retiredwith4acres
Garden Ornament
M.Sue-I don't use gloves either. That is the reason my nails and hands look so bad, but I love the feel of the soil and can work so much better without them.
How did You get Here!?
- Thread starter digitS'
- Start date
pebbles
Chillin' In The Garden
I don't like gloves either. I have tried to use them but I can't plant, dig and enjoy my plants with them on.
hoodat
Garden Addicted
I was just raised with gardens. About the only time I didn't have one was when I was in the Navy.
thistlebloom
Garden Master
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2010
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- North Idaho 48th parallel
My folks always had a veg garden of some kind, sometimes just tomatoes.They subscribed for years to Countryside Small Stock Journal, which had gardening articles in it, and Organic Gardening, back when it was J.I. Rodales thing. My grandma and great grandma were passionate gardeners, but I only got to spend a little time with them in the summer. When I was 18 I worked as a yard keeper /gardener for my college English teacher and found that I really liked it and wanted to learn more.digitS' said:
Since then it's been books and trial and error.
cityfarmer
Attractive To Bees
My mom gardened and canned when I was little. My husband's family did the same when he was young. For the short time he lived in Iowa in high school he worked part-time on a farm. We like being self-sustaining and knowing what was done to our food. We grow what we like to eat and experiment with new things. Trial, error, and patience are all necessary parts of our garden.
Jared77
Garden Addicted
Well its in my blood. My father retired from teaching biology so he was ALWAYS growing something. Mostly in pots or terrariums, he's really into African Violets, and especially Amaryllis. He would find an Amaryllis after it bloomed in the garbage. So being the resourceful person he was and asked why throw away a perfectly good plant he pick it out and saved it for next year. It go so bad the custodians would save them for him if they found one. He'd store them, they'd come back the following year and he'd re-gift them!!! I'm not kidding either! Nobody was the wiser and they LOVED the plant. However if he gave one away he'd tell people how to keep it and bring it back the following year.
But he hates to weed. He spent a lot of time on his grandparents farm and they had a BIG garden. So he hates to weed. He says he won't garden because of that hatred of pulling weeds. Me I don't mind but he was forced to do it as a kid so that ruined him on it.
So when I was a kid I started with a few plants. Its just grown from there. Landscaping, and a garden. Biggest thing for me was the first time I dug a little plot for a garden is how much better things taste out of the garden and how much we got for such as small invest in money. When things fell apart for us, we expanded the garden significantly and dug in. We'll never go back. As far as style goes, I read A LOT. Its REALLY bad. I read and read and read and apply what I've learned or try to adapt it to suit my needs or what I have available. I take notes usually mental, and adjust for the next time we plant.
We started canning this year and its been such a blessing. These are now regular staples in our family as we already incorporate our little girls help. She loves to cook with us, and I she's the first one to say "I grew that" or "I picked that" when we have something like jam or soup that we canned when friends or family come over.
I can't imagine not doing it.
But he hates to weed. He spent a lot of time on his grandparents farm and they had a BIG garden. So he hates to weed. He says he won't garden because of that hatred of pulling weeds. Me I don't mind but he was forced to do it as a kid so that ruined him on it.
So when I was a kid I started with a few plants. Its just grown from there. Landscaping, and a garden. Biggest thing for me was the first time I dug a little plot for a garden is how much better things taste out of the garden and how much we got for such as small invest in money. When things fell apart for us, we expanded the garden significantly and dug in. We'll never go back. As far as style goes, I read A LOT. Its REALLY bad. I read and read and read and apply what I've learned or try to adapt it to suit my needs or what I have available. I take notes usually mental, and adjust for the next time we plant.
We started canning this year and its been such a blessing. These are now regular staples in our family as we already incorporate our little girls help. She loves to cook with us, and I she's the first one to say "I grew that" or "I picked that" when we have something like jam or soup that we canned when friends or family come over.
