Gardens come in as many shapes and sizes as the people who plant and tend them. Think back to the special features and people with whom you have gardened or whose gardens you have visited. Here are a few springboards to incite gardening memories as you reflect on how gardening has impacted your life:
1. When you think of a garden, what garden pops into your mind?
2. Who do you picture being in that garden with you?
3. What is your earliest gardening memory?
4. What was grown in the first garden you remember being in? Vegetables? Flowers?
5. How were you involved in that garden?
6. Did you plant with seeds or purchase plants?
7. Was there a particular theme to the garden?
8. Did you help with the watering? Did you use a watering can or hose? Did you get water from a rain barrel?
9. Do you remember running through a sprinkler or other “play” in the garden?
10. What did you find most interesting about being in the garden – the growing plants, the bugs, the animals that visited the garden and nibbled on the plants?
11. When you think of the people you gardened with, what bits of garden wisdom do you recall them sharing with you?
12. Was there any garden lore that you recall learning? For example: plant potatoes by the moon, sheep’s wool is good for soil, feed your roses bananas, etc.
13. What did you enjoy most about your favorite garden?
14. Did your early garden experiences have any affect on your present feelings about gardening?
15. What was your least favorite garden chore?
16. What would the garden of your dreams be like?
17. If you could add sculpture, art, or statuary to your garden, what would you have?
18. Did your school or a teacher ever encourage gardening? If so, how?
19. What is the age of the youngest person with whom you’ve gardened? How is that person related to you? What did they enjoy the most?
20. How old is/was the oldest person whose garden you helped with or visited? What do you remember about that person as a gardener?
21. What, if any, kind of garden art, photography, crafts, or the like did you make or take?
22. Do you think gardening is important to the planet’s health? Why?
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