Gardening? one big yawn
I had no interest in gardening even though my grandmother was a farmer’s wife and my mother loved her big shrubby suburban garden. I was more interested in snogging in the bushes than pruning them.
But the gardening bug hit me when I reached 40 yrs old.
Some time later and I’m now 71. Here is a very short story of my gardening life through seven decades.
Mum and me picking peas in Irish Granny’s kitchen garden – 1950s
Childhood memories
Childhood – Irish farming grandparents; rose-tinted memories of the smell of tomatoes in a greenhouse, shelling fresh peas and eating ripe strawberries. But then…..
School friends getting ready for a party
Teenage years – Chasing schoolboys round Woolworths or sulking in my bedroom listening to pirate radio so zero interest in horticulture as I recall. It gets worse.
Everything looks wonky
Twenties – Late night takeaways and cheap clothing so interest in horticulture definitely less than zero. I’m in the pile on the sofa on the left wearing pink disco pants.
Thirties – Married and living in a flat. Tried a window box of petunias. Rather excited when they bloomed. Can’t find any pics though.
Gardening begins to take hold
Then I visited East Lambrook Manor Gardens in Somerset and something clicked. I felt I was in Heaven.
One of the original cottage gardens, East Lambrook Manor in Somerset
Gardening in my own garden begins
Forties – Moved to a terraced house with a garden and fell in love with Geoff Hamilton AND Dan Pearson . Both doomed to be unrequited relationships. Got the gardening bug, planted spring bulbs and began to go gardening mad. They say when a woman hits 40 it’s God or gardening. Phew.
What I created in our back garden
Fifties – Totally gardening mad, outdoors in every spare moment, read about gardening, watched TV gardening , visited gardens, went to Chelsea, hung around garden centres, fell in love with soil.
You can see more of the changes I have made over 30 years here
Sixties – Monty Don this time. Discovered internet nurseries, started this gardening blog, enjoying wildlife and the joys of growing things, sitting in the garden with a coffee and a magazine.
Pottering wearing my favourite kind of clothes
Lastly, I found this from 1978 and can’t think of anything sensible to say about it.
Surely if not illegal then certainly foolhardy. Having recently read themiddlesizedgarden blog about gardening trousers I shall be much more sensible in future.
Thankyou for sticking with me so far and do subscribe in the box above if you would like my monthly blogs to pop into your inbox. Happy gardening to everyone of every age.
Best wishes, Julie
