Topic: When and why did you start and how long have you been at it?

[thifasmom]

• OK so when did you start growing your own food whether it be in your backyard or on an allotment?
• Why did you start?

• How long have you been at it?

[thifasmom]

I started growing food from the age of nine, I remember taking sprouting onions and garlic and planting them in buckets of soil to grow them for the leaves for my mum to use in her cooking. Being generally obsessed with nature and the natural world was I think for me the most influencing factor re: my interest in growing my own food.

At the age of 15 I started growing and producing about 75% of our vegetable needs for my mum, my sister and myself. At the time I had started to do agriculture in school as one of my main subjects of my high school leaving certificate. So I brought all my newly gained knowledge home and planted up the whole back yard.

When I started my nurse training there was no garden available so outside of growing a few herbs on the window sill my spare time was taken up with clubbing, etc, (well what would you expect).

When I got married and moved into a home with a proper garden I restarted growing my own veges again approx 50% of our needs.

Returning to the UK in 2002 put another break on my vegetable gardening but since 2003 I have started again with earnest with this year being my first descent year in the UK re: vegetable growing, with a good 70% success rate of all my crops.

So for me I would say that I started proper vege growing at the age of 15years but gardening in the UK is a steep learning curve, grappling with changing seasons and slugs being my most frustrating adversaries.

And since I got married minus a year due to country moving I would say I have been at it at least 10 years.

[froglets]

started as a toddler with my own strawberry patch - clever motivator my mum!.

Your poll options don't go that far back.

[Paulines7]

I started when I was a child and had my own little plot in my parents garden.  I moved about from the age of 21 and didn't have a garden though I always helped my parents with theirs when I came home to see them. 

I married at 30 and we bought a house with a garden in Tonbridge.  We then had moves to Frome, Oban and the New Forest before eventually settling down here on Salisbury Plain.  I have never been self sufficient in vegetables but grown them in all the locations we moved to.

[thifasmom]

started as a toddler with my own strawberry patch - clever motivator my mum!.

Your poll options don't go that far back.

I started when I was a child and had my own little plot in my parents garden.  I moved about from the age of 21 and didn't have a garden though I always helped my parents with theirs when I came home to see them. 

I married at 30 and we bought a house with a garden in Tonbridge.  We then had moves to Frome, Oban and the New Forest before eventually settling down here on Salisbury Plain.  I have never been self sufficient in vegetables but grown them in all the locations we moved to.

Sorry for not being clear but i am trying to gauge when you started doing it because you wanted to provide your own food from your own hands so to speak.

So your mums was both your intial motivator/ planted the seed in you but when did you say right i am going to try and grow or produce some of my own food and how long have you been at it?

[hopalong]

Same here. Our mum gave each of us (3 children) a small patch of ground when we were toddlers - about 4 years old.  We grew lots of radishes but didn't like eating them! We liked parsley and beetroot though and were very proud to have grown them. I suspect mum did most of the work but it got us all going.

[hopalong]

Same here. Our mum gave each of us (3 children) a small patch of ground when we were toddlers - about 4 years old.  We grew lots of radishes but didn't like eating them! We liked parsley and beetroot though and were very proud to have grown them. I suspect mum did most of the work but it got us all going.

Our posts crossed! I started growing my own food really seriously in 1975 when I had my first house and small back garden. Mainly tomatoes and herbs at that stage. Got a larger garden in the 80s, but had little time because of work, work, work. Started ambitious growing for self sufficiency two years ago after retiring from full time work and getting an allotment. Failed to get the children interested when they were small, but they are getting interested now they are in their late teens/twenties.

[kt.]

I helped my dad on our allotment from the age of 9-10 until I left school and worked away from the age of 16.  Due to work commitments I did not actually get my own allotment until I was about 28-29yrs old. 

You either love it or you hate it.  I am the only one of 4 brothers who enjoys growing my own fruit and veg.  The others claim it was child slave labour walking up and down the hill for the 1/2 mile to and from the beck with water.  They vowed never to grow another veg in their life.... but they don't mind taking some of mine from the plot when they come to visit..... ::) ::) ::)

[pippy]

Last year (2007) was my first serious year as I took on an allotment in April that year.  Before that I used to do climbing beans, courgettes, chillis and tomatoes in pots and grow bags for about 3 years in the garden.  It was only when I got my youngest of to playgroup I could begin with an allotment.

As a child I remember helping Dad and grandparents with crops though!

[pigeonseed]

I didn't have any outdoor space and always walked past some allotments on the way to the station every morning and envied them.

One morning it suddenly clicked that anyone could have an allotment - even me! I called the council from work that morning.

[Tee Gee]

    * OK so when did you start growing your own food whether it be in your backyard or on an allotment?

   

1969 shortly after I got married and moved into a house with a garden.

* Why did you start?

Initially I wanted to firstly grow things to eat, and if good enough exhibit.

Similarly I grew flowers to brighten up the garden and again if good enough to exhibit

    * How long have you been at it?

As I mentioned above  - 39 years.

Initially I started with the back garden but soon found there was not enough space for the things I wanted to grow so I started looking around.

My first venture was to the garden of an elderly lady who had a huge garden and had just lost her husband and she wanted someone to keep on the work that he had done for many years before.

It had a forty foot long greenhouse with a double rod grapevine running the full length of it, the veg patch was the same length and about 20 ft wide. Plus there was an orchard with various apple & pear trees plus some soft fruit bushes.

I kept this on until the old lady died when I had to move on as the family wanted to sell up the property.

But luck was with me another old lady who was a friend of the one that had just died offered me the same arrangement but I'm afraid the conditions were not as good (a lot of vandalism) so I moved on after a couple of seasons to my present allotments where I have been since 1990 .

And that's about it really.

[thifasmom]

You either love it or you hate it.  I am the only one of 4 brothers who enjoys growing my own fruit and veg.  The others claim it was child slave labour walking up and down the hill for the 1/2 mile to and from the beck with water.  They vowed never to grow another veg in their life.... but they don't mind taking some of mine from the plot when they come to visit..... ::) ::) ::)

typical ::) they sound like my sister :).

It had a forty foot long greenhouse with a double rod grapevine running the full length of it, the veg patch was the same length and about 20 ft wide. Plus there was an orchard with various apple & pear trees plus some soft fruit bushes.

Well you must have felt you'd hit pay dirt with such a set up ;). but as they say all good things come to an end. I'm sure you really honed your skills there though :).

[newbies]

My friends had a plot, and I really fancied it.  I put myself on a list, but my Dad was on the committee, and got me one really quickly.  I've done it for about 3 years now.  I'm not very good, but am very enthusiastic!

[manicscousers]

I've always been interested in growing things but, as we lived in a terraced house with a yard, I started when we married and moved into our house with a garden (and inside toilet but that's a different story).
we got our first allotment when we had 3 children ,very little money and the garden was too small to grow everything we needed  :)