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Post by daylilydude on Nov 10, 2017 4:48:39 GMT -5
I didn't care for gardening much as a kid (weeding, grass cutting, raking, etc.) because it was work and I would rather have been playing. So... what caused you to get your hands into the dirt and start gardening?
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Nov 10, 2017 7:14:11 GMT -5
My parents didn't garden but my Grandparents did. They lived in a row house with a long skinny backyard. No official garden plot, however, the flowerbeds down the sides and along the back were interspersed with veggie plants. After a meal, Grandma would throw tomato seeds out into the beds and sometime later, there would be tomatoes. Along the back were perennials like horseradish.
As a young adult, I moved into an apartment in an old farmhouse where I had the opportunity to share a garden with another tenant. That first summer, I had strawberries to share and tomatoes and eggplant to make ratatouille and can pasta sauce. I was hooked!
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 10, 2017 9:54:07 GMT -5
My Dad was into landscaping (he actually had a second job early on at a local nursery), not veggie gardening, but when I was about 10, Mom helped me set up a small veggie garden. From the very beginning I always wanted to grow more than one variety next to each other, so that I could compare the output, as well as the taste. Don't remember much on the topic of diseases and bugs, however.
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Post by spike on Nov 10, 2017 10:18:59 GMT -5
Okay so I will let my secret out. Yes I was one of the original "cabbage patch kids!" The question for today made me giggle. Growing up EVERYONE had a garden. A garden was life. It kept you fed. I (as a child) had found and hidden an old salt shaker. Filled it with salt and pepper and would head out to the garden. I would hit the garden and eat! Tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, turnips, onion, etc. For me, a garden isn't just a hobby/interest/fun, which it for sure is, but Lord Honey it is a way of life. Fresh food provided with the sun on my face, the wind in my hair and every so often the rain on my back AND best of all doing what I love.
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Post by paulf on Nov 10, 2017 10:32:15 GMT -5
It seems to have been a family tradition from the responses so far. And for me as well.
My father was an avid gardener. I have no idea why he got into gardening as much as he did. I do not know much about his parents and their gardening since we moved from Iowa to Oregon when I was a young kid. No matter where we lived my Dad gardened. He expected me to like it and I was recruited to do a lot of the weeding and picking. It was the most drudgery I could imagine and I often said either to myself or even out loud when I thought nobody could hear me,'When I grow up I will never have a garden and for sure my kids will never have to suffer by being ordered to weed the garden.'
So when I got married and moved into our first home, of course the first thing I did was buy a rototiller and plow up a garden space. Since then, forty-six years ago, that tiller is still going strong and has tilled up seven different gardens, the one in Nebraska being the final stop. As long as my father was alive we were in competition for the nicest garden. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN since I hated gardening. I only wish I could have known about the heirloom/OP tomatoes while he was still with us since our biggest competition was the tomato patch. So for good or ill, my father got me into the garden.
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aqua
Pro Member
Posts: 295
Zone:: 8b9a
Favorite Vegetable:: all of them
Joined: March 2012
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Post by aqua on Nov 10, 2017 15:57:19 GMT -5
I was adopted, and no one in my adopted family gardened. But I had this uncontrollable urge to plant seeds and grow stuff, as long as I can remember, since at least first grade. Undeniable. I could not stop.
When I turned fifty, I decided to find my birthfamily. Turns out that both my maternal AND paternal grandmothers were gardening well into their nineties. One quit when she broke a hip; the other still had a garden she was tending when she died.
SO I guess it's in my DNA.
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Post by meandtk on Nov 10, 2017 17:35:19 GMT -5
I grew up helping my mom garden, and I hated it. Around the time I hit my forty year mark, I began to want to garden. Now I'm learning and trying to grow something. Every year is a challenge, but it is a pleasure.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Nov 10, 2017 18:07:21 GMT -5
I wouldn't say I "Got Into Gardening" because of family, but I'm certain it's hardwired into my DNA. Growing up, we had gardens off and on through the years. I don't recall very much eating out of that garden though. I remember the work that went into planting, and then I don't remember any work after that. Thus, very little production. I think my mom was just too busy to actually tend the garden. It wasn't until I'd left home (and she had a new home with a new garden space) that mom's green thumb started to twitch. However, both of my grandfathers gardened a lot. If I had only known then what I know now, I would have loved to tap into their knowledge and experience while they were still with us. My maternal grandpa was one of those who was always trying to grow something new- he grew eggplant before people grew eggplant (and I never did find out what Grandma ended up doing with those!), and was always tucking a plant here and a plant there. I remember him turning the metal pole of the laundry line in the yard into a giant trellis for climbing beans. I bet that vexed Grandma greatly, though she had the hard job of preserving as much as possible and did a bang-up job of that. She always had a jar of pickles for me when we went to visit! My paternal grandfather was the winemaker. He gardened extensively, but much of his gardening was with a focus on what he could use to make wine. Dandelions, raspberries, strawberries, grapes and oak leaves were regulars in the garden. Well, not so much the oak leaves, as those were in other parts of the yard. They grew a lot of tomatoes too, but I don't think he ever endeavored to make a tomato wine. How I really got into gardening was because it was something I could do as a stay at home mom to help stretch the grocery budget if all went well. I had a few patio pots over the years, but when we finally moved to a place where we could have a garden, I started with one small garden bed the first year. I planted six little tomato plants that year! The following year I discovered Baker Creek seeds, tripled the garden space, and I've never been the same since.
