What are your earliest plant or garden memories?
Over the holidays, my family got into a discussion of our childhood garden and plant memories. We all very much enjoyed sharing them and hearing about each other’s. My mother had a scent memory of sitting near a lilac and recalled gathering dandelions for salad. My cousin remembered weeding out sour grass and eating it as she went. I remember sitting in a fig tree while my sister picked them, sucking the nectar out of honeysuckle flowers, and so much more. Talking with a few friends, it seems non-gardeners also have powerful and very early memories. I think because these memories often combine many of our senses, particularly taste and smell, they’re strong and have tremendous staying power. What are your early garden memories? Do they influence what you grow today?
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One of my first memories is of my mother holding my hand and slowly walking with me (aged about 3?) in early Spring along the borders of our house and back woods, and she named each flower for me. I still remember the scent of the hyacinths and the damp, warming earth. Mom just loved Spring. The first warm rays of sunshine, the bright colors of flowers bursting out after a long, cold, drab winter, the birds singing....crocus, daffodils, hyacinths... I still make sure to keep these flowering bulbs around me more than half a century later :)
That's lovely. Having grown up in California, I didn't experience spring as a child in the way we have it here in the Northeast. Your description captures the wonder of it perfectly. The sweet smell of earth combining with spring flowers. I can hardly wait!