I passed on my passion for gardening to

My oldest son. He has only been playing in the dirt for 2 years now but is flying with it!

He helped me load dirt i to my raised gardens a few years ago and caught the bug. So, I always grow extra seedlings to pass to him in the spring. And we exchange seeds!

Never did I ever expect this great a reward for sharing my passion.

He told me today that he was taking a pic of my peony in flower because he's pretty sure he has one at his garden. A leftover from a previous tenant and he wanted to verify it.

Well. My chest swelled! How cool is that? Having a kid, a forty something kid, share your fun. And we get to sit and talk about it. Okay, not in Latin, but still, how cool is that?!

He asked me to come by next weekend to see his new raised beds and his other achievements. And you can bet I'll be there!

Has anyone else here had the thrill of passing on their gardening enthusiasm?

 

My oldest granddaughter likes to help she loves been out in the garden with me, my youngest gd is getting the same and liking the garden, grandson 1 has started to show interest grandson 2 is to young at the moment granddaughters three and four will be with me anytime soon i hope all six have interest i am sure i will be able to find them jobs in my later years .

 

That is priceless @martin-f ! Somehow I don't think a pic my son and his Marvin the Martian tattoo could compete with the lovely photos you've shared. Isn't it as cool as it gets when this sharing happens?

 

Thank you Lori glad your son has taken interest, my parents wasn't gardeners and its only the last few years ive taken interest myself, both my daughters have little interest in the garden mainly entertaining cut grass fire the bbq up and enjoy a few beers,

Yes nice to see the grandkids showing interest, when my kids was young i didn't have the time to mess in the garden i was too busy earning money to support them.

 

My two children are both showing an interest in gardening, they are both getting good at remembering the names of different plants and love spotting the different wildlife in the garden too. Definitely a heart warming feeling knowing we've passed on that interest to them.

 

This reminds me I and my grandfather, who was so interesting about gardening. While my mother may plant flower or two but not much more, my grandfather was so happy when I grew up with his garden and learnt to love it. Now while working in the garden, I often remember him and what he teached to me.

Oh those sweet memories…

 

Do you think the Gardening Bug might be prone to skipping a generation? Or is it just that when we are grandparents with the Bug we have more time to involve the grandkids when they are around because we might not be so pressed to get the daily small kids family routine done?

I got my Bug from the grandparents, we used to spend the hols at their summer cottage where we not only had the mandatory daily jobs but were also allowed to grow a row of our own flowers (Calendula usually). Summer cottage gardening was serious food growing thing after the war but turned towards more leisurely activity in the 70s when I came along.

When Grandpa passed away and Grandma became more frail I was nominated the head gardener of the cottage and that's when the Bug really bit.

Now my Teenager does her jobs quite happily and is moderately interested in houseplants, but definitely not bitten yet. We'll see what happens when she gets her own plot to tend, whether indoors, in balcony, or in a gardengarden... and hopefully grandkids will come along at some point for me to use as child labour infest with The Bug

 

My 80 year old Aunt reminds me that I get the Gardener gene from her father my grandfather who was a gardener in Austria and then in America was head gardener for some huge garden in Ohio. who knows. my dad puttered about with veggies.

 

I think mine came about with my dad...he would do a garden where it was lawned plus with plants and the other half was for growing peas, sprouts, potato and a greenhouse for tomatoes...when I was a teenager I used to love getting in and weeding it for him and turning the dirt but my main interest was always the lawn and doing the plants and it's carried on since.

 

@CanadianLori @martin-f and @JWK ...lovely to see how your children besides grandchildren having taken the bug up as well and smashing pictures