Years of Gardening

[darkrebelchild]

I couldn't help but wonder how long many of you have been gardening. So many people have been introduced to gardening since they were little. Does this help one become an expert at it or continuous practice of gardening?

Please share how long you have been engaging in it.

 

[Corzhens]

I'm actually not a real gardener, it is my husband. But I have been introduced to gardening only about 20 years ago when we rented a house with a backyard. My first experience in planting is ginger which gladdened me when it bore flowers (I didn't know that ginger plant has flowers). My second try is the sweet potato, a vine that is so easy to grow. You can imagine my excitement when we harvested the root crop.

Now my pride is the cantaloupe that I planted as an experiment. I call it my cantaloupe patch. Here is the biggest cantaloupe that I hope would mature normally so I can get an edible harvest.

 

[Beverly]

I had occasional small gardens when i lived in the US, but never had much time to provide them with the needed attention. That is a fine looking cantaloupe @Corzhens. It reminds me of when i grew cantaloupe when i lived in the US...there were so many of them, but they were small and i kept waiting for them to get bigger. I didn't know i was growing a small variety and one day i noticed the sweet smell of cantaloupe in the air, and i noticed that many of them were falling off the vine. I ran to tell my husband to call everyone we know to invite them over for cantaloupe. Lots of people came, thank heavens, and one couple brought an ice cream maker with ingredients (including an enormous goose egg). We feasted on cantaloupe and ice cream and ate every last one and that ice cream was delicious, made with goose egg and honey.

So, when i moved to a tropical location and began gardening 8 or 9 years ago in earnest, i had to learn everything all over again, because so many of the rules are different and i was never much of a gardener before. But organic methods are very much the same. I would call myself an experimental gardener and some times i get lucky, but gardening is such a magical process that now i cannot imagine not doing it. The plants don't seem to mind me very much. I must say i have learned so much at this website and am so appreciative of the people who participate here and for the first time i feel more equipped to deal with the questions and problems that present themselves in the garden. I'll never be an "expert" though and i will always "know" so much less than i need to.

 

[Chuck]

I've been in a garden for over 60 years and one thing I know is that I don't know nearly as much I need to know.

 

[Owdboggy]

Snap!

 

[Beverly]

@Chuck...but you do know an awful lot of things. I don't know what we would do without you

 

[Esther Knapicius]

My dad, 50 years ago had a veggie garden, of which I helped him with. Moving on to my own gardens I chose flowers and shrubs and special trees, which has be going on 30 years. I think I have learned a lot, still more to learn. But so far my results are successful.

 

[Beth_B]

We never really had gardens when I was growing up but in three US states over the last 37 years I've always had house plants (do they count?), planted annuals and perennials every year and had many vegetable gardens. I've been more settled this last 12 years and have expanded my garden every year.

I still think of myself as an amateur with lots to learn!

 

[zigs]

Been growing veg since about 7 or 8, still forget to water things

 

[ChanellG]

Been growing veg since about 7 or 8, still forget to water things

I can walk right past a houseplant and forget.

 

[Fernsdaddy]

Like Chuck I've been gardening for 60 + years and still learning some thing new all the time.
They say you can't teach a old dogs new tricks, but you can

 

[Corzhens]

I had occasional small gardens when i lived in the US, but never had much time to provide them with the needed attention. That is a fine looking cantaloupe @Corzhens. It reminds me of when i grew cantaloupe when i lived in the US...there were so many of them, but they were small and i kept waiting for them to get bigger. I didn't know i was growing a small variety and one day i noticed the sweet smell of cantaloupe in the air, and i noticed that many of them were falling off the vine. I ran to tell my husband to call everyone we know to invite them over for cantaloupe. Lots of people came, thank heavens, and one couple brought an ice cream maker with ingredients (including an enormous goose egg). We feasted on cantaloupe and ice cream and ate every last one and that ice cream was delicious, made with goose egg and honey.

You are right with the smell of the ripe cantaloupe. I just harvested one small cantaloupe, a little bigger than a jackstone ball which had turned yellow. I actually spotted it because of the smell that it was exuding in the backyard. That small cantaloupe had turned yellow and when I touched it, it voluntarily separated from the vine. Now that small harvest is still in teh kitchen and waiting for tomorrow for the tasting. But the bigger ones are still in the vine waiting to turn yellow.

 

[claudine]

My boyfriend gave me the first plant that I wanted to grow. When I saw it, I fell in love with gardening. It happened when we started dating, around 6 years ago.
Now, I have lots and lots of plants

 

[Greenhorn]

I've been gardening for 4 - 5 years. Most of what I know came from doing, some of what I know came from classes I took. My father did some gardening when I was young, but I was young and don't remember any of the specifics, it was not a big influence on me.

 

[digger]

My grandfather introduced me to gardening when I was about 4. I lived with them throughout primary school but had to transfer to the city because that's where my parents moved. I was too young to completely understand many of what my grandfather wanted to teach me. One of them was grafting two types of trees on a lemon tree. I wished I had completely understood that but since moving to our new house, I've been learning a lot about gardening, too. Thanks basically to Google and now this gardening forum for the many ideas I can incorporate as I grow my garden.