I love to garden. I got my green thumb via my mother. Garden center, hardware store, grocery store, it didn't matter, my mother could and still can find some plant that interests her.
Spring, summer, and fall, we'd gather up flats of seedlings or bags of bulbs, then work until after dark to plant them in the front yard. And I would fuss (in my head, mind you!) and sigh and frown. When I looked particularly frustrated, Mama would say to me, "Look what your crazy mother has gone and done, making her baby work out in the dark..." (cold, wet, fill in the blank here) "...but you do such a nice job. Just put that plant there, and plant the others where you think they'd go best..." and on. She seemed to know just when I'd had enough of kneeling in the dirt, trying to find space for new plants while not disturbing old ones, and find something to say to draw me back in.
When I was too tired, my knees hurt too much, my hands were too cold, or I just didn't want to do any more, she'd tell me to go in and she'd be done in a few minutes. I usually ended up sitting on the steps and talking with her while she worked, about plants her grandmother or mother had, or gardening information (like "What is lime and what's it good for anyway?"), or just anything at all.
Years of helping her in her garden have motivated me, wherever I've lived, to start my own.
Things I've learned while gardening:
My favorite gardening resources: