With the weather finally getting better it has started me to thinking about the seasons to come and the prospect of flowers popping through the soil and getting myself back into the garden. I've also started to think about how the love and passion for gardening started in me and I have come to realize that I was first exposed to gardening through my maternal grandparents. So, this is where I will begin my "Ten Ways to Foster the Love of Gardening in Yourself and Others," and perhaps your children, too~
1. Start Early and Take Advantage of a Good Garden Mentor
It is my belief that is very important for our psyche and for our planet, in general, to foster a love for gardening. I believe we will live healthier, happier and more responsible lives through the simple task of tending a garden we create for ourselves.
As I have mentioned I have thought about where my love of gardening began and I have realized that there have been a number of factors along the way but, my very first exposure came from my grandfather and grandmother. Later, my mother fostered that love, as well, with the special touches of flowers and greenery she added to the little cape-style house I grew up in.
As a very young child I remember visiting my grandparent's homestead often since they only lived about 20 minutes away from my home. I grew up on Cape Cod and if you know anything about it, you know there is a Northside and a Southside and that those two "sides" are very much different from each other. The Northside in the town of Yarmouth, where my grandparents lived, was rural, laid back and countrified. The Southside where my immediate family lived was more commercial, had all the best beaches, lots to do and lots of traffic. So, when we visited my grandparents it was like traveling to a different world. It was almost a step back in time.
I loved visiting their home and I loved my grandparents. They were the very best! I think I have mentioned before about my grandfather and his love of baking. He made the best apple pie and the best sugar cookies...bar none. Another interest he had was that of planting a huge vegetable garden in the back of his property. I learned from my Aunt Marilyn, his daughter, that the vegetable garden was a necessity to the family's survival during a period of time around the Great Depression and that often the vegetable garden supplied all the components of the family's dinner. I think this was before my mother's time. She was the youngest of three daughters and was 6-7 years younger than her two older sisters. Many, many years later when I was a young girl my grandfather lent part of the garden to my dad to plant some of our own vegetables.
Honestly and truly, I don't remember any of the vegetables we harvested. I'm not even sure my dad or my brother or I had any gardening success at all but, I do remember planting the seeds with my dad and visiting with my grandparents on Sunday afternoons. I remember sitting in the side yard of their property during the summer in a circle of lawn chairs along with my mom and dad, my grandmother and grandfather and often my Aunt Jane and my cousin, Nancy Jane, sipping on something called "bug juice" and thinking it was delicious! Life really doesn't get better than that~
Anyway, I think it was that huge vegetable garden of grandfather's, the little flower beds my grandmother had all over her property and the flower gardens my mother planted at our home that started the whole gardening thing for me.
By the way, isn't this the cutest picture ↑of my grandparents? They must have been so young here~
2. Allow Children to Have a Garden Spot of Their Own
As I got a tiny bit older my mother allowed me to carve out a small part of our yard for my very own flower garden. I was allowed to buy some seeds, any kind I wanted, and have a blast. Knowing nothing about light, water and the correct kinds of seeds to buy, I think my first (second, third...) gardens were a bust but, I had fun, anyway. Since that time I have never stopped striving for the "perfect" garden and have yet to achieve it.
3. Experiment With Your Own Garden and Even Be Willing to Make Mistakes
In early married life, I was soon offered the opportunity to plant gardens on my very own property. Our first house was a small Cape in southern Maine with two large wagon wheels used to line the dirt driveway. I immediately did as my mother had always done and planted marigolds in the dirt spaces in between the wagon wheel spokes. Those marigolds were pretty much all that I could afford at the time but I loved seeing them grow and felt very proud of myself. I may have had two window boxes, as well, but I'm not sure about that :).
In those early years my husband and I moved around a lot but, the next great push I got towards a growing love of gardening came when we bought an old Victorian home on the Northshore of Massachusetts. The previous owners had planted a fairly small flower bed right next to the driveway but, the flowers that grew in that bed were some of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen! They were perennials. My mother really didn't have any perennials except a few irises here and there so, I wasn't familiar with them at all. In my new flower bed were Oriental poppies, peonies and other beautiful flowers that I didn't even know the names of. I couldn't get over how beautiful they were and wanted to experiment even more.
It just so happened that my new neighbor next door, Alice, had a love of perennials too and asked if I would like to visit a local garden that specialized in selling perennials. A new world had opened for me. I will be forever grateful to Alice for opening my eyes to the beauty and wonder of perennials. I bought a few that day and tried to make that little garden even better. I didn't have a clue what I was doing but, I had fun, anyway :).
Through my experience of living in that in that old Victorian home and working on the perennial garden my mother started to pursue perennial gardening herself. We enjoyed comparing notes, but I have to say my mother was much better at it than I was. I always believed that I started her in the perennial direction, however, and felt good about that.
4. Subscribe to Gardening Magazines and Seed Catalogs
Once you have caught the gardening bug the next natural progression is to subscribe to gardening magazines and to sign up for seed catalogs. Thumbing through these periodicals can bring all sorts of joy in the middle of February when everything is so bleak. I think the first magazine I subscribed to was Better Homes and Gardens and the second one was Country Living. I have subscribed to them without fail ever since.
