My first house had a little patch of dirt by the deck out back where I attempted, almost a year after moving in, to start a garden. I had big plans. First I tried to start seedlings in the sunny windowed atrium of that funny house, where I promptly forgot to water them and they all died. In desperation, sometime when it was “warm enough” (what was frost anyway?) I ran to lowe’s and bought tomato plants, lettuce plants, and some other stuff I can’t remember. I remember digging in the soil, that hard extremely alkaline rocky Utah soil, planting the pour things and hoping I would somehow remember to water them or that it would rain or that the sprinkler system would somehow shoot over in this obscure corner of dirt.
Amazingly they did OK. Sure my lettuce bolted, and I couldn’t figure out what had happened - I know now I should of harvested the stuff. My tomatoes fell over and looked hideous because I hadn’t caged them soon enough or spaced them far apart - but I did get some seriously tasty morsels anyway off of them. I pretty quickly gave up on my garden. The next year I tried container gardening. One night a horrible gust of wind and rain demolished my seedlings that were outside, and those that survived got completely fried the next day by scorching sun. After that I vowed to give up.
But that house was a blessing, and when the grape vines the previous owners had planted began to fruit late in the summer the gardening bug hit me again. I never looked twice at the apple or cherry trees in the backyard but now find myself wishing I had them again. Starting from scratch at my new house makes me think twice - and appreciate all the naunces of my old one I took for granted - like the honeysuckle that attracted so many hummingbirds and the funny pepper plants that grew all over.
Have a “first” gardening story? Love to hear it - share in comments. 
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
My first garden. Hmm is that my mother’s garden that she made me weed occasionally? Though I did love to pick the strawberries - little red jewels amidst the leaves. My favorite thing was when I was given a “Laura Ingles Wilder” dress. I could dress up and go tend the garden. LOL. My mother had a really good sized garden. We had turkeys, geese and ducks. Water was the main issue as it was in the Colorado mountains and it is very dry there on the eastern slopes.
Then I went to college and I eyed the veggie gardens planted at the graduate student dorms. But it wasn’t for us undergraduates. Then to a condo where I eyed the tiny little border wondering if they would let me turn it into a vegetable garden. I hadn’t heard of community gardens yet.
Finally we got a house (Boston suburbs - a far cry from my youth)…and had kids. I stayed home with them for quite a while. But the house was mostly shaded. I gardened in containers for a short time. When the tree in the backyard was blown partly down by one of the hurricanes (Gloria maybe, no I think it was later), I finally got a real garden. I had some sun. I loved it and so did the kids, mostly my daughter though. She loved onions straight from the garden. Not green onions mind you, but the ones that bring tears to your eyes when you eat them raw. And English Peas, oh she loved those and she still does. She has grown out of eating onions like apples though.
This may sound so dumb of me. But what does it mean when the lettuce “bolted”? I guess I should figure out when to harvest my lettuce. It is getting rather big.
Anyway, this is my first year gardening, so my blog kinda captures my story. I don’t always know what I’m doing, and I don’t know all the right terminology, but so far, nothing horrible has happened!
Daphne - my mother didn’t really get into gardening until I was a teenager and could care less about it - now her garden is beautiful and she’s always bringing stuff over from it. my daughter adores strawberries - our peas haven’t grown enough yet so don’t know about those - but I have to continually watch her sticking everything green in her mouth now LOL
DP - I may not have the term right, but “bolting” as I understand it is when the lettuce goes to seed - it looked more like a weed than lettuce. I’m wishing I had a bit more of that problem now though - my lettuce is taking forever to grow.
This is our first real garden. You can’t really count the one in England as it was only about the size of a postage stamp.
We only had room for a couple of rose bushes, a few alpines in a wall garden, and a hanging basket. Then we lived in a series of apartments in California for nine years, so no gardening there.
Jan-
in some ways I feel this is my first real garden also - since it’s the first one I’ve kept at and researched and keep worrying over
We had our first garden on our balcony off our apartment
more than 15 years ago. We had two tomatoes,and one each of green bell and jalepeno peppers,in large round planters.
In long flower boxes, we had lettuce and herbs. Two strawberry jars completed our “garden” and being high up, we had no critters stealing any of the strawberries.It all started with a neighbor of my grandparents giving us plants that didn’t fit in his garden. Hanging baskets of plants and flowers completed our living “privacy screen” It was wonderful and the reason we still garden today.
Kate - awesome first gardening story
thanks for visiting
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