Please share with me things from your childhood which were key to getting you into gardening

[Liara]

My 6yo ds1 is totally and completely plant mad. Half our days out are to gardens (would be more if it was up to him), he has raided my bookshelves for books on plants (preferably bulbs) and spends a large proportion of his time talking about the grand designs he wants to plant up.

I want to encourage and support his interest, but I worry that repeated failure will just depress him and put him off, which would be a real shame. I never had any involvement with gardening when I was a child, and though I love it now I have a pretty high failure rate.

We have a very large garden but we are in the Mediterranean area, and cannot possibly water ornamental plants beyond a little to get them established.

I would love to hear others' best memories of gardening with their parents/on their own for the first time.

We didn't bring romans into it, it was their idea! We had been to visit a roman aqueduct and associated museum, and they were very interested, so decided to have a go. First we knew was two mud-covered children presenting us with lumps of 'clay' formed into dubious shapes.

I generally agree with the principle of messy play for its own sake, to the extent that I suspect that my children would not see mud pies as in any way subversive. Just a bit quiet, possibly, for their taste. Still, no harm in offering.