Who inspired you to garden? Many times it was our Moms…

Here at Flea Market Gardening, we have an entire album of photos of ourselves, our Moms, Dads, or Grandmas, and any other relative who has inspired us to garden.  What a joy to teach and pass on!  Sharing gardening from one generation to another is a favorite subject and occupation of mine.

Tanya and her Mom

Blondeponders Garden and Duck tales… Just look at this photo of Tanya and her sweet Mom, posted for our album!

I share my garden whenever I can to small ones, hoping they will catch on and get as much pleasure through their lives as I do.  Do you do this?

How did you learn to garden?  Sometimes it was Mom, sometimes a Grandma or other relative.  Passing on the love of gardening is an honored tradition. Have you also passed on this tradition to a child? If so, I’d love to hear how.

I hope we can inspire others to take some time to spend with a younger one to garden, weed, teach a flower name and pick a bouquet.  I’m afraid I let any child loose on my garden with the clippers.  Nothing is sacred there and some wonderful bouquets have been collected.

My Mom, Jean. Now you know why I have a fondness for that name… 🙂

This is my Mom, Jean. We had been in this house for five years and the garden was young.  I’m standing in my little robe, watching my two brothers do something???

Mom loved gardening and my Dad was her muscle and hardscape designer. She transformed a bare yard into a wonderful meadow like lawn, surrounded with wide flower beds and shady trees.  That path went all around the perimeter , so we kids could ride our trikes and bikes completely around.  Mom taught me a lot by example and taught me many of the plant names.  Thanks, Mom!

Thanks, Mom, for teaching me to garden

Sweet stories…

Parents and grandparents teach mostly by example, don’t they?  Just by watching and trying, we absorb what they pass on to us,…sometimes without us really knowing…

Shirley Carlen’s grandma

Shirley B. Carlen says, “This is my grandmother in her garden. I think of her often and remember her beautiful flower garden. She has been an inspiration to me. I only started gardening three years ago close to my 70th birthday. Only wish I had started long ago because of the enjoyment it brings.”

Cindy Reynolds’ sweet Mom

Cindy Reynolds says, “This is my Momma in her garden….she lived to 93 and loved her flowers!  She gardened up to the end….sat and scooted to weed!  She hurt her back weeding and reaching sitting on a little stool….so Dr. told her to sit on the ground…. she always had a dirty seat on her pants and had weeding clothes just to weed in so not to dirty up her regular clothes…

It must have been hot when this picture was taken….I see she has her sleeves pinned up…. From spring to winter….that is where you would find her….out in the gardens…all winter she would look at garden books and dream of what she wanted to change the next spring!”

Sandie Cano and her grandma

Sandie Cano tells us, “Here is a picture I found in my Grandma’s photo album. It shows me at maybe 1-1/2 yrs old (1954) picking weeds, smelling flowers and giving Grandma Mimi an opportunity to smell them, too! She was definitely one of the reasons I enjoy gardening and quilting so much today!”

Kay and her granddaughter

Kay Bassett says, “My little granddaughter, Caroline “Ruckus” loves to look through my gardening books and magazines! She will be my future little gardener!”

Pirjo Vainionpää’s  Dad and Mom

Pirjo Vainionpää says, “This is my beautiful Mom, and handsome Dad, just before I was born, in 1955 Finland. The garden is my Mamma’s. Summers in Finland is the Land of the Midnight Sun, so my Mamma would apparently be up and out as early as 4 am, and work until 10 pm. My Mom inherited her love of gardening, and then, of course, I inherited it from her!”

Cheryl Van Horn’s grandpa and grandma

Cheryl Van Horn tells us, “My Grandma Corbin, pictured with her husband, passed on her gardening genes to me. I have also passed them on to my daughter, Heather. Grandma planted beautiful perennials in her Victorian-style rock gardens, planted and canned from her vegetable gardens, grew and canned from many fruit trees, all on a small town lot in New Market, Iowa.  She was an amazing woman connected so well to nature in her everyday life.”

Teresa Jansen’s grandma

Teresa Jansen tells us, “I forgot all about this old photo of my Italian grandmother, Teresa Simonetti Valla. I think it was taken in her daughter’s garden. So you can get a better idea of this lady, she was small in stature and spoke broken English. Every afternoon she would sit out on her front porch for a bit. She was the wife of a farmer/rancher, and they both came to America in the early 1900s.”

Donna Bean and her grandma

Donna Bean tells us, “I come from a long line of farmers and gardeners. This is a photo of Grandma (with my sister) and her beautiful dahlias at the farm. I’ve never seen such beautiful again. Miss my grandma!”

Mary Trogg’s grandma

Mary Trogg says, “One of the few photos I have of my grandmother, Mildred Nelson Ahlborg. Probably taken around 1920.”

Garden Tea Party! Sydney Minor’s friend, Rosemary with Sydney’s daughter

Margery Hibbard’s grandma

Margery Hibbard says, “My grandmother, Gertrude Mertens Taylor, who always loved her gardens. Born in St Louis and spent most of her adult life near Swan, Iowa.  I think of my grandma a lot when I’m in my gardens. I know my love of them came directly from Grandma. She always loved her hollyhocks.”

Nancy Anne Grigsby’s granddaughter. Hope for the future of gardening

Nancy Anne Grigsby says, “This is my granddaughter Lily, who just helped me transplant basil sprouts we started from seed… she’s 3 yrs old.”

Now tell us a story..

Now, won’t you post a photo on our Facebook page of your Mom, Grandma, Dad or yourself in the garden or tell a story about your Mom? ~~ Sue

PS:  If you don’t have a photo of your Mom in the garden, or yourself,…take one! You’ll be glad you did…