What inspired the love of gardening...

I grew up on a farm. Mom had a huge huge garden. We canned and froze a lot of vegetables and fruit.

When I was done high school I needed a job. My dad's cousin had a greenhouse/nursery business and my dad got me a job. I spent 4 months working there. Loved every minute of it. I worked in the trees and shrubs and perennials, annuals and houseplants. All over the nursery.

When I was married and we had our first home I had the usual garden with vegetables and did the canning and freezing just like I had done at mom and dad's. But I did very little in regards to perennials.

11 years ago we moved to the acreage we are on now. That is when I really got into perennials. We had mature trees and a mature shelterbelt but only one tulip, a clump of siberian squill under one tree and a blue clumping veronica of some sort. The first summer we were here we dug a big hole on the south side of the house and built a cistern for water in there. Because we did not want anyone to ever drive overtop of that area, I landscaped with perennials and shrubs over it. That was just the beginning. That summer we made a holding garden for perennials to hold all the perennials that seemed to be coming to me. I now have over 800 different kinds of perennials in the yard with more coming all the time. I have the majority of them labeled with copper tags (that never fade or break or get lost) and am in the process of photographing each in bloom.

How has my style changed over the years...

Years ago the perennials and shrubs I had were just the ordinary perennials that everyone knows, a few peonies, roses, etc. Now...I have a lot of different kinds of perennials and when I see something that is not in my yard...I 'have' to have it.

I also now make/paint crafts and garden art that can be displayed in the flowerbeds along with the perennials. Years ago I used to use regular acrylic paints with no protection on the projects but I have learned not to do so. I now use almost exculsively outdoor paints (Patio Paints) and work with materials which will last.

Brenda

What inspired my love of gardening?

Hard to say exactly what but my parents had a huge garden with many many flowerbeds, birdhouses everywhere, a huge fish pond and my favourite part was a "sunroom" that was basically a patio area that had been enclosed with glass/screen. It was a wonderfully protected area to sit in and watch all the fireflies at night. BUT, at that age (+/- 7 to about 18 when I moved out) I liked the garden but got bored to tears if my mom would go on and on about her flowers, etc, etc. NOW that I am doing my own gardens I often think back to those gardens and try to plant things in memory of my dad. My mom is still alive but no longer lives there.

It wasn't until we bought our first place in BC that I decided to try gardening for myself. That first little seedling that come up from a seed that I had planted... WOW, I was hooked. I suddenly understood my parents "obsession" with gardening. LOL

How has my style changed over the years?

Well, I started gardening in BC (zone 7) for one year and then we moved to Edmonton. For the first 2 years here we were renting and I did mostly containers (nothing fancy -- basically one plant per container LOL) because we knew we would be moving during the summer. Yeah, we moved 2 summers in a row... I hated that. But oh well, the last move was to this house so I knew I could really sink my teeth into gardening here! That was about 3 years ago now. My garden is still in its "toddler" years with perennials that are finally going to ***fingers crossed*** fill in this year.

So, for the most part I've been getting used to this climate here and marvelling at how hardy some plants are. I've also been growing alot of annuals to help fill the gaps and having a blast with winter-sowing. This is the first season that I don't feel like such a "rookie" anymore... [dangerous statement???? LOL]

I learned gardening from my Grandma, who came to Winnipeg as a war bride from England after the war. She didn't know anything about what perennials could grow here, except she figured out she could grow peonies and roses if she was really careful. So she was a total annuals and roses gardener. I also learned about vegetable gardening from my Mom & my Grandpa who specialized in tomatoes.

I bought Grandma's house in 2000 and figured I'd better look after her roses or she'd string me up, so I did an internet search for rose care and found... Gardenweb. Back then there was not even a Far North forum. But I moved on from roses and annuals (with the extreme enabling of people on this forum, LOL) and now I grow lots of different stuff. So that's how my style has changed too. I put a lot more money and effort into landscaping and perennials, and almost none into bedding plants.

In my case, I'm afraid it's hardwired into my genes. My grandparents on both sides were all garden crazy. It's how they spent their retirement. My dad is just as bad. His big hobby is growing trees, which is a challenge on the bald-headed prairie. As a younger man, his idea of a Sunday off was to hoe trees for 8 hours. Over the years, Dad has planted spruce trees in the creek valley they live on, and some of them are now 15 feet tall. This required hauling water by hand from the creek, up the hills, and watering for the first two years. Dad's 79, and is still planting trees. That's where I get most of my evergreen and common fruit trees from - crabapples and plums that originated with my grandparents, etc. Gardening was my favorite chore as a kid, and I spent 2 summers as a university student doing parks maintenance.
I've been gardening for a long time, but got really serious about the landscaping part about 9 years ago, when we finally bought the farm from DH's parents, and I started doing more permanent stuff. Right now, a lot of my effort goes towards growing enough veggies for 3 teenage boys, but that will scale back as they grow up and leave home. Hopefully that will leave more time and energy for flowers!
Connie

Like valleyrimgirl, I grew up on a farm. We too had a huge garden - for our own use mainly, but also sold some of the extras. Mostly vegetable gardening, but just a few flowers. I realized many years later that those flowers were the free seeds that Mom got when she ordered vegetable seeds.
In my case, though, gardening was work that I hated! Working in the garden was one of those chores that I had to do all summer when I would rather have been having fun with my friends! Much worse once I was a teenager.

Fast forward about 30 years (yikes) and I have rediscovered gardening but with a whole new attitude. My DH and I moved into a new (to us) home about three years ago and while it is not a large lot, suddenly I had almost a blank canvas on which I could let loose my imagination. The PO had really not done much over the years - some honeysuckle that was overgrown with weeds and a front bed which they had amended with SAND....lots of SAND!

I would have to say that my gardening is more by intuition than any knowledge. Trial and error, lots of reading - thanks to the Internet and specifically Garden Web - and nuggets of knowledge that I absorbed over the years from my mother (doing all that gardening that I hated at the time). But now I enjoy it tremendously. After a long day at work, there isn't anything more relaxing than poking around in the yard for a hour or two or three......
Margaret