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onlylobster
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Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 2:35 pm
Location: New Jersey

Where did you learn how to or about gardening?

I learned the passion part of it from my parents when I was a young kid. I helped pick the beans, shuck the corn, I did some digging (kid version) and planted seedlings in cups at school. I learned about garden insects- the pests and non-pests.

Later I worked for the Department of Interior, taking care of our NJ Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge. I did learn a bit about local flora but mostly I maintained the public areas by whacking weeds (with scythes at first!)

What I didn't learn was HOW to garden. How to pick plants, how to tell light quality, soil quality, garden planning and maintenance. So where do I learn all that. I have read a book and it was very helpful but I think I'll only understand it after I've read it a few times and try and learn from the techniques. I'd rather learn more from my parents but my mom's focus is on annuals and a few select bulbs. My father is an avid gardener (bulbs and indoor plants) but he is far and we have an on and off strained relationship.

I looked into clubs but they were not what I expected: groups of people wanting to discuss horticulture. They seemed more for experts than beginners so how does one learn? How did all of you learn.

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KeyWee
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Posts: 231
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 2:50 pm
Location: West Kentucky

Trial and error. I have been gardening for 40 years and still make some whopper mistakes (ergo, pulling the houttunyia outta my beds FOREVER). When you happen upon a great yard, STOP in. Gardeners always love to talk about their plants, and often are happy to share (I know I am). No gardener is a stranger to another gardener, ever (unless they're a sociopath). Check out your master gardener program at your local extension. Even though you may not want to take the training, you will meet some great folks, and extensions are a wonderful (and under-used) resource. Talk to other shoppers at garden centers ~ don't be shy. If you get an occasional cold shoulder, so what.
As for your original question, I got some gardening knowledge from my grandmother, but what really did it for me was a little small triumph here and there. Once you do something and it is a success, you are hooked! Therein lies my code ~ I only grow things that I am pretty sure will succeed. Certain plants are OFF my list, not because I don't like them, but because they don't like me. Plus I still work full time so BIG bang for little money and effort is a bonus. No question is too dumb on this site, so hop in and good luck!

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

I learned nothing from my mom about gardening. After my dad left, she had our yard poisoned and gravelled over! So as you might guess, I was well into adulthood before I discovered any interest in gardening. From then I learned by a combination of trial and error and reading - starting with the trial and error first and eventually getting in to reading some books. I think you are right, you have to have some experience for the books to make sense. Later on, when I first started getting in to herbs, I tried to do it the other way, just reading lots of books about herbs. I still had no sense of what it was all about until I started growing herbs myself.

After I had been gardening and reading about gardening for twenty years, I found this place. Even though I was very experienced, I still have learned a ton by hanging out here a lot, reading and writing, asking and answering questions.

So my suggestion - plunge in and start doing it! By doing that you will find out what you most like to grow, and start reading with a purpose, not just randomly. And you will find out what problems you have and what else you need to know and you can come here and ask questions as well as guiding the reading. Welcome!

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skiingjeff
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Posts: 383
Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:22 pm
Location: Western Massachusetts Zone 6a

Ditto to the above: Jump in!

My husband, Jeff, and I started gardening only about 10 years ago when we built our current home. We started with flowers and shrubs and have several lovely walking perennial gardens in our yard. Then we decided to start a vegetable garden. We start our own annual flowers and vegetables from seed in our basement for the past several years and have quite a process. This year we planted over 200 flowers in our annual flower beds and created a couple more perennial flower beds with another 200 or so seedlings. And then there's the veggie starts....lol We're lucky in that we both enjoy working in the yard gardening.

My father had a garden when I was a kid so I have some distant memories of things he did in his garden (I was pretty young at the time). He also loved roses so I have some memories of his care of them - they were gorgeous! He was always willing to chat with anyone walking down the street who stopped and asked questions and would happily impart his experiences and demonstrate the proper pruning of his prize roses. Unfortunately when we started gardening, he was no longer with us to refresh my youthful memories.

My father-in-law is an avid gardener so we've had some great discussions with him. Then we joined this forum and read A LOT. Any thread that discussed diseases, pests, or plants that we have in our yard and gardens was read to extract any information that might apply to our gardens.

