How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row
Do you have any memories of gardens from your growing-up years? Did your parents have a flower garden? Was landscaping important to them? Did they take care of the yard themselves or have someone else do it? What about a vegetable garden? Did your family have one and was it big or small? Any fruit trees? Did your mom (or anyone) "put up" (as we say in the South) or can the bounty from a garden? What involvement did you and any siblings have in planting? Was growing things encouraged, discouraged, or treated with ambivalence? What is your attitude, ability and involvement in gardening today?
This may be my shortest Flashback ever because it's late and I am exhausted! Our flower beds were pitiful expanses of dirt when I was growing up until my granddad died and my mom brought home a pot of kalanchoes and some azaleas. My dad planted those and they went crazy and we even transplanted them when we moved and the front of the house was beautiful!
My dad also loved having a vegetable garden. Unfortunately he planted things I didn't think were edible, like mustard greens, spinach, and other things most kids don't like! I did like the homegrown tomatoes - "only two things that money can't buy: that's true love and homegrown tomatoes!" He especially loved his garden after he retired and he spent lots of time
As for me, I remember trying to plant a few flower seeds, and once my sister and I planted seeds from our watermelon. I didn't have much luck than, and my thumb is still more brown than green!
Now it's your turn. Share your gardening mrmories and link up here!.
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9 comments:
I grew up in a small country town in New South Wales, Australia. We had a bush garden, of which my mother was very proud..We had tall eucalypus trees, two with a swing between and three with a bench underneith for the swagmen to sit on and have a meal. There were a great variety of flowers but the ones I loved the most were the Black Boy climing roses growing over our front porch. They were the darkest red and had the most devine perfume. Wonderful to go back down memory lane...We often forget the lovely days of our childhood. Blessings to you.
I enjoyed writing my post about this! It brought back such good memories! I hope you have a restful weekend :)
I agree with Kathy. It brought back alot of good memories and times I had with my Dad.
Have a blessed weekend!!!
My parents had a superb vegetable garden from about 1977-97. We lived on a small farm, so the garden was probably 1/10 of an acre in size, fertilized by our very own horse and my mom's meticulous composting. I didn't like to help in the garden at all because I was given the nasty chores of weeding. My mom dragged our buns out of bed at 7a.m. about 2x/wk in the summer to "get busy before it gets too hot out there." And when it came picking time, she was so picky about long a bean had to be to constitute picking it. We never had flowers except for marigolds. So when I grew up, got a place to garden, I did not want veggies, but an abundance of flowers. My daughter and hubby like to veg garden, and I do the flowers. I am content going to the farmer's market if need be, but do enjoy harvesting a plump juicy tomato and fresh herbs on any given summer day!
I'm sitting this one out as my family didn't do any kind of gardening or planting at all. I planted gladiolus once either for a Girl Scouts or school project.
Although I don't have a flashback posted, I have to say that gardens were a HUGE part of my life for YEARS! My dad planted acres - literally acres - of gardens! Family and friends would spend days out under the trees in our front yard helping to gather and put up the produce!
I remember riding behind the tractor on top of the harrow - dust clouds billowing around me! I remember riding on the tractor with my Dad's arms around me! I remember hours with my grandparents, cousins and friends as we worked by the hour snapping beans, splitting peas, shucking corn and telling stories! I remember chewing fresh syrup cane as we lopped the heads off the stalks and got them ready to go to the mill to be turned into sorghum syrup...I remember picking fresh strawberries as the purple martins filled the sky overhead...
Gardening filled the world of my childhood, and sitting down to a supper of fresh corn, sliced tomatoes, fresh peas, warm cornbread...oh my!!! I was rich and didn't know it!!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! I needed to focus on some sweet memories today!
Blessings
R
Thanks for sharing and having Flashback Friday!
When I first read kalanchoes I read it as kolaches and that didn't fit in a gardening post! lol
Have a great weekend.
Thank you, Linda. Sorry I didn't leave a comment when I came here earlier. I've been on the run this week.
Your green thumb is like mine. At least you get some dirt on yours.
I might try a balcony herb garden within a year or two. Those sound like fun. The hard part would be keeping them watered good in our heat.
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