I started gardening as a very small child, and my major influence was definitely my grandfather. We would spend hours together working in the garden and talking about plants. Because of him I asked for a rose bush for my 5th birthday! :-)

That said, my dad has always been a great vegetable gardener and I certainly learned a lot from him as well. Though he has no interest in growing ornamentals of any kind, we still talk frequently to compare notes on our vegetable selections and harvest.

My family is unusual in that everyone I can think of gardens to some extent. Gardening is always the main topic of conversation at family events.

My parents, most definitely. With 10 siblings we needed a huge vegi garden and we all had to work in it. I was fascinated that we could grow so much of our own food.

tj

It was my next door neighbor, Dave who 'allowed' me to help him plant the sweetpeas when I was 5. In central Pennsylvania the time to do that came in March when the air could be finger numbing. First there was the string to wind around the nails for the sweetpeas to climb. The nails were placed about 6 inches apart at the top and bottom the length of the 50' foot long by 4' high frame. Then the little trench to hoe out where seeds were dropped every 6 to 8 inches. Then cover those little seeds of promise ever so gently. I helped him every year till he passed away when I was 18. There was a lot of other gardening to do in his yard, but It was the sweetpeas that drew me into a lifetime of joy, digging in the soil, planting the seed and reaping the rewards. I can still smell the sweet scented bouquets that Dave always gave to me from the first picking of those colorful little flowers.

I was lucky enough to have many folks who contributed to my love of gardening. My folks had no interest in gardening (other than my mom planting marigold seeds with us when I was 5) but took us to the local arboretum frequently. My grandfather was a gardener and I loved wandering through his rural garden on our annual summer visits. Walking between the rows filled with feathery asparagus fronds was a particular treat. We picked tomatoes, apples and bouquets of sweet peas and pansies. Mrs. Sherman, the cranky lady at the end of our block, had stunning mixed borders, but I was too afraid of her yelling to do more than drool over her yard from the safety of the sidewalk. The parents of my dearest friend managed to find time around working and raising three kids to have lovely mixed borders. They often wanted to show me the latest rose or a bed that had been revamped, since my interest must have been obvious. The primary school I attended had part of the schoolyard given over to a community garden with small plots filled with flowers and veggies, though actually going into the garden was strictly forbidden.

I didn't work in any of these gardens as a kid, but starting as a teenager I began planting things in my folks' yard, teaching myself through reading. I know that I still have those gardens and gardeners in my mind's eye as I plant and tend my gardens each growing season.

campanula,
what a great thread. I was stumped for a bit on how I got started. My parents nor my grand mother where gardeners. Then I remembered my kindergarten teacher had us all plant marigolds in little milk cartons.
I became fascinated with the idea that you could keep a plant in a container. Soon I was digging up weeds and tree seedlings and basically torturing them in coffee cans and anything else I could find. lol. I was 5.
Many years later, I tried having gardens in the ground and they never worked very well. Location, location, location.
It wasn't until I moved into the house that I live in now that things finally started to grow. Lots of sun here. I read books, magazines, watched garden shows and finally was able to not only grow tomatoes but flowers!
I got so good at it (in my own head of course) I started dividing plants and giving them to family friends and neighbors. My own mother in-law says that I was the reason she started gardening. She never gardened before and now she's has beautiful gardens.
Long story short, I have to give credit to my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Woods.
:) Laura

Growing up in the "dirty thirties" when times were tough everywhere, even on the farm, we grew almost all of what we ate. After school my time was spent in the garden, not in after school sports. I learned how to grow food, I also learned I did not want to make a living by farming! As an adult I grow beauty in ornamental plants, mostly. My greatest learning experience in horticulture was after I retired and volunteered to work for a nursery dedicated to research on unusual garden plants, not in the nursery trade. My mentor was a retired nursery owner, with a lifetime of plant growing experience, also volunteering to work for this non-profit foundation. Once you don't need to make a living by working, volunteering to work for nothing, just for what you can learn, is even more rewarding than going back to college, if you can work with the right person. Al

I am a new convert to perennial gardening but I have been badly bitten with the 'bug' for the past 4 years after first seeing a relative's outstanding residential garden in a zone 2 climate. Our situation is positively tropical being in z5.

This is such an interesting topic.

I grew up in New York City, The Bronx, so there was no gardening in my youth. My dad would take all three of his daughters (I'm the oldest) to Central Park on Sundays to give my mom a much needed break. And sometimes we'd head out to the Bronx Botanical Gardens. One of my sisters used to grow African Violets in our apartment, but I wouldn't say she was a mentor!

When I first moved to my own home in New Jersey 23 years I decided I wanted a garden, but being a new mom, I didn't have a lot of time for it. It wasn't until I moved to my current home 12 years ago then I became a serious gardener. I bought Traci DiSabato-Aust's book on tending a perennial garden and I faithfully followed her recipe for soil prep. My little 4 by 6' garden grew spectacularly. So I guess Traci was my mentor!

I am pleased to report that my 19 year old son recently called me. He's living off campus in an old brownstone with four other guys in Baltimore and he wanted to know what he could do to add plants to the cement blocks that make up their back yard.

My Dad grew field crops. But my Mama gave me the bug. Growing up in MS, our soil (dirt) was so rich, anything would grow. She didn't have formal gardens, but the perimeter of our house was flowers; roses,dahlias, hydrangeas, zinnias, hollyhocks.....She grew a banana tree that touched our roof top and we had a back yard filled with plum, peach, and fig trees. In this zone, I can't mimic her yard but my gardening spirit has been renewed - maybe because I'm older.
Since I'm really just getting started with the yard in this house, I have "cultivated spots" right now. My 3 year old grandson accompanied me into the yard recently. Sitting on the steps, he surmised "You love your garden don't you?" Hey if he thinks its a garden, that works for me :)

Unfortunately, I never had a mentor; however, I began gardening last year. I consider many of you on this forum to currently be my "vicarious" mentors. I enjoy the threads and am learning a lot!
Thank you very much!!

Judy

No real mentor at all. In fact did not really care that much about gardening having grown up having to dig up bermuda grass out of the backyard, again and again. No fun when you rather be playing!!
But maybe my interest was stimulated by visits to local garden shops looking for landscaping plants for my parents yard and seeing all the potted plants.
This eventually lead to trying to grow various native coastal dune plants and seeds I had collected, back in the early 1960s, as potted plants. Maybe it was the success of getting seed of Convolvulus soldanella (now called Calystegia soldanella to germinate and grow.

What is weird to me is now the area that I visited as a child and young adult has become commercialized as a nature preserve and the nearby local community is betting on its exploitation for financial gain! Sadly in seeing the video in the link below I can recall lots and lots of shore birds compared to the single one shown!!!

I guess I could say it was Mother Nature that was my mentor.

Here is a link that might be useful: The dunes complex at the mouth of the Santa Maria River