprising amount of mental effort to break away from ideas that were planted 30-odd years ago and go this direction!
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I've been gardening for more than 40 years. My first garden was in the 70s and I just wanted to grow vegetables (think John Seymore). I bought a house with a green house so tomatoes were on the agenda. Soon interests broadened; I found a passion for taking cuttings and growing shrubs. Fruit trees found their way in of course and spring bulbs were always a delight. I fell in love with orchards with daffodils and shrub roses growing there too.
Roll on 40 years.....I've never stopped gardening. Three gardens later and now my passion is birds and wildlife gardening. Almost everything I grow and plant now has wildlife in mind; pollinating insects is the beginning of the food chain so always single flowers, seed heads that finches will like, no cutting back of herbaceous plants until well past mid winter, of course there is a pond with mostly native plants and so on. Re veg growing: age has taken it's toll so now I only have raised beds which is sooooo much easier! I still like growing tomatoes and every year I add one or two new varieties to my repertoire; I now have only a small greenhouse. It's great that so many tomato varieties from across the world are now available to us here in the UK. Also one of my pleasures is Mediterranean type plants. I am lucky enough to have some shelter and SE facing walls and have an olive tree and a peach tree.
How thoughtful of begonias to grow in the dark; that means less chance of seeing them.
The key issue was that I had an ingrained notion of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in gardening, which was entirely based on my parents’ ideas, and popular garden styles when I was a child, namely lawn with borders round the edge filled with annual bedding. Stuff like ornamental grasses and ferns was considered ‘wrong’ and tantamount to weeds.
Neither lawn not annual bedding grows well in much of my garden so when I attempted to replicate this style, it was doomed to failure and disappointment. I like grasses and ferns, and both thrive in my garden - but it took a surprising amount of mental effort to break away from ideas that were planted 30-odd years ago and go this direction!