I can't imagine not doing it.
ninnymary
Garden Master
Jared, I love these comments. I wasn't into veggie gardening or canning when my kids were little. Now that we have a granddaughter I'm hoping to share my joy with her when she gets older. These are some of the memories that I want to build.Jared77 said:
Mary
Jared77
Garden Addicted
I'm glad you liked them. My daughter is 3, and she LIVES to help us. We took her berry picking at the U-pick farms and she loved it. We brought some toys, she had her own basket. We told her which ones to pick and she did great. She ate some berries but who's not guilty of that? She knew she had to stay close, we put sun block on her and a hat and she did her thing. She'd pick for a while, then play but she knews she had to stay in sight. She picked some dandilions for us, and told me a story all about the honeybee that was pollinating the flowers. My wife and I would regularly check in on her and she'd be perfectly content filling her basket with berries, or quietly playing between rows. She knew if she hollared we'd answer. We didn't push it, and when she started getting tired we packed up and went home. Did that a number of times with her and each time she was a big help.
We explain what we're doing, and which ones to pick and what we're going to do with what we've harvested.
We took her to the orchard picked apples, and she's a regular in our garden. I even bought her a little wheelbarrow from TSC that she could help in the garden with. She digs in the dirt, helped haul potatoes in her wheelbarrow, and picked pole beans with us. She filled her little wagon and pulled it up to the house too with all sorts of goodies we harvested. She even started putting a tomato in her shirt and holding the bottom of it up like an apron like my wife does when we only need a few things out of the garden.
It helps that I grew somethings for her. The Lemon Boy tomatoes became her "special tomatoes" because they were yellow and not red. So she'd have to go check on her "special tomatoes" whenever we went out. She'd look for worms, if we found a tomato worm we'd go feed it to the chickens. She'd pick them up and tell me she found one Id be over working on something else and she'd have it in her hand and tell me we had to go take it to the chickens. She finds that absolutely hilarious the way the hens chase each other around when one has it.
We never push her about it, we'll ask and if she wants to go she does. If not thats ok. She likes to cook too. She helped make many of the jams we have. She'd help mash berries, add sugar etc, till it went on the stove. She knows we make the jam or jelly on her sandwiches and she helped make it. We don't tell her all the reasons we make our own, but we ask if its good and she just giggles and we say its good because she helped make it. We've explained to her when we pick them, and when we make them, and when she's eating it thats why we do it. So she gets it on a fundamental level, but we're trying to encourage it without beating her over the head with it.
That's how we've done it here hope that helps
She knew she had to stay close, we put sun block on her and a hat and she did her thing. She'd pick for a while, then play but she knews she had to stay in sight. She picked some dandilions for us, and told me a story all about the honeybee that was pollinating the flowers. My wife and I would regularly check in on her and she'd be perfectly content filling her basket with berries, or quietly playing between rows. She knew if she hollared we'd answer. We didn't push it, and when she started getting tired we packed up and went home. Did that a number of times with her and each time she was a big help. We explain what we're doing, and which ones to pick and what we're going to do with what we've harvested.
We took her to the orchard picked apples, and she's a regular in our garden. I even bought her a little wheelbarrow from TSC that she could help in the garden with. She digs in the dirt, helped haul potatoes in her wheelbarrow, and picked pole beans with us. She filled her little wagon and pulled it up to the house too with all sorts of goodies we harvested. She even started putting a tomato in her shirt and holding the bottom of it up like an apron like my wife does when we only need a few things out of the garden.
It helps that I grew somethings for her. The Lemon Boy tomatoes became her "special tomatoes" because they were yellow and not red. So she'd have to go check on her "special tomatoes" whenever we went out. She'd look for worms, if we found a tomato worm we'd go feed it to the chickens. She'd pick them up and tell me she found one Id be over working on something else and she'd have it in her hand and tell me we had to go take it to the chickens. She finds that absolutely hilarious the way the hens chase each other around when one has it.
We never push her about it, we'll ask and if she wants to go she does. If not thats ok. She likes to cook too. She helped make many of the jams we have. She'd help mash berries, add sugar etc, till it went on the stove. She knows we make the jam or jelly on her sandwiches and she helped make it. We don't tell her all the reasons we make our own, but we ask if its good and she just giggles and we say its good because she helped make it. We've explained to her when we pick them, and when we make them, and when she's eating it thats why we do it. So she gets it on a fundamental level, but we're trying to encourage it without beating her over the head with it.
That's how we've done it here hope that helps