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aqua
Pro Member
Posts: 295
Zone:: 8b9a
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Post by aqua on Nov 10, 2017 18:29:56 GMT -5
Pardon the question: Can I save any seed from Baker Creek, and expect the same results every year? What about Bountiful Gardens?
For example, I was sent a "free gift" of seeds from either Bountiful Gardens or Tomatoes dotcom, a package of Ananas Noire. They were the first standard tomato I ever grew successfully (only because LauraInFla had encouraged me a couple of years ago) - anyway - but I could not find any literature about these tomatoes, to tell me if it was a hybrid, or if I could save the seeds and get the same plant the next time. So I have saved no seeds, and I'm almost out. But I see that Baker Creek carries this tomato- does this mean it is true to seed, if it is one of their seeds they sell?
Thank you very much-
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 10, 2017 19:47:00 GMT -5
Baker's Creek carries it so it's open pollinated, and you should be able to save it.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Nov 10, 2017 20:51:56 GMT -5
Pardon the question: Can I save any seed from Baker Creek, and expect the same results every year? What about Bountiful Gardens? For example, I was sent a "free gift" of seeds from either Bountiful Gardens or Tomatoes dotcom, a package of Ananas Noire. They were the first standard tomato I ever grew successfully (only because LauraInFla had encouraged me a couple of years ago) - anyway - but I could not find any literature about these tomatoes, to tell me if it was a hybrid, or if I could save the seeds and get the same plant the next time. So I have saved no seeds, and I'm almost out. But I see that Baker Creek carries this tomato- does this mean it is true to seed, if it is one of their seeds they sell? Thank you very much- The short answer is yes, you can grow Ananas Noire (one of my favorites, btw) year after year from your saved seed and it should grow true. The long answer is that tomatoes CAN be pollinated by bees or other insects, so if you have other varieties of tomato in your garden, there is a chance of cross-pollination, and then your tomatoes will not grow true. Of course, you don't get to know if there has been cross-pollination until you grow out the tomato and then discover the wrong color, size, stripes, etc. Honestly though, that's part of the fun of tomato growing. Often times those surprise tomatoes end up being a great new one that you want to keep growing.
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Post by paquebot on Nov 10, 2017 21:06:07 GMT -5
I had a good story about how I got into gardening but this is now a seed-saving thread. Baker Creek's tomato varieties have a nasty habit of not always be what they are supposed to be. I've seen that a number of times on Tatiana's database. The only way to know for certain is to grow it out. Their product is only as good as their source. Jere has probably gotten a dozen varieties from me over the years. They were reasonably correct when they left here. What happens after he has someone grow them out is beyond his or my control.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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aqua
Pro Member
Posts: 295
Zone:: 8b9a
Favorite Vegetable:: all of them
Joined: March 2012
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Post by aqua on Nov 11, 2017 5:10:53 GMT -5
pepperhead212, thank you for the response. I am still learning so much. paquebot, my sincerest apologies for the off-topic question. You're right, this was not the place for it, and it won't happen again. I'd still like to hear how you got into gardening. Reading the stories of other gardeners is very comforting.
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Post by spike on Nov 11, 2017 9:59:53 GMT -5
I had a good story about how I got into gardening but I wanna hear the story! my sincerest apologies for the off-topic question OMG YOU MONSTER! LOL I don't think anyone here is going to care that you asked a question? I kind of think that is why we are all here! To learn from each other and help!! OKAY FINE! I guess you are forgiven
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Post by paquebot on Nov 11, 2017 10:00:31 GMT -5
I was born on Thanksgiving Day and walked on Memorial Day. However, nobody saw my first steps. My mother would take me to the garden and put me in a large cardboard box while she tended the vegetables. Apparently I did not like that idea. She looked up and I was walking to her between the rows. Thus my gardening experiences even precede my memory.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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aqua
Pro Member
Posts: 295
Zone:: 8b9a
Favorite Vegetable:: all of them
Joined: March 2012
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Post by aqua on Nov 11, 2017 10:43:05 GMT -5
I think all of us gardeners like to be outside of the box.
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Post by september on Nov 11, 2017 11:41:25 GMT -5
I grew up in the city, but my parents were transplants from the country. We had a four foot garden border around our backyard property lines butting up to the neighbor lots that was a combination of tall perennial flowers like peonies, yet had room for some tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce. Also were included some plum trees and gooseberry bushes. I never did pay much attention to gardening then, but sure learned to love eating those tomatoes!
When I was in my mid-teens, I was heavily into aquariums and terrariums and became interested in exotic house plants and started a collection of weird plants which I maintained until I got married. We moved north to the lakes country where I had plenty of outdoor space for gardening. I gradually transferred my interest from house plants to growing garden edibles, and now all I have left for indoor plants are my three citrus trees and a few Christmas and zig-zag cactus types.
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