I wondered about this as having my first home at age 30, ive found Im suddenly taking a bigger interest in the garden. I found myself out looking to see what is starting to come ut in leaf and I was like OMG, is this me getting old??
But maybe its nesting and Im just enjoying having a home and the garden is somewhere that I can be a little creative. Im not at all sure!
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SWMBO is a member of the local gardening club and the average age is probably about 70, certainly I feel young when I turn up, at 48. I think it's something which requires a good deal of patience, which tends to come with age.
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Some of us never like gardening and think mostly its a chore. In general I just make the garden look tidy so it can be used as an amenity. I do however take an active interest in and care of my grapevine.
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>>I do however take an active interest in and care of my grapevine.
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I heard that somewhere!
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I'm convinced that it's an age thing. When I was younger my garden was just a place to BBQ and drink beer in, now it's somewhere to get creative and relax at the end of the day. This is all very worrying, the next thing that'll happen is that I'll be driving a Volvo… oh wait, I do drive a Volvo!
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I should by rights be a heck of a gardener, my dad was a Percy Thrower type, a natural gardener in private service and kept the most luscious productive gardens often open to the public for most of his life apart from war service.
I'm ashamed that i'm useless and did not inherit the green fingers, my garden is a mess, however the songbirds love it so some good comes from my neglect.;)
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I've never really got it, but then we have always had a garden. I will probably miss it when we move.
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I paid someone to do the bulk of mine, put the finishing touches myself so I could sell the place- hate it, hate it, hate it.
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It's both, when you're at home with yourself and your garden. I used to grow rows of runner beans in a good spot. I could sit behind them and drink beer, etc. without being noticed. I was much younger than you, then.
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Concrete, membrane, pebbles, flagstones and evergreens !
Brilliant , brush and shovel, bit of pruning twice a year then out with the table, chairs and umbrella.
A wedge of Brie, some rough bread and a bottle of Vino Collapso.
Listen to the music of the lawnmowers up and down the road.
Perfick !
Ted
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Not in my case. I used to own a house with 2/3 acre of lawns and garden surrounded by a huge lelandii hedge. Never again. I hated having to get out there most weekends in spring, summer and autumn just to keep on top of it all. It was like painting the Forth bridge.
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Now you see the word Beer makes me think garden=good :).
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>> It was like painting the Forth bridge.
Except the bridge does not need painting for a long time again now. Our next house will hopefully have a smallish garden.
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Thirty-odd years ago I moved to a house with a decent sized garden, great I thought, I can have a veg patch.
They use the soil round here to make bricks, London clay I think they call it. Every year I used to buy a new fork or spade to replace the one I broke.
Remember the summer of '76? A neighbour reported me for breaking the hosepipe ban, I was syphoning SWMBO's bathwater onto the poor old dried-up veg, she only climbed into the bath to cool down as she was heavily pregnant.
The only biding memory is eldest daughter being amazed at peas coming out of a pod (she thought they came out of Tesco's).
The whole lot's now grass, I decline to call it a lawn.
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The only thing I remember about 1976 is the sex pistols gig at the lesser free trade hall. Wait I wasn't even born then! People seem to never stop going on about the hot summer of 76 though! I remember a hose pipe ban in 1995 and our grass was so dry it looked like concrete.
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It's not an age thing, it's in your gene's.
My Father was a gardener by trade and my earliest memory was of crawling behind him pulling out the leek plants he'd just planted.
I've spent parts of my life without a garden but that urge to create one has always been there and I once created a mass of colour in a 15'x15' shared courtyard of a flat. It had a small aviary and a tub type pond with a goldfish:)
I feel at peace with the world when I'm gardening, just as I do when sitting on a rock looking at the sea. I subconsciously sort out all the wrongs in this world and my problems are solved. It's something to do with being close to earth, and nature.
To sit and listen to running water flowing down into a pond, with birdsong in the background and be alone with your thoughts and Teds brie and wine is heaven!
Where we live now though we have the North London Parachute Centre ( despite being in the Fen) just a couple of miles away, and usually we have at least 6 people jumping out of planes overhead all day. Which only goes to prove that these City types are wusses as, they always scream and shatter my peace:)
Pat
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You might be right about genetics Pat - I think I share my father's attitude to gardening.
I can recall as a child we moved into a house with a proper garden in the 70s. My dad bought a lawnmower and managed to slice the cable on his first two goes with it. Mother banished him from the garden after that; he sole involvement in gardening was offering suggestions about planting from the safety of his deckchair.
Nowadays I have my own garden - I've inherited Dad's passion for gardening and take great pride in the stonework of my patio. Fortunately we don't have any lawns so I've never had to resort to his method for getting out of mowing.
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I remember saying to my mother on many occasions when i was in my twenties & had bought my 1st house that i would never be interested in gardening as it gradually turned into a jungle, and her telling me "you will be when you get older" ! I am now in my late forties and when i saw that the seeds i planted a couple of weeks ago started breaking through i was so excited............................ Why are mothers always right !
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>>> People seem to never stop going on about the hot summer of 76 though! <<<
We hired a 30ft cabin cruiser on the Thames @ Oxford in 76.
I roped the thing up (moored) for the nite.
come the morn, the water level had dropped by about 7ft and we were left hanging from the bank
Some clown had left the (manual) lock open ... great holiday though!
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>> >>> People seem to never stop going on about the hot summer of 76 though!
No Idea why. the heatwave of 2003 was more memorable. I had a vacation Devon that week, near the sea and the offshore breeze, it was glorious.
Stopped at Avebury ring on the way back, climbed out of the aircon car to be knocked flat by 39c of heat. A real shock in England.
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I luv gardens - other peoples ... I'd quite like a Bath Stone Crescent type Townhouse, in, well - Bath actually,
with a locked & tended private garden where each owner/occ had a key and paid for its upkeep.
I also quite like Teddy of the cams idea too, as I've had 6 gardens all told, 1 of which was 2 acres,
so I just mowed the critter with a ride-on and planted evergreens at the borders
Euonymus, Cotoneaster & Heather type green growing things.
I have a gardener where we are now, but she's out at the moment :)
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I've always enjoyed gardening; particularly growing vegetables. I agree, though, the size of a garden is crucial. My favourite garden was 80'ish long SW-facing terraced house garden. Terrace near house, patch of lawn and some flowers, and sufficient vegetables to be self-sufficient for 6 months of the year.
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I cut the grass, strim around the edges and that's about my limit. If I had my way I'd put concrete down instead of the grass.
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I like space so we have a large plot but it is all quite practical. Lots of grass, trees and natural hedges but no flower borders, gnomes, fairy bird baths or fishponds.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 1 Apr 10 at 10:30
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We've just sold our house, although we won't be moving any time soon. But I'm embarrassed about the state of our lawn, and would really like to get it looking nice, or at least half-decent, before we leave. A big trampoline and a dog don't help...
At 45 I'm still waiting for the 'love' to start :)
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Im hankering after a statue for my garden now, some variation on a naked lady of course. I just havent yet come around to the cost of the things, but maybe at the end of the year ill have £50 spare to get a nice one.
I dont like gnomes, but I do like interesting bits and pieces hidden in places. Im actually soon to start sectioning off areas to create 'rooms'. Its getting all so domestic!
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Mrs H and I get out in the garden together a lot since I started the gardening round. I'm in charge of the pond, lawn mowing and weeding and she does the creative stuff. You should see the cobble walls and features she's built!
Eventually we retire to the table by the pond and crack a bottle while discussing the next project.
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Does a love of gardening come with age or a home? - spamcan61
