I was in high school. I got books from the library and followed directions, and it worked! I had baby African violets. Then I read about air layering a rubber plant. Well, my mom had one of those too.
I often think things might have been different had I gone to Rutgers or Cornell. I visited Cornell but had applied to Colgate instead. I was accepted to Rutgers and Colgate but chose a different university where they didn't have an extensive botany/agricultural program. After changing my major several times, I ended up in computer and technology field....
But my fascination with plants and propagation continued and I had amassed a hefty collection of plants in my dorm room by the time I graduated and had to donate most of them to the school's greenhouse sale because they wouldn't fit in the trailer I rented for the move.
But that didn't keep me from buying more plants and propagating more to grow in the window and balconies of my apartments.
When I finally had a house and garden to plant in, I grew a lot of vegetables, but I was getting plants from big box stores and seeds from mass market catalogs. I was learning to grow them well by conventional means, but I was more interested in the fact that they grew from seeds and tiny plants than that I was growing FOOD. I worked long hours and didn't get home until dark. Harvesting was more of a chore and I didn't find them particularly tasty. My partner who had no interest in gardening whatsoever was complaining that I was letting them rot.
Then while trying to figure out what to do with all the garden waste, I stumbled on organic gardening and composting. I subscribed to Organic Gardening Magazine, read every issue from cover to cover, and started composting. Neighbors complained and blamed a giant rat that started to hang around our houses on my compost pile but the County Animal Control officer who came to retrieve the rascal which had been dispatched by the combined efforts by the men of the neighborhood said it was an escaped pet and my compost was in no way to blame (in fact said probable attractant was something else -- I think dogfood kept in somebody's garage) and gave me kudos for its construction and function. Basicaly told them they were wrong. My neighbors re-considered and asked me to help their kids with their science fair project on composting....
Well, that was years ago. I've been gardening organically and growing edibles ever since. The more I grew from seed, the more I turned into a specialty variety and flavor snob though.
And now, my interests include edible landscaping and smallscale self-sustainable gardening as well as maintaining a backyard wildlife habitat and monarch butterfly way station.
), like visiting my garden.
Perish the thought!)
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