Gardening is the greatest self satisfaction hobby in the world.There is nothing like tasting your own grown vegetables,especially potatoes.Dig,Dig,Dig....work,work,work,enjoy your end product people!!
Put Alchemilla mollis beside a lurid pink plant like an erodium I have or Lysimachia ciliata with its dull, dark brown leaves, or tall spiky purple bearded irises and both plants are transformed. And when it rains there is nothing prettier than the wat rain drops collect in its leaves. Flower arrangers are fond of its frothy panicles as well. I see where gathegreenfinger's father was coming from but biodiversity is much more satisfying visually and environmentally. So glad so many people love the physical side of gardening. It certainly keeps you fit growing your own food keeps you on a healthy diet t satisfy the appetite it generates. I believe gardens should be like people -all different.
Gardening has never been my favourite I hobby. I just tried to keep it tidy. I am sixty-seven and suddenly wish I had tried to be an enthusiastic gardner!!! I have discovered that an untidy garden with little neat havens is my favourite way of managing. I have neglected my garden due to the steepness of it, unable to keep up with weeding etc: I now have found I have wild life I never new I had. Plus I enjoy the whole thing weeding, getting dirty and digging. This is due to reading the blogs on this website.
My gardening started at young age when my dad had a small veg patch and a 6 by 4 greenhouse. Watching him planting potatoes and beans and a hole lot of other crops i got very interested in how things got from seed to plate. I now have a garden of my own two young girls who cannot wait till spring when dad starts getting seeds in. the older 0f the two age 9 loves to help put the potatoes and stick beans in. Unfortunately my better half only likes gardening when it is on the plate.. TEACH THE CHILDREN WELL!!!
I caught the gardening bug later in life (at 40, 3 years ago). Before that I took no interest in any gardens, they were just there. I took over the gardening after my dad died and my mum found it too much to take on. Funnily enough, my dad only took on the gardening when his father-in-law died. (His father-in-law used to come down most weekends to do the garden).
My intention was just to keep it tidy and see what came up during the first year. I then started planting a couple of annuals. I did not really expect them them to survive, as my past record with indoor plants didn't leave a lot to be desired (think I over-watered them). So when the first plants I planted did start to grow and then flower, I felt an immense sense of achievement! I had actually grown something and not killed them as I would have a houseplant!
I also liked to watch the plants grow, and watching the buds form and then open was amazing. I am still in awe of mother nature. I also enjoy the wildlife. Before, if I encountered a bee, though I wouldn't have flapped around, I didn't like them near me, but now I am quite relaxed with them around whilst working in the garden and enjoy wathing them collect the nectar. It's also nice to see the birds, butterflies and squirrels. I have even seen foxes and hedgehogs in the garden.
Now I really enjoy planning what to have in the garden for the next season, although I agree with glou44, the planning doesn't always go as intended, but sometimes it works out better. I enjoy experimenting with colour, texture, size and form.
It has been a steep learning curve and I'm still on that curve, but it's amazing that in 3 years I am familiar with lots of plants that I wouldn't have been able to name beforehand. I've got a couple of books that I've acquired, but I much prefer the hands on learning that I now have access to. It also made me realise how much hard work goes into gardening. I feel a little ashamed that I paid no attention to the garden when my dad put in all that hard work to make the garden look good. Sorry dad.
Whilst the garden I now look after has the same structure my dad put in, I have now acquired another garden that is a blank slate. At present it is just a square of grass, so I have the opportunity to create a garden from scratch, which I'm looking forward to. I plan on taking my time to decide how I want the garden to look. I think I want something completely different to the garden I now tend. I am looking forward to developing the new garden and seeing where it takes me.
Four years ago, I would never have believed that I would have been interested in gardening. I have always had access to a garden, but as a child I was just interested in playing in it. So I don't think you are necessarily born with greenfingers, but I do believe that anyone can develop or catch the gardening bug!
