What’s Your First Gardening Memory?

April 1, 2021

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Our favorite month of the year is here…National Gardening Month. In honor of the occasion, the team here at Great Garden Plants decided to take a trip down memory lane, and we thought we’d take you with us! We dug through old photos and started reminiscing about our first ever memories of the garden. These first memories were just the beginning of a lifelong love of plants and gardening, so much so that we all have found ourselves working in the industry now. Read on to go down memory lane with us; we’d love to hear your memories too!

Stacey

My first gardening memory is when my grandmother let me pick all the lilies of the valley that I wanted. She had a big bed of them next to her garage, and I remember feeling like I hit the jackpot to actually be allowed to pick flowers like they do in fairytales! When I started to pick them, I immediately fell in love with the way the flower stem slides so neatly out of the foliage sheath – it was so easy that even as a clumsy tot, I could do it neatly. Plus, the fragrance was so amazing, I could scarcely believe it was coming from a plant that was just growing in her backyard. While lily-of-the-valley is definitely not one of my favorite plants any more, I always cherish that day as the first time I realized how awesome plants are.

Joe

I remember gardening with my grandparents at a super young age, their backyard was and still is almost entirely a garden, so I was free to “help” by watering (playing with the hose), and weeding (making a mess). As they’ve gotten older and have been unable to do upkeep themselves, my uncles have kept their garden up as a great source of vegetables and beauty, and it always makes me happy to see it blooming when I visit in the summer and reminisce about those summer days.

Maddie

From as far back I can remember, I spent almost every Saturday morning in the spring and summer at that market with my mom and grandma. Each trip, my mom would fill our car with plants, so much so I used to think her trunk would look like a jungle. Within that jungle of plants, at least one of them would be handpicked by me. I’d watch with pride all season long as the plants I chose grew and grew; I don’t know if there was anything more magical. These trips are also where I learned that not every plant can grow in your garden. There was (and still is) nothing more heartbreaking than falling in love with a plant you can’t grow. While I don’t get to go to the market with my mom and grandma every Saturday morning anymore, I look forward to the trips to come and am grateful my first gardening memories start there.

Tori

About the age I am in the photo (6 or 7), I used to be fascinated by the succulents that grew around our birdbath. I remember thinking they weren’t real, that they must be wax, and I couldn’t believe it when my mom told me they were alive and growing. My other favorite part about the succulents was that ladybugs and other little beetles liked to hang out in them. I used to take one of the bugs and put it on a leaf for a ride in the birdbath. I’m sure my “friends” (as I called the bugs) were thrilled by this, but I always put them back in the succulents at the end.

Miranda

As a kid, I never seemed to notice how small the woods were in my backyard. It felt like it went on forever, even though you could always see houses on the other side. I spent all of my time out there, so it came as no surprise when I begged my parents to help me build a fort. However, they didn’t know I had big plans in mind! We found a clearing in the woods and made a little hut, planted small azalea shrubs, and rolled out soft grass to lay on. A simple fort turned into my own woodland garden sanctuary. This was the first time I saw how a simple garden could transform a space. I’ve been getting my hands dirty in gardens ever since!

Written by: Miranda Niemiec, click here to read bio.

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