Why do you garden?

[seedcorn]

Because I love to eat. Like to share produce. Relaxation.

#1 reasons---I enjoy it. If I didn't, wouldn't do it. Could be sickness, could be the pleasure of walking out of the house, picking a meal, and eating it, or giving it someone who can no longer garden but realizes the difference between fresh produce and what they can buy.

And like Bay, my folks gave me this sickness as Dad and I raced to see who could raise the first ripe tomatoe. Sometime we would cheat, all in good fun. My first garden was 3' X 2'. They showed me how to plant peppers. Identify weeds. So my first attempt at weeding, I weeded the weeds of the peppers. Luckily Dad came over to see how I was doing and we saved the weeded pepper plants.......I must have been 7.

 

[baymule]

@seedcorn my Daddy pulled up my Mom's chrysanthemums to make me "my own" garden when I was 5 or 6. I took that seriously and raised a bumper crop of squash and tomatoes from my tiny bed. Thanks for reminding me! Mom was horrified at the pile of dead mums.

 

[catjac1975]

I have to.

 

[Lavender2]

My reasons for gardening have changed over the years. I started vegetable gardening when I was 22 and went from 0 to 10 kids (daycare). My small garden really didn't make a dent in the grocery bill, but became a great learning activity for the kids. As I was able to raise a larger sunny area to keep from flooding, I gardened for the food I could produce. But after picking that first tomato and a bowl full of beans it was impossible to stop! I started the herb garden at the request of 'the chef'.

Now my flowers, that's a passion and addiction thing. I got involved in a perennial trading group and it quickly got out of control. A large group of local gardeners met twice a year to trade extra perennials from their gardens and share gardening tips. I have many mature trees and I was gardening on a budget, the garden trading party got me seriously hooked. The researching and learning, and the challenge of organizing beds and growing in the shade... and 'collecting' all the different varieties! One of my favorite memories as a child was swinging in the hammock in my grampa's beautiful rose gardens, and I still have his trellises, so I guess that love has always been there. Besides, if I didn't garden, what would I do, golf?!

 

[lesa]

Such an interesting question...My gardening adventures started with a tiny bit of dirt, next to a sidewalk. I transplanted some of Mom's Calendula there one summer. After those little flowers took over every inch of that dirt- I never looked at bare ground the same! If I see an area with nothing growing, I am compelled to plant something! I am very interested in nutrition- so veggie gardening was something that just made sense. I can't imagine life without a garden...

 

[MontyJ]

I garden because Bay won't come and do it for me But she sure will get me into a "pickle" now and then

 

[Wishin']

I garden because I like REAL food, I enjoy making things grow, and especially I to play in the dirt.

 

[ducks4you]

I always loved puddles and dirt. What I enjoy most about gardening is that is a never ending way for me to control what nobody else at my house wants to do--LOL!!!
I also like to dig...like my dogs.
I also like it when I have a success, like my whole bed full of beets last year.
I also like to clean up what's dead from last year and burn it--a true pyro!
I love to open a jar of last year's peaches, and they taste BETTER than any that you buy at the store. (I wish that was true of tomatoes.) =/
I love to take a bag of okra out of the freezer and know that I GREW AND HARVESTED AND CUT every single one of them.
I love to fill as many jars of food that I've tended and grown and harvested, so that I can "go shopping" in my pantry.
I think that I could go on and on, but I need to get home, now.