We read tons of books and articles on various subjects since we have a vegetable garden and several flower/shrub gardens in our yard. It is true that only after experiencing some things does the reading make more sense.

We still have lots to learn as knowledge is an ongoing process and what happened one year isn't necessarily going to happen the next. That what makes it interesting each year. We've made lots of mistakes and what works for one person doesn't always work or make sense for another but that's why this forum is great. It give you many opinions on a particular subject and you can choose what works best for you.

So, Jump In and enjoy the experience! :)

mkat
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Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2015 10:20 am
Location: Niagara Region, 6b

Like other replies I learned from my family (my mom and grandparents.) I love being outside. As a kid I loved playing in the mud, gardening (mainly veggies), cutting the grass as a kid and I still do. I learned the basics from them and even at an early age recognized the importance of gardening. Now everyone's getting older so they're gardening less and less.
I'm also inspired by fellow gardeners in the area.. these are the ones that take gardening to the max (like a lot of you folks :p )
They treat it like a full time job. You always see them outside at least for a couple hours a day. One of our neighbours had a truly incomparable garden. It was a little yard filled to the max with all sort of beautiful plants, shrubs, trees but mainly flowers. She had so many tropical plants (which obviously meant she had to bring all of them in during the winter.) The garden is decades into the making. I always thought I was so lucky to live next to such a beautiful yard. The people that bought our old house (who have let the garden waste away much to my anger) placed a large fence to block out her garden... how sad -.-
I have since found another person's garden to admire at our new neighourhood.. she too treats gardening like a full time job and her garden too is decades in the making and absolutely stunning. I can't even begin to describe it. I always try to get advice from her as is a wealth of knowledge

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GardeningCook
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Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2015 8:35 pm
Location: Upper Piedmont area of Virginia, Zone 7a

I come from a fairly long line of professional gardeners.

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth & cross-country produce trucking wasn't common, my paternal uncle & grand-uncle raised produce on Long Island, NY, that was purchased & sold by all the local commercial supermarket chains. Visiting their farms was a real treat, as we got to go through the rows & "snack". Chickens & thus fresh eggs were also raised & sold. Fun times!

And both of my parents were fabulous gardeners. We always had a huge garden - long before home gardening was really popular. Gooseberries, Concord grapes, rhubarb, asparagus, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, green beans - you name it. If it was available to home growers back then, we grew it. And mom was an absolute whiz at growing flowers & creating beautiful oases on our 1-acre property with them, as well as ornamental shrubs, a goldfish pond, etc., etc. It truly was a blissful way to grow up.

Of course it also didn't hurt that both of my parents were outstanding cooks - making many ethnic dishes long before branching out from basic American cuisine was unheard of. I thank God every day for growing up in the gardening/cooking environment I did. Learning to garden & cook at a young age is a priceless education. :)

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digitS'
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Posts: 3925
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 1:10 pm
Location: ID/WA! border

I learned a little recently about some people organizing a "sewing circle." Only one of the founding members knew anything about sewing. They just came together because they wanted to learn to sew. Maybe, a "beginning gardeners" group would be a way to go.

When, I first became aware of the world as a small child, I was on my grandmother's little farm. She was a gardener! I grew up on my parents' farm but they were not much into gardening.

As a young adult, I wanted to have a garden but ended up working on other people's farms. I didn't really like that - running machines. Found myself in a commercial greenhouse growing flowers, then working with florists. I had to initially rely on memories of my grandmother's flowers :)!

It takes experience and I'm a believer in learning from successes. There are lots of ways to make mistakes. And, if things don't go right, it often takes 12 months before something else can be tried. If you can find a couple of ways to succeed - hey, you're a winner!! And, there is nothing wrong with having just a few varieties early on and adding more as you go along.

Steve

imafan26
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Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I have to say I am mostly self taught. I have loved gardening since I was a child. My parents not really interested in gardening. My grandfather was a stable boy but my uncle who lived with them had a large vegetable garden and raised Rhode Island Reds to sell the eggs. He said it was easier to take care of the vegetable garden than to mow grass. He lived on the Big Island and we only went there once every year or two.

