How did you get started?

[Hippychick]

My Dad started me with my love of all things plant, especially veggies and fruit when I was very young.  He use to take me to his allotment on the Isle of Man and let me help with digging etc.  It grew from there and have always made the size of the garden we have had with any house a huge consideration.  Our allotment was an added bonus when we moved here 3 yrs ago and I cannot believe how we have come to depend on the fruits of my labour.  Both physically and mentally!!

This has got to be THE best hobby in the world ;D

[Hippychick]

[Trixiebelle]

I don't know where I got my love of gardening from. I just know that I'd always hankered after a veggie patch but never had enough room for one in any of the house gardens I'd had.

I didn't even know there were any allotments near me until I saw a hastily scribbled note advertising them in the local newsagent. My baby was just 5 months old and I was getting cabin fever, plus my beloved Father-In-Law had just had a heart attack and was confined to his house with depression and panic-attacks (he'd always been an active working man)

So I phoned the number on the advert and invited my Father-In-Law along in an 'advisory' capacity!!! Knew he wouldn't be able to resist it  ;D

We got an (albeit) derelict allotment straight away and started tackling it immediately! Plonked the baby in the wheelbarrow, knotted handkerchieves on our heads and set about it with a petrol strimmer and a scythe.

Father-In-Law lost 2 stone, his cholestorol went right down and his depression lifted  ;D

3 yrs later we now have 3 allotments and we both agree we wish we'd done it 10yrs earlier.

It's spiritually and physically healing. Nothing can beat it  ;D

[Mrs Ava]

Gardening with my Grandad.  Thing is, who wants to be stuck indoors!  Even in the winter, I adore being out in the fresh air, to feel alive!  And the big bonus, lovely fruits and veggies!

[saddad]

Helped my dad on a few bits of spare ground in the Pennines in the late 60's can still remember his advice about not planting yet when I was twelve and the packets said March... not 700' up! nothing came up! Or the time sheep got in and grazed the plot level...
Then when we got our first house in the mid 80's... then this one with allotments over the back fence!
;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

When we were planning to bring the kids over I thought about how my father had an allotment when I was a kid, and decided to have one. It was delayed for nine months due to a back injury, and the chaos of getting them out of the civil war and settled in here. Eventually I saw an article in the Times about the Guinea Gardens, worked out that they couldn't be more than a mile or so away, and decided that I was having one if there were vacant plots. The site was at a rather low ebb, and there were loads.

[tilts]

I have always enjoyed gardening, a disciple of my grandad.  However, my husband became very ill and i couldn't work or leave him, as he has very slowly gained better health i have been able to leave him.  So, i got an allotment, it is my bit of space ~ no'-one but me, it is my healing area and i just love it.

[mc55]

I remember helping my granddad with his vegetable patch in the garden.  Not a huge patch, but we used to spend a lot of time there.  I was in charge of topping up the slug beer traps !

Always loved gardening, but two lovely, but naughty dogs meant that growing anything became a challenge.  Their favourite game was to wait by the flowers (especially the yellow ones) and then snap at the wasps and bees ... usually the bee/wasp would come off the worst, although Jess and Pitch got loads of stings - still don't understand why they were so attracted to them.  Pitch's favourite bit in the garden was the pampas grass, especially in the winter - he'd trample it down so that it made a lovely cushion  :-\

Unfortunately they've now gone to doggie heaven.  Chose a house with no garden purposely so I'd have minimum maintenance and realised how much I missed growing things, so enquired about lotties in July last year and got mine at the end of Oct / Nov.

Absolutely LOVE IT.  Could spend hours up there, just sitting and enjoying - its the best thing I've ever done.

[MrsKP]

have always had houseplants for as long as i can remember (i've dragged the same spider plants and african violets around the country with me for 18 years now), and then last year i moved to a flat with a balcony that needed brightening up and was amazed what i could pack in to 20'² so when i moved again back in august i specifically looked for a garden big enough to try a few veggies.

Now Beechgrove is bursting at the seams and I'm on a waiting list for a lottie not to far away.  Funny thing is now that my nan and mum are giving me loads of tips that i've already learned from here !  if only they'd told me earlier !

;D

[bennettsleg]

It all began when my soon-to-be OH & I bought a ground floor flat with a garden that had a small linear bed area and lots and lots of bricks forming a patio.  The first easter we de-lineared the bed area. Threw myself into it, found it hugely satisfying and at the end of the day my arms ached so much I couldn't move them, had to be fed and needed pain killers to sleep!

From then I decided to get an allotment, bought books (directories and first-hand accounts of allotmenteering) got inspired, contacted the council, few weeks later: 1st plot.  Hardly did anything to it as we were planning the shop and a wedding simultaneously, so soething had to give other than my mind.

2nd plot, discovered what a haven it is, the satisfaction, peace and enjoyment with connecting with the earth and just plain growing stuff! (anyone invented and ice-cream plant yet?) ;D

[Hyacinth]

The realization that where a flower or weed will grow, something to eat will also grow, came late in life.....bit slow, me ::)......but once I'd grasped that concept I've never grown a flower since - b. few weeds either ;D

Was offered an allotment some years back - Old Tom, my friend and mentor, had died and his wife wanted to 'gift' his beautiful lottie to me. But between his death & his funeral, his lottie shed was robbed of his tools & some of his crops were lifted....undoubtedly all done by a fellow lotmenteer. So gave it up just as quickly as I'd taken it. Too nasty.

