Who or what sowed the seeds for you?
We always had a vegetable garden when I was growing up. We had a flower
garden or two, but nothing special. With 6 always famished kids, the vegetables won out over the flowers. It was never a huge garden, but we enjoyed tomatoes, carrots, beets and beet greens, peas, beans, lettuce and radishes. For a long time we had a patch of yellow raspberries, and of course, rhubarb.
My grandmother (on my father's side) always had a big vegetable garden. She had polio when she was a child, and I can still see her in my mind's eye, in her specially built up shoes, with her awkward gait, maneuvering between the rows of vegetables, pinching, weeding, harvesting. She had long white hair that she kept coiled in a bun at the nape of her neck. She always wore dresses and a big apron, the pockets bulging with twine, garden shears, and wrapped candies that she gave us when we helped her out.
Every summer we would visit my grandparents at their cottage in Quebec. Berry picking was a favourite pasttime. Depending on when we went, our cups and pails would brim with wild blueberries, strawberries, raspberries or blackberries. We quickly learned that "one for the pail, two for me" usually resulted in no pie for dinner!
One summer when I was 11 or 12, my girlfriend and I joined a kids garden program at our local Royal Botanical Gardens. You were assigned a small plot for you and your partner to plant vegetables. Bright and early every Saturday morning, her mother would drive us there, and we would tend to our small garden, talking and giggling all the while. If you had asked me at the time if I was doing this because I enjoyed gardening, I probably would have rolled my eyes and giggled.
I guess that all along an interest in gardening was growing, fed by pies and fresh vegetables, and rooted in happy childhood memories.
I have flowers now, and a few container grown vegetables. I'm still dreaming and hoping for a big garden, with lots of vegetables, maybe a berry patch!
I might even garden in a dress.
We always had a vegetable garden when I was growing up. We had a flower
garden or two, but nothing special. With 6 always famished kids, the vegetables won out over the flowers. It was never a huge garden, but we enjoyed tomatoes, carrots, beets and beet greens, peas, beans, lettuce and radishes. For a long time we had a patch of yellow raspberries, and of course, rhubarb.
My grandmother (on my father's side) always had a big vegetable garden. She had polio when she was a child, and I can still see her in my mind's eye, in her specially built up shoes, with her awkward gait, maneuvering between the rows of vegetables, pinching, weeding, harvesting. She had long white hair that she kept coiled in a bun at the nape of her neck. She always wore dresses and a big apron, the pockets bulging with twine, garden shears, and wrapped candies that she gave us when we helped her out.
Every summer we would visit my grandparents at their cottage in Quebec. Berry picking was a favourite pasttime. Depending on when we went, our cups and pails would brim with wild blueberries, strawberries, raspberries or blackberries. We quickly learned that "one for the pail, two for me" usually resulted in no pie for dinner!
One summer when I was 11 or 12, my girlfriend and I joined a kids garden program at our local Royal Botanical Gardens. You were assigned a small plot for you and your partner to plant vegetables. Bright and early every Saturday morning, her mother would drive us there, and we would tend to our small garden, talking and giggling all the while. If you had asked me at the time if I was doing this because I enjoyed gardening, I probably would have rolled my eyes and giggled.
I guess that all along an interest in gardening was growing, fed by pies and fresh vegetables, and rooted in happy childhood memories.
I have flowers now, and a few container grown vegetables. I'm still dreaming and hoping for a big garden, with lots of vegetables, maybe a berry patch!
I might even garden in a dress.
Now I add gardens on a yearly basis?! 
My vegatable garden was near impossible to till every year and it just seemed to get worse in stead of better. So I am growing my veggies in pots on the patio now. 