I read a lot of gardening books. I used to go to sleep reading the Sunset Western Garden book or Derek Fell's The Essential Gardener. I used to subscribe to Sunset Magazine. I learned to garden the hard way. Learned not to plant corn in a straight line and that I needed more than 4 of them. I loved fuschias and grew about 7 different varieties. Then I moved and most of them died and I haven't found any more to replace them. I also like lavender and have three or four cultivars that survive. I would buy roses from Jackson and Perkins and every two years or so, I would have to replace them. Once after the house got treated for termites, the termites ate all of the roses and they all had to be replaced. I grew a few varieties of chrysanthemums and when I got my own place, I had a small garden. It was not the easiest place to grow since it was too shady near the fence the the little courtyard did not get much light.

I have been gardening at a community garden since about 2003 and I have been volunteering for 20 years at Wahiawa Botanical Garden and in 2008, I started volunteering at Pearl City Urban Garden Center. In 2009, I took the Master gardener class and I am an emeritus MG now. Frankly, most of what was taught in the class, I already knew from years of gardening and reading garden books. I did learn a couple of new things from the class though.

I learned a lot from fellow gardeners who were always glad to share their knowledge and plants.

I used to grow vegetables more to grow them, but now, I actually eat more of them and rarely buy produce from the store except for garlic, onions, potatoes, carrots, and bananas. I actually feel guilty when I have to buy a lemon, green onion, bell pepper, tomato, eggplant, or cucumber since I usually grow them myself. I do buy an occasional cabbage or bean but I don't really care for them and use them only for certain dishes.

I have 16 fruit trees now, most of them are citrus. Most of them are dwarfed in pots. They don't produce a lot of fruit that way, but they produce enough. I am in two orchid clubs, and I used to have about 300 orchids, but I have not been taking very good care of them, so I may have a lot of dead orchids now. I also don't have as much disposable income so I don't have a $200 a month garden allowance any more.

I grow herbs and take care of the herb garden and do monthly herb sales at Urban Garden Center. I actually am spoiled and really prefer fresh herbs to dried.

I have branched out more and now I am learning about bees and doing hive inspections once a month and honey harvesting every couple of months depending on the honey flow.

I work on a farm that is two miles from my house so it is a short commute. Thank goodness, I don't think my 25 year old car could handle the daily traffic jam. I work with aquaponic beds growing lettuce, kale, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, watercress, and the hydro houses grow over 30 different kinds of lettuce, chard, arugula, and mizuna. I had never done this kind of growing before so it was a new learning opportunity for me and very different from what I was doing before.

Since working on the farm, I have learned how to grow lettuce better , more space and harvest sooner. I did add organic matter, but only a little and I watered and fertilized a lot. I have done a soil test and I add even more organic matter so I don't have to water as much and my soil test revealed that I only have to add a little nitrogen and hardly anything else for years to come. I find that I am still learning something new all of the time.

GrowMoore
Full Member
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 11:25 pm
Location: USDA Zone 5 Illinois

A great place to learn is youtube.com. There are all sorts of wonderful gardeners there who are willing to share their knowledge. The video's really help you to see what they are talking about. Last year when I started all my plants from seeds I learned so much by searching for how to grow..... on that site. One of my favorites is called The Rusted Garden, he has a site that is for people like yourself who are just learning and he walks you through all the steps with lots of video's.

I agree that it is good to just jump in and try it. Start off small and keep a journal. My gardening journal is where I record what I planted and where and how it turned out. I also make lists of things I want to do either for this year or next. It was a great help in planning where all the seedlings were going to go by drawing little pictures of each of the spaces.

One last tip - look into square foot gardening. I think that method makes it very easy to see how much you can grow in the size of garden that you have. Have fun!

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I learned a lot on you tube too especially how to fix things and there are some good gardening videos too. But, nothing beats getting your hands dirty. You'll make mistakes, but you learn more from your mistakes too. It is all about having a passion for what you do.

hlee
Newly Registered
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2015 9:57 am

Pretty much self taught with the help of books. My grandparents loved to garden so I think that is where I first became interested. In our first house we started with some easy annuals and the obsession just grew. I enjoyed it so much that I didn't let my lack of knowledge stop me. Lots of mistakes along the way and still learning . There are just too many pretty plants out there!



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