I look at a computer all day, gardening gives me a reason to go outside in the evening=)

With Karen fighting cancer, my garden is one of the few places where I can escape and gather my wits. You can't imagine how relaxing it is to spend an hour pulling weeds instead of pulling the hair out of your head!

Morning rose scent drifts

Across the garden

I am at peace with being.

I gardened even when I was young. When raising my kids it was about food. Tomatoes,peppers and onions meant spaghetti sauce all winter. Blackberry bushes meant wonderful pies and jams. Frozen they too lasted through winter. Strawberries meant shortcake and jams. Pumpkins meant jack o lanterns and pis and breads and zuchinni was added to everything!
Now that I AM older it is more fun to garden with flowers and natives and enjoy wildlife. But I also do it for the grand kids. My 4 year old grandson asked me one day Grandma, "Will all your flowers be dead when I grow up?" I like to ponder what might have been the reasoning for that question.
While I do grow herbs and veggies if I had to choose my favorites it would be flowers. I guess i am just a nurturer. My husband and I BOTH garden for a hobby and my birthday is ALWAYS a trip to a Botanical garden. It is wonderful to have a shared hobby with the one you love!
And of course the little ones!
Peace and Prayers
Tanya
{{gwi:77031}}

My son says it means that I'm OLD
Well, your son's theory is not holding up well. I have had my current garden since early 20s and and I have grown orchids since then as well.

I grew up with my parents gardening. My Dad is an agricultural engineer and my parents have a nice garden with lots and lots of veggies back in Belarus. I have been exposed to plants since I was very little and as a kid, I could easily tell a weed from a tomato, or any kind of seedling vegetable for that matter!

It is hard to grow up around all these home grown fruit and veggies and not love it!
My parents' garden: {{gwi:872934}}From Belarus 2008
{{gwi:937647}}From Belarus 2008
{{gwi:937648}}From Belarus 2008

I garden because I love being around plants. I love flowers, I love homegrown produce. I get emotionally recharged seeing new leaves and roots.

I love being in the garden, around plants.

Ricky, I am so sorry about Karen. I will pray for both of you daily. When I was fighting cancer, gardening was the only thing that took my mind off things. We had ten acres at the time and I would get on the mowing tractor for hours and smell the cut grass and watch all the creatures buzz around. I have loved gardening since I was a child. Always would ask for a patch of ground for my zinnias and marigolds. My kids don't enjoy it, but Tanya, you give me hope that perhaps my grandkids (not on this earth yet) will like it. It is a spiritual, healing thing for me.

Anna

I was interested in plants even as a kid. My parents used to enjoy wowing people by having me name all the plants in the yard, sometimes even by the Latin name. But it ties into my love of nature overall. When I'm gardening, or in the woods, mountains, seashore, etc., even if things aren't going well, I feel closer to the Creator there than in any church or in any creation of mankind. I think the farther people get from nature, the farther they get from God.

My garden is the most peaceful place for me. Just walking around, pulling weeds, watching things grow, being quiet. it's perfect!

peace, beauty, therapy, a connection to God and the natural lifecycle...oh, and it's fun too!

Growing up on a New Hampshire farm (animals & vegetables) in the 40's means we were going to eat good food. We all had to do our chores on the farm and as a little kid it wasn't all that much fun but as I grew, Dad let me run the tractor, so things got more interesting and then, a kid at 14 getting his farm drivers license (which was valid on the roads, daylight only) means I could take the old farm truck to school. That was great! I remember hitching up the horses and having hay rides in the fall and sleigh rides in the winter snow. Taking the tractor and plowing the snow off the pond so we all could ice skate, then warm up next to the big bonfire at the shore.
So as I sit and weed my garden now, all these good memories cross my mind (so many more than what I've mentioned) and in a way I re-live my childhood, & young adulthood over again. The kids & grand kids are now living that life on the old farm up north, they send emails with pictures of this and that... and that starts a new flood of memories going off in my head.

Why do I garden? because..... just because.

Lou

At 7 years old I begged my mother to weed her iris bed, so it was something just in me. Hubby says it's in the genes, my ancesters were potato farmers in the old country. :o)

I love being able to pick fresh herbs and veggies for dinner and my ornamentals are my pride and joy. I get a thrill out of growing from seed,,like my 30ft royal poincianna. Gardening calms me and feeds my soul.

Ricky I am praying for Karen daily.

I really think I would die if I could no longer grow things, even if it's just an african violet in a kitchen window. I can't remember any time since I was 4 years old that I wasn't growing something, or trying to.

I garden because I love nature and want to have some natural beauty around my home.

John

I think gardening feeds the soul. Wether it's for food or for beauty of flowers. It's for the comfort it gives us in times of trouble. Being one with nature~

My Mom was one of fifteen kids, ten boys and five girls born to parents that farmed year around between Georgia in the summer and south Florida in the fall and spring. They never had much but were comfortable, happy and able to provide for the family by farming like this. As my aunts and uncles grew up and moved away and it became more difficult for my grandparents to keep going, the only way was to have summer reunions where everyone showed up over the course of 2-3 weeks to help pick the crops. Those are some of my best childhood memories, but as with many things I drifted away from it all chasing a career. As we get older we realize what's really important, I garden because my grandfather instilled it in my blood....

Tom

"I am an old Southern woman. We're supposed to put on funny looking hats and ugly old dresses and grow vegetables in the dirt. Don't ask me why."

(credit: Robert Harling - Steel Magnolias)

Terri

sun_worshiper - I am the same way looking at a computer all day long and refuse to do it at home unless I need it. People at work told me that my gardening is too expensive and I could buy more tomatoes for that money, but i don't care how many tomatoes i get, it's the process of growing them is fun

(with apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Why do I garden; let me count the ways,
It's not for the money, this gig doesn't pay.

I garden for the praise I get from my mate,
When she tastes a fresh peach and says "it tastes great."

I garden for quiet and solitude,
Just me and my dog (and nobody rude).

I garden for fun and just plain pleasure,
A fresh picked papaya is really a treasure.

I garden to hear my daughter decree,
"Did he just buy ANOTHER fruit tree?"

Mostly I garden because it makes me feel fine,
And all that I grow is mine, all mine.

It has been fun and interesting and reading all of the repsonses here. Thanks to all for sharing! Ricky I will also keep you and Karen in prayer if that's ok.

Bill, I love your version of the poem. People will say to me you are buying another plant. And I say what's your point? lol

I have only one answer. Why not?

:o)

My son told the mailman that I am like the "crazy cat lady everyone has heard about" except I am the "crazy plant lady" in my neighborhood. Gardening is an extension of my sanity, soul and heart. Couldn't live without it. That's why I love Florida though I could be living anywhere else and probably earn a lot more. If I can't get my hands black with dirt, listen to the birds and enjoy what I create at least once a week I begin to feel depressed and useless. Gardening gives me so much for so little; a few seeds, starter plants, dirt, mulch, water, sun and a little TLC and voila"! Magic!