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First gardens should be ones that hold everlasting memories, and gardens that follow after can add even more. Make the most of those memories!
Do you remember your first garden? Was it one you started yourself as an adult? Or was it Grandmother's garden you remember from your childhood? It may have been one you strolled through with your beau or significant other. My paternal Grandparents used wood heat and had their garden next to a woodpile. I remember walking barefoot through the rows and how cool (hot at first) the dirt felt between my 10 year-old toes.
First gardens should be ones that hold everlasting memories, and gardens that follow after can add even more. Make the most of those memories by starting a photograph album. As I write this I'm looking at a picture of my 10 year-old daughter kneeling in my wife's herb garden with a wicker basket in her hand. She is pondering on whether to pick a small pansy (those "monkey-faced" Johnny-jump-ups) or a bloom from a mini rose. She wasn't aware I was camera stalking and it will always be one of my favorite pictures from her childhood.
Memories are also made, and kept alive, by writing them in a journal or diary. Why not keep a daily or weekly log of the time you started your very first garden? "I don't think I've ever seen so many rocks in my entire life!!!" That's an entry from a journal I kept in 1997, during the time my wife and I started our first garden here. Notice the three exclamation marks? They were heartfelt at the time I wrote that entry. I still cringe remembering the blisters I got on my hands from raking that quarry of a first garden.
First garden memories are most special when I think about seeing the very first seedling poking its way up and out of the soil. Beans are highly recommended to this day for being one of the easiest vegetables to grow. One shouldn't wonder why I suggest 'Kentucky Wonder' pole beans for instant first gratifications in the garden. Have you ever made a tee pee? If not, it's a requirement when I tell folks what they need for their pole beans to clamber up. Making your first tee pee from "weed trees" is as easy as tying five 10 foot longs sticks together. Separate them at the bottom and plant two or three beans at the base of each pole.
Experienced gardeners know the special significance of starting a garden for the first time. They've walked a few garden paths in their day, and are always looking for the opportunity to tell others about gardening, and how they might start their own very first garden, memories included.
About TC Conner
I have too much lawn and I'm trying to turn it all into gardens. But I still like grasses.
Posted by coorslite (from Tunnel Hill, GA) on January 27, 2008 at 12:22 PM:
what grows in low/very little light
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Subject: Great article!
Posted by tcsister (from Summersville, KY) on January 31, 2007 at 3:43 PM:
Hi TC! I really enjoyed your article. .It brought back many memories of gardens of "yesteryear"! It's great to read a nice gardening article on a bitterly cold Winter day. My suggestion to anyone contemplating their very first garden is to start right now with your planning and research.
Once you begin gardening, you will never want to quit!
Again, great article!
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Posted by Horseshoe (from Efland, NC) on January 31, 2007 at 4:50 PM:
Ditto what she said, TC! (And a big howdy to you, TC's sister!)
Looking forward to reading some more articles in the future, TC!
I was cleaning out the tool closet the other day of broken-handled shovels, bent rakes, etc and was reminded of an article (or maybe a post on DG) about how you turned old tools into Yard Art (faces on shovels, etc). That might be good this time of year to write about while we all have a bit of "easy time" left before the gardening season really kicks in, eh?
Shoe.
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Posted by tcfromky (from Mercer, PA) on January 31, 2007 at 9:49 PM:
Thanks Sis! You said it: "Once you begin gardening, you will never want to quit."
Shoe, that's a great suggestion. It's almost seed starting time too and I have a mind to tell folks how to make a really cheap grow light shelving unit.
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Posted by tcsister (from Summersville, KY) on February 1, 2007 at 9:02 PM:
Hi TC and a big "Howdy" back to you, Shoe! About turning old tools into yard art. . I have actually done that with great success! It is a fun way to "recycle" AND add your personal touch to a spot in your garden or flower bed. And yes, it would be a GREAT project for a lazy Winter Saturday. Then, come Spring, you've got new yard art that you created yourself!
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Subject: Lessons learned :)
Posted by Dea (from Frederick, MD) on January 30, 2007 at 5:17 AM:
Great article TC. Those 1st gardens are so important and filled like you say with memories.
I've probably learned more lessons from working with my Dad in the vegetable gardens we kept so many years ago than I can keep track of. Thanks for the reminder :)
Dea
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Posted by BloomsWithaView (from Moab, UT) on January 30, 2007 at 1:57 PM:
Dea, you are so right. My Dad's vegetable garden was a wonder growing in a rock field. Beans over ten feet tall, and tomatoes that were the best ever. My Mom's flowers edged the veggie garden and so I have the best of gardening memories. Thanks for the reminders, Terry and Dea.
~Blooms
Do you remember your first garden? Was it one you started yourself as an adult? Or was it Grandmother's garden you remember from your childhood? It may have been one you strolled through with your beau or significant other. My paternal Grandparents used wood heat and had their garden next to a woodpile. I remember walking barefoot through the rows and how cool (hot at first) the dirt felt between my 10 year-old toes. 
ost special when I think about seeing the very first seedling poking its way up and out of the soil. Beans are highly recommended to this day for being one of the easiest vegetables to grow. One shouldn't wonder why I suggest 'Kentucky Wonder' pole beans for instant first gratifications in the garden. Have you ever made a tee pee? If not, it's a requirement when I tell folks what they need for their pole beans to clamber up. Making your first tee pee from "weed trees" is as easy as tying five 10 foot longs sticks together. Separate them at the bottom and plant two or three beans at the base of each pole. 
