August 5, 2013

How long are YOU gardening? I Wonder…


I am curious about YOU, because recently I was thinking about my own gardening time, how it started, how I made my first garden and what it made for me.
 
I see so many of you coming, not leaving a sign and I am curious about YOU. Who you are? do you garden? Do you own a blog?

So why not to start to know each other little better?
* Vote in the poll on the left side and tell us how long have you been gardening.
* Then if you could let us know in the comments below how, why you started gardening, that would be really great.
* If you have a blog, let us know in the comment as well.
The poll is closing on 15th of August 2013.

Here is my story.

I could call it Ewa’s Metallica Garden Story, because I have moved here and on the next day with my ex-husband and my son, drove 300 km to Metallica concert. It was May 31, 2004. So, if I ever forget what was the year it’s enough to google that concert. I am often surprised how many times I forget the year, though .  

That is the answer to first part - I am gardening for 9 years.  What is my big WHY? I was fed up with working at the big corporation, living in big city, and wanted to escape far far away. I mean really far. Deep forest, far from civilization. I wanted very much a change!  

As practical solution we have chosen Komorow – little village 20 km from the center of Warsaw, because my son was still attending school in Warsaw and I didn’t want him to change it.

Oh, if you could see this garden in 2004, it was a true challenge. Bare, soil not maintained. I will always remember the hot first days and the sand in my teeth. You can see 3 years change in some before (2004) and after (2007) photos here. Maybe I shall make new before and after, as there are lot's of changes.
Then 3 years later I started this blog. I may say garden changed my life, because from the state of *having no life* I transformed to *awareness and having life* and that matters most for me.

So, this is my story. What is YOURS? I really care too hear your thoughts.

15 comments:

Sara Venn said...

I've been gardening since I peas 3, sowing sweet peas with my neighbour and have never stopped!! I just think that now I am incredibly lucky to call gardening and horticulture my job.

Patrick said...

When I was growing up my family always had a summer vegetable garden, and I usually helped at least a little bit. We didn't save our own seeds, but we often bought OP seeds suitable for seed saving, from companies that specialized in these. This means I grew up eating older vegetables from our garden, and was aware of the difference between commercial and non-commercial varieties.

For the next 20 years or so, I only had a garden two years, when I was a student.

About 10 years ago, I started growing tomatoes in containers on my roof and eventually gardening on plots of land elsewhere.

Ewa said...

Welcome Sara, lucky you! I have lost my path for a long time since my childhood garden experience.

Ewa said...

Patrick, that's makes little bit more clear your passion about growing own food.
Do you mean there were companies in the past specialising in selling open pollinated seeds?

Patrick said...

It's mostly only Europe which has the seed laws, which make it difficult to sell OP seeds. The US doesn't have any laws like that, and there are many companies there selling OP and heritage seeds, even now. For example http://rareseeds.com

America is where all the immigrants came from all over the world, and brought their seeds with them. It has a long history and tradition of seed saving and amateur plant breeding.

Ewa said...

I was thinking it's a recent movement in US. That's very interesting insider's info :)

Preppy Pink Crocodile said...

Not sure your poll is working. I voted 1-5 (it's been about five years for me) and it didn't show up.

KK

PS. Do you know you have word verification enabled below? I like to point it out to people now and then because it's super annoying and I often find bloggers don't realize it's even enabled.

Unknown said...

I got serious about gardening when we bought our current place, about 7 years ago. It was covered with noxious weeds and brush so I took up gardening partially out of self-defense since I didn't want to get overrun again and I didn't want to take up spraying and mowing as hobbies.

Ewa said...

Hi KK,
Now I turned off the word verification. At least for some time.
If you say it's annoying :)
It was turned on deliberately, because of the amount of spam comments I was getting.
Word verification stopped it.

June said...

Hello Ewa. Yes I have a blog and have been gardening here on this plot of property for about fifteen years. When I started it was a horse pasture and there was much to do. It was my grandfather's place first and I feel lucky to a little acre of it. I started by making the soil more fertile by amending it. It wasn't hard to do because it was where a dairy barn had been for many years :)
I worked at a garden nursery and we got half off of all the plants sold so I planned the beds and planted. And as gardening goes I had to move things many times to get it like I wanted and still have things to change but that is what I love about it.
I love your blog and have followed you for some time. I have learned so much from you.

Ewa said...

Hello June, nice to hear from you :)
That was very wise to improve the soil first, especially if you had the proper organic matter :)
That's essential for plant's health.
.
I am also still moving things, as I didn't make the proper plan at the beginning :(

Bob said...

A neighbor gave me a packet of beet seeds she didn't want in 1961. I was fascinated and planted them, and they grew, and I was thrilled when I pulls REAL beets out of the ground in a couple months. Then I realized, I really didn't like to eat beets! Next year I planted strawberry plants! I've been gardening every year since, 52 years. Bob in Maryland USA

Yamilka Gomez said...

Hi, Ewa! I've been gardening since my early 20's, so it's been over fifteen years. I started with a butterfly garden in order to get over my fear of butterflies. Not only did I overcome the fear, but I learned to love them. Although I've always had a vegetable garden with a section for native plants, my husband and I moved out of the house we rented for eleven years to move into an apartment building. You can guess that my small balcony is filled with culinary and medicinal herbs, which are my favorite things to grow. Even though I'm on a six-story balcony overlooking a salt-water canal, and I'm only three blocks away from the beach, I still have pollinators that come to visit my small garden... especially now that my basil is in flower. I also have two plots in our Miami Beach community garden where I grow some of our vegetables.
I love your blog. I do have a blogger account under the name Klara Wieck but it's not a gardening blog. I'm a writer and musician, and my blog has some of my short creative stories.
Keep up the good work! Blessings, sister!

Klara

Unknown said...

I started gardening after a breakdown in 2011. I treated it as therapy and a way to reclaim my life. The garden was very long and very overgrown, similar to the tangle of weeds that had grown in my head. Making a start on it was slow going but I found it therapeutic to have my hands in the earth and work at the pace of nature...and I found that whilst I did that, I was not thinking about all the troubles that plagued my life. I am well into my second year now and I am developing a potager. I have enjoyed fruit and vegetables from the garden this summer and feel very proud that I am well on the way to recovery and have a lovely garden to show for my efforts.

Ewa said...

Sian, happy to see you here :) garden has very therapeutic effect on people.. you found the right way for yourself... wish you all te best.

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