Growing up in Kenya and not having half the number of toys and electronic games children have now, I spent a lot of time outdoors. I think I have always been fascinated in how things grow and natures beauty but a move to Calgary, Alberta, Canada after I got married proved to be a challenge in gardening with the extreme climate and cold, long winters followed by very short growing seasons. Losing my husband suddenly in an avalanche a couple of years ago brought me to England to be near family. I found a house that needed a lot of work to say the least but the garden is really what sold it to me. It had been lovingly created and looked after by the previous owners and was beautiful. Now I am out there almost every day, tidying, weeding, deadheading, creating, planning.......just getting my hands in the dirt. Out there I feel at peace during such a painful time and at one with nature. If I am feeling sad, stressed, or anxious, I just put on my boots and head out and have the most wonderful day, then sleep like a baby from being so tired My two kids just don't get it when I go to pick them up from school with dirt under my nails and scratches up my arms but gardening has got me through some tough days. I read this quote the other day - "Live as if you are going to die tomorrow, garden as if you are going to live forever"
Isn't this blog just fascinating? Everyone has a different story to tell and all have messages of hope. No wonder so-called sympathy cards all have flowers on them. If you commemorate a loved one by growing a favourite plant of theirs in your garden or a rose that bears their first name, you have even more reason to go out in the garden. My late husband was blind for the last fifteen years of his life and the garden is still full of the perfumed plants I grew so he could still enjoy the garden.
I was always helping my dad in the garden when I was a child. Helping him plant tomatoes and flowers and watering them for him. Being in the garden is so relaxing and the perfect place to be if you are stressed, just a small time there and all that stress just goes away. As soon as Christmas is over I get this buzz of excitement just knowing I can get my hands back into the soil and then watching for the first sign of a shoot popping its head up. Sowing seeds and seeing them grow on to be a strong a healthy plant and knowing that it was me that did that, wow!!! there's no feeling like it.
I have just enjoyed harvesting - broad beans and "Swift" potatoes for Sunday lunch, so much more enjoyable than carting them from the veg.shop. One thing many people forget when they grow there own food, perhaps because the superior taste puts everything else into the shade, is that gardeners who do so are reducing the deficit the country now has, or the "Balance of Payments" as we used to call it.
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Watching him planting potatoes and beans and a hole lot of other crops i got very interested in how things got from seed to plate.
I now have a garden of my own two young girls who cannot wait till spring when dad starts getting seeds in.
the older 0f the two age 9 loves to help put the potatoes and stick beans in.
Unfortunately my better half only likes gardening when it is on the plate..
TEACH THE CHILDREN WELL!!!
My intention was just to keep it tidy and see what came up during the first year. I then started planting a couple of annuals. I did not really expect them them to survive, as my past record with indoor plants didn't leave a lot to be desired (think I over-watered them). So when the first plants I planted did start to grow and then flower, I felt an immense sense of achievement! I had actually grown something and not killed them as I would have a houseplant!
I also liked to watch the plants grow, and watching the buds form and then open was amazing. I am still in awe of mother nature. I also enjoy the wildlife. Before, if I encountered a bee, though I wouldn't have flapped around, I didn't like them near me, but now I am quite relaxed with them around whilst working in the garden and enjoy wathing them collect the nectar. It's also nice to see the birds, butterflies and squirrels. I have even seen foxes and hedgehogs in the garden.
Now I really enjoy planning what to have in the garden for the next season, although I agree with glou44, the planning doesn't always go as intended, but sometimes it works out better. I enjoy experimenting with colour, texture, size and form.
It has been a steep learning curve and I'm still on that curve, but it's amazing that in 3 years I am familiar with lots of plants that I wouldn't have been able to name beforehand. I've got a couple of books that I've acquired, but I much prefer the hands on learning that I now have access to. It also made me realise how much hard work goes into gardening. I feel a little ashamed that I paid no attention to the garden when my dad put in all that hard work to make the garden look good. Sorry dad.
Whilst the garden I now look after has the same structure my dad put in, I have now acquired another garden that is a blank slate. At present it is just a square of grass, so I have the opportunity to create a garden from scratch, which I'm looking forward to. I plan on taking my time to decide how I want the garden to look. I think I want something completely different to the garden I now tend. I am looking forward to developing the new garden and seeing where it takes me.
Four years ago, I would never have believed that I would have been interested in gardening. I have always had access to a garden, but as a child I was just interested in playing in it. So I don't think you are necessarily born with greenfingers, but I do believe that anyone can develop or catch the gardening bug!
Losing my husband suddenly in an avalanche a couple of years ago brought me to England to be near family. I found a house that needed a lot of work to say the least but the garden is really what sold it to me. It had been lovingly created and looked after by the previous owners and was beautiful.
Now I am out there almost every day, tidying, weeding, deadheading, creating, planning.......just getting my hands in the dirt. Out there I feel at peace during such a painful time and at one with nature. If I am feeling sad, stressed, or anxious, I just put on my boots and head out and have the most wonderful day, then sleep like a baby from being so tired My two kids just don't get it when I go to pick them up from school with dirt under my nails and scratches up my arms but gardening has got me through some tough days.
I read this quote the other day - "Live as if you are going to die tomorrow, garden as if you are going to live forever"