Am turning my garden into a plottie! Every year a little more grass is dug up - every year more veggies grown. Still few weeds. Still fewer 'flowers' cept for those on the veggies. Got some nice areas to sit or lounge & watch things grow. Suits me. ;D

[MrsKP]

if i'm not further up the list by next season ... the front lawn goes !

;D

[supersprout]

Grew up in the burbs, but our garden always had plums, apples and gages. The swing hung from the greengage tree (and so did us four kids a lot of the time!). Remember sitting on the back step of the house podding peas and topping and tailing gooseberries.
Age 11, moved to Northumberland and an acre of garden with a veg patch and Mr Crawford who helped my mum in the garden. I got fascinated by squash and seed catalogues, the smell of geraniums in a cold damp greenhouse, dark mysterious potting shed. My dad was in charge of pyrotechnics and taught us about bonfires. If we wanted something for dinner we picked it - it was a long time before I realised not everyone did. We also prepared food for the kitchen - aching arms plunged in freezing water scrubbing spuds, carrots and jerusalem artichokes, getting the grit out of the spinach, podding. Mum was very particular and would send things back to the scullery if the veg didn't pass muster :-[ We had two huge compost heaps over the wall, and the job of filling them.
Growing into teens, spent hours in the garden after school learning about growing veg from Mr C. Had own little veg patch (developed taste for no-dig early) with pumpkins and squash. Troubled teens spent outdoors out in woods and fields, building dens and fires, looking for trout to tickle, or long into the evenings tending veg or plagueing Mr C with endless questions.
Long periods of working life between allotments and gardens - but amazing how it all comes back, isn't it? :)

[giantseye]

My grandad got me fasinated at a very early age with veggie growing and gardening in general.

At the age of 6 or 7, I started growing beetroot and carrots with him.  Also potatoes were also a favorite for him.  He also grew gooseberries, salad crops, cabbage, sprouts and onions.

He also had the most fantastic garden full of roses and rhododendrons and azaleas.

I only got my allotment last year, but all of the things he taught me are still remembered.

Thanks grandad :D

[katynewbie]

;D

There's a thread within a thread here...all you Grandads out there take note, your influence is invaluable!

;)

[Deb P]

My story also involves a grandad!

He had an allotment just down the lane from our house in Central London (now a new housing estate of course since the 80's). I used to go down with him and 'help'. Outstanding memories are; being pushed home in his 'barra with a hedgehog I wanted to bring home, and getting covered in flea bites, and also being shown how to 'blow' pigeons eggs (? now illegal). Eating so many blackcurrants I was sick (purple sick! charming!), and running home following a couple of stagshorn beetles.....haven't seen any since!

[tabbycat]

Mine was my grandma, and still is my mum.

My grandma and I were always in the garden together, pottering around, it's one of my earliest memories of her. She loved flowers, especially pinks as she adored the scent. Have just found a nursery in Sussex that specialises in them, so am planning my order now - they have one called Grandma's Favourite  :)

My Mum because she worked in small plant nursery and I spent all my school holidays down there - they've built a supermarket on it now. It was a fantastic place, nothing had really moved on since the fifties, the delivery lorry was from the thirties.

I can vividly remember the scent of hot greenhouses full of chrysanthemums, the masses of terracotta pots all stacked into different sizes, mum teaching me to prick-out seedlings as my small fingers were better at it, potting up conifers in the freezing cold with the fumes from the parafin heaters making you go all fuzzy, the dog that lived in the office, the cat that lived in the fertilizer shed, standing in the potting shed watching the rain pour down, with a steaming hot mug of tea...... oh it was bliss. I never really realised how heavenly it was until it was all gone.

Then I moved to London, having spent my teenage years obsessing over horses and boys (no thought spared for gardening), and the instant I bought a first floor flat, I really wanted a garden. It was an actual physical feeling of loss.

Moved down to Woking, have had two gardens, including the one I have now since I got married. The first one I made from scratch & I cried my eyes out when we moved. When I went round to my old next-door neighbour's, I'd peer over the fence to check up on my plants. Have stopped myself doing that now as it wasn't helping me to love my current garden.

Saw an ad in the paper at Easter for new plotholders wanted, was lucky enough to get the last one and now I am in my own little slice of heaven. It's the nearest I think I'll ever get to re-capturing the bliss of my childhood.

My Mum lives in Herts, & is now desperate to move down and start helping me!

P.S. Robert - I saw the Guinea Gardens on the allotment episode of GW. They look fabulous. Am deeply envious of the fact that they all have walls and their own front doors. Lucky you! :)

[saddad]

Didn't realise you were a Londoner Deb... but now I can hear it in your voice.. I like the purple sick story... I'm sure you know what too much beetroot can do!
;D

[grotbag]

just got fed up sitting at home doing nowt.thought i give an allotment a go,never really into gardening.Had it 5 years now and totally addicted to it.

[newbies]

I got started through my Dad.  He used to visit the shop at our site, and got to know people.  He then was diagnosed with a serious illness that made it necessary to give up work.  This helped him to share a plot with his mate, as he had more time.  It made him look so happy that somehow, I ended up with a plot of my own, still not sure how that happened.  I really love it down there, it's my little bit of me space when life throughs crap at you.  Don't even care if nothing grows, just lovely.  Also, wish I'd done it years ago, like the rest of you. ::)