5. Grow Plants from Seed Indoors
Another way you can foster gardening love is to start some seeds indoors before anything is happening in your garden outside. This is an especially great way to get your kids involved in gardening. They will love seeing the tiny sprouts reach out from the dirt. You'll enjoy it too!
6. Visit Your Local Nursery
As soon as the pansies start appearing at my local garden farm stand I am in the car and ready for a day of exploring. If you don't get excited about gardening once you've seen the happy face of a pansy, I'm not sure there is any hope for you :/. And you really have to visit all the nurseries in your area because every nursery has its own character and usually carries something you just have to have once you've seen it. Dragging your kids along on these trips isn't a bad idea either. You never know, they might actually like it! Some of these places carry cookies and candy, too.
7. Be Your Own Kind of Example and Plant a Lovely Garden
Of course, you really can't foster the love of gardening in yourself or anyone else unless you plant some sort of garden. I, thankfully, have often had fairly large yards attached to each of the homes I have owned. Therefore, I have always had ample places to plant gardens but, my most successful gardening has been done in containers. Most people have room for some kind of container garden, even if it is only a pot of flowers on your front step. So, I am sorry. There are no excuses on this one. Go back to #4 and/or #5 and have at it! Let the kids buy a potted plant too!
8. Bring the Flowers In--Fill a Vase
Another great way to foster the love of gardening is to have cut flowers in your home for everyone to enjoy, and that includes you too! These flowers were not from my garden but, I have often made bouquets from the flowers in my yard and it is a rewarding feeling. It take a little effort but, it is worth it.
9. Visit a Botanical Garden
The photos below were taken a few years ago at Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Boylston, Massachusetts. Embarrassingly, this was my first visit to Tower Hill. I had heard of it through my garden club affiliation for many years but, it wasn't until one of my friends in the club, upon hearing that I had never been, insisted that we take a trip to see it. She invited a few other members and we took the 30-40 minute ride out to Boylston. It was such a great trip. I believe it was in May/early June and the gardens were so pretty! We walked around and then had lunch at the café which had outdoor seating and overlooked a small lake. It was a delightful day.
My husband, daughter and I went back to Towel Hill at Christmas time because the garden hosts a beautiful Christmas lights display along with indoor exhibits. Again, it was lots of fun and just talking about it makes me realize it has been way too long since I have been there!
Google botanical gardens in your area and try to plan a trip~
The photos below were taken a few years ago at Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Boylston, Massachusetts. Embarrassingly, this was my first visit to Tower Hill. I had heard of it through my garden club affiliation for many years but, it wasn't until one of my friends in the club, upon hearing that I had never been, insisted that we take a trip to see it. She invited a few other members and we took the 30-40 minute ride out to Boylston. It was such a great trip. I believe it was in May/early June and the gardens were so pretty! We walked around and then had lunch at the café which had outdoor seating and overlooked a small lake. It was a delightful day.
My husband, daughter and I went back to Towel Hill at Christmas time because the garden hosts a beautiful Christmas lights display along with indoor exhibits. Again, it was lots of fun and just talking about it makes me realize it has been way too long since I have been there!
Google botanical gardens in your area and try to plan a trip~
10. Join a Garden Club
Now for my last suggestion for you to get you revved up about gardening. I suppose I should have mentioned this one before talking about my visit to Tower Hill. Oh well, here goes anyway. If you love gardening or want to learn more about gardening or if you just want to meet a group of really nice people, join a garden club. My club is called the "Lazy Daisy Gardeners" which kind of gives you an idea of how non-stuffy we are :).
I knew nothing about garden clubs before I joined and to be honest I wasn't sure about the whole thing because at first it seemed to be more about the meeting than about gardening. However, I stuck with it because the ladies were so nice and friendly. I started to grow a true appreciation for what garden clubs do.
Our club helps maintain a Veteran's Park Garden and a garden at a home that provides a place for young, unwed mothers and their babies to live. We also take a collection of money and paper goods once a year for this same organization. The club also provides garden therapy for a local nursing home. By this I mean, our club provides a craft or a game, along with some baked goods, for the residents to make or play and provide an afternoon of fun for them. We do this about four times a year. We also make donations to various organizations that promote civic beautification and conservation of natural resources. I am not saying all of this to sing our own praises. I simply mention these things to show you that garden clubs are not just filled with ladies in fancy hats drinking tea. They actually do hard work and are groups worthy to join.
Well, there is my list...so far. As you can see from some of my stories, I have throughout my life had people who have taken the time to share in some way their love of gardening with me. I hope I have done the same with some of the people in my life too. It seems to me to be a worthy thing to do :).
I may be taking a week off from blogging because starting on Wednesday I will be fully into wedding flower mode. I am doing the flowers for a very special couple. I know as a blogger I should have planned ahead and had a post all ready for next week. I didn't do that...because I was on vacation. I will promise to be back as soon as I can. Until then...
Happy Gardening!
