My Introduction to Gardening

At the time of writing there is a surge of interest in growing your own vegetables rather than buying them from the supermarket. Yet it does not seem that long ago questions were being asked how we could get more people, the younger generation especially, involved in gardening.

So how did I start my love affair with gardening? I was not forced into gardening so you could say it was "in my blood". Yes, to some extent I am sure it is. However, I was in my middle twenties before the bug really bit. Why then? I married and bought my first house with a reasonably sized garden.

Is gardening in my blood? My parents liked a tidy garden. Dad was brought up more of a vegetable gardener. Being one of 10 children his dad needed to keep an allotment to help feed his family and dad helped him. My maternal grandfather grew flowers and vegetables. Living in the same town I was able to spend a lot of time with him. He had a good sized garden with a large wooden greenhouse that he built himself. I watched him sow seeds, prick out seedlings, tend his tomatoes, cucumbers and grapes.

His flower garden was mainly bedding. Red geraniums from cuttings each year (my introductions to taking cuttings) accompanied by blue lobelia and white alyssum. For cut flowers he also grew chrysanthemums and gladioli. When he was away on holiday I would call round to water seedlings and tomatoes and to take the side shoots off his cordon tomatoes. He did not make me do things in the garden; I just gradually became interested and thought it was something that everyone did. I can remember him reaching up into his cupboard to bring down gardening reference books and I am delighted to say that some of those treasured books are now in my possession. Some techniques change but the basics stay the same. Not all the old solutions to garden pests, for example, were chemical driven and it is interesting to see some techniques being tried again in these days of organic gardening.

I cannot claim to have done much gardening for my parents. Let's face it, I was young and it got in the way of other things I wanted to do. But as soon as I had my own garden, stuck my spade into the ground and the smell of the soil reached my nostrils, I was hooked.

How to start a garden? You can be involved in other people's gardens but starting a garden yourself is something else. My wife bought me a book by the most famous television presenter of his time and thirst for knowledge began. The pictured caught my attention and made me determined to grow that one, that one, that one, and, yes, that one! I started to read a weekly magazine that did not talk above the knowledge of the beginner and I learnt so much from that magazine. Just as much of my knowledge was gained from the Q & A pages as the articles themselves. I really was hooked and could not wait for Thursday and the next edition.

The first year in the garden was difficult. We married in May and what followed was a very hot and dry summer. The heat made it hard enough to work but the soil was mainly clay and getting a spade or a fork into the ground was nigh on impossible. However, a few packets of cheap hardy annuals sown directly into the ground, thinned and transplanted had to do for that first summer. It might have been a beginners garden and unplanned but the effect was very pleasing and certainly gave me encouragement to look forward to the second and first full year in my garden.

This garden was destined to become MY Space for the next few years.

Do not be afraid to start your own garden. Once you see your garden growing it will give you all the encouragement you need to carry on.

Not found what you are looking for?

Custom Search