My Dad was a very keen gardener but hated spending money. He wouldn't buy seed potatoes but salvaged any that had shoots on from the pantry (fridges were unheard of then, so were freezers come to think of it.) My uncle had a tied cottage with his job with a few acres as a smallholding. I built most of his hen houses (I must have been about twelve at the time) Built out of corugated tin sheeting with nothing to cut it, I just buried which ever portion was suplus to requirements and this stopped vermin getting in. He had geese, Ducks and Hens. Off he would go on a friday evening with my Gran to the local British Legion laden with eggs and produce. I remember them coming back three sheets to the wind without having to put their hand in their pocket all night...all drinks paid for with produce.

We always had bonfires going, burning the sods and these burned for weeks sometimes. At about this time I was given my own plot and I used to venture out onto moorland collecting sheeps carlings in a wheelbarrow. We even dragged in the odd dead sheep which had perished in the heavy snowdrifts and they went straight in the bottom of the leek trench!

We did gardening as a lesson at school and learned all the basics. I used to stay back after school to tend the greenhouse and do bits of jobs that needed doing. Looking back, I can still remember all the hardy annuals and half hardy annuals as the gardening teacher was also the maths teacher and taught us to remember them parrot fashion just like the maths tables. Pretty sad really, after 40 yrs I can still recite Larkspur-cosmos-lavatera-cornflower-calendula-eschaltsia-love lies bleeding nigella-visces etc which was the order they were planted and labeled
When I left school I never gave gardening a thought as a job. I came from a steel town and everyone went to the "Works" on leaving school
I served my time as an engineer and was there for 10 yrs when the works closed and I was made redundant. In this time I got married, had three kids and put some of my gardening skills to good use on the multitude of houses I lived in. I also used to do other peoples garden for pocket money. Mainly old people who couldn't manage their gardens and I didn't always charge them!
After having seven short term contracts over a period of two years I finally got a job cutting grass for the summer( the next door neighbor was the grounds supervisers secretary and put in a good word) I had an allotment right in front of her house and I think she was impressed with ts tidyness.
One thing led to another, I went back to college on day release in my thirties and came out with a distinction in Sports Turf Management I am pleased to say. I am now a resident Head Groundsman on a 43 acre site and have been here for the last 20 years. I love the outdoor life and my living accomodation has a wonderful outlook over the grounds. I have been lucky and wouldn't swap my job for any other.