SUMMERTIME:
The garden was delighted, summer had finally arrived last night, and the garden woke to the cheerful voices of Sara and Garth, “No more school, summer vacation is here!!!” They would be spending more time in the garden now. Sara and Garth both had something in their hands. Garth had the familiar looking gardening tools, but what did Sara have? Sara put down what she was carrying, and the garden could now tell it was seed packages. “Hmm, a little late to start seeds,” thought the garden. Then, it heard Sara telling Garth, “These wildflower seeds grandmother gave us will let us make a great wildflower garden. She even said some of the flowers could be used to make tea with or to eat in a salad!” “Ugh”, exclaimed Garth, “I don’t fancy eating or drinking flowers!” “Oh don’t be silly, we use herbs all the time in our cooking, and they are very similar to wildflowers,” replied Sara. “And, similar to some weeds, too,” thought the garden.
“Now, where shall we put our wildflowers?” asked Sara, as she looked around for a good spot. “How about under the new tree?” replied Garth. “That wouldn’t work very well, as the tree will grow and there will not be enough sunlight for the flowers, but a good place would be where the pile of rocks is, we could move them around and make a rock garden” explained Sara. The garden thought that would be a good spot, too. The rocks use to be a small border fence marking the end of the garden, but over the years, it had decayed into just a messy pile in back corner of the garden.
The garden’s memory drifted back to the day the rocky fence had been made. The garden was young and the first flowerbeds had just been dug. The day before an elegant lady had planted some larkspurs, four o’ clocks, snapdragons and love-lies bleeding. Common flowers all those years ago, the garden remembered, but only the snapdragons were still planted in the garden now. Well, that night, the neighbor’s children had played in the new flowerbed, disturbing the new plantings. Apparently, the children had thought the flowerbed was part of their garden, so the next day, three large men had shown up in the garden and built the stone fence. It had lasted many years, but over time, bushes had been planted behind it to mark the end of the garden, and the fence was no longer needed. So, over the years, it had fallen into disrepair.
“There”, said Sara, “we’ve got all the seeds in now.” Indeed they had, the garden was pleased with its new rock area. Sara and Garth had moved the rocks to make a heart shape with them; they had removed lots of debris, too, clearing away years of rotting leaves, branches and of course, weeds. Then the seeds had been gently planted, and watered. After, Sara had placed small metal tags near the seeds, marking where they had been placed in the soil. Now all they just had to wait and see what types of wildflowers germinated from those seeds.
A Mid Summer Nightmare:
The garden had been having a difficult time the last week. It had awoken one morning to an incredible itchy feeling. Some felt very wrong, and as the garden roused itself from sleep, it realized some very nasty insects, aphids to be exact, were sucking on the gardens rich, verdant growth! The tiny, but vicious little insects had spread themselves over the flowerbeds, and they were having quite a feast on the leaves of many flowers. Sara had arrived in the morning and almost right away noticed something wrong in the garden. Realizing it was an aphid attack; she had come back with a large spray bottle and covered the garden in a cooling and calming shower of the soapy solution contained in the bottle. It had just about recovered from the aphid attack, when the garden felt shivers go through the top of its soil. The shivers were caused by a slimy goo drying on the soil, “Oh no”, cried the garden, “I’ve got snails and slugs!” That was indeed an unpleasant thought.
The last time the garden had snails; they had stayed around sliming the garden all summer long. Of course, that summer had been very cloudy, and snails like cloudy skies. This summer had been mostly sunny, so maybe there was hope, the garden would have to wait and see. It sure hoped Sara would have a good solution, because now it had slugs, too, they were even worse, with their four noses, spreading even more slim around. In the end, it was Garth who helped rid the garden of its snails and slugs, although it was quite by accident. Sara had tried to “de-snail and de- slug” the garden, but had not had much success. Garth had been watching her work in the garden, while drinking some soda, she had asked him for some assistance, and he had put down his drink. When done with the work, they had both left the garden, forgetting the soda. The next morning, they had noticed the glass was full of snails and slugs. So, later that day, the garden had dishes of soda scattered through out, and within a day it was snail and slug free.
However, today, the garden had an uneasy feeling something not good was happening to the tomato and pepper plants. They seemed to be feeling distressed. They were upset about their leaves; it appeared they were being nibbled on. “What is attacking me now,” the garden sighed, exasperated by all these insect attacks happening one after another. The garden didn’t have to wait long to find out. Soon after Sara and Garth made their morning visit to the garden Sara cold be heard crying out, “ Oh dear, more insect problems, the peppers and tomatoes have tomato hornworms!” Sara plucked a green caterpillar of a tomato plant leaf and showed Garth. “Ick, that’s an ugly thing!” he exclaimed. “Well, we will have to spend the morning plucking theses “icky things” of the veggie leaves, so lets get to work.” After an hour, Sara stated that it seemed impossible to find all the tomato hornworms, and that she was getting frustrated keeping up with almost daily insect infections. They would have to take action she told Garth. The children had left the garden for a while, then returned, each holding a jar. “Hello, garden, we have a great solution to you insect problems,’ called out Sara. They opened the jars, and from Sara’s jar out came a praying mantis, from Garth’s out flew a dozen or so ladybugs. These good insects will take care of the bad ones now. “They will be well fed for sure,” thought the garden, feeling happier than it had all week. It knew these insects had big appetites and would provide relief all summer long. Finally, the insect nightmare was over!
Tags: Gardening Fantasy Story Personification Chapter Stories
