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Height Of Summer ~ Wild flowers in bloom:

 

The garden had recovered nicely from its insect nightmares and all was growing quickly now under the hot summer sun. The vegetable part of the garden was producing a large crop. There was an abundant amount of Early Girl and Big Boy tomatoes growing big and succulent on their vine, even the smaller cherry tomatoes were fruitful this year. The peppers were growing large, as well and some even had a touch of red on their green skin. Sara and Garth were excited at the thought of the bountiful harvest they would have in a few weeks. They had already started picking beans, cucumber and lettuce. There were also still some peas and radishes to harvest. The garden had heard Sara and Garth talking about how tasty their home grown salad had been at dinner last night, and how they couldn’t wait to added in more fresh veggies and some herbs, too.

The flowerbeds were also content and budding some beautiful blossoms, which the children loved to cut and present to their Mother. The different flowers had bloomed into a rainbow of colors and a bouquet cut from the garden looked beautiful as the children walked from the garden chatting about how their Mum would arrange the flowers and put them on the dinner table. 

Sara was especially happy one morning when she noticed how quickly the wildflowers were growing. She was anxious to see what types of flowers they were. One afternoon, Sara walked out to the garden with a blanket and a large book in her hands. She spread the blanket out by the wildflowers and opened the book. The garden could see it had lots of pictures of flowers in it. After awhile, Sara pulled a small notebook and pencil out of her pant pocket. She started writing as she spoke out loud, “Well, we have quite a variety of flowers, there are corn flowers, black eyed Susan’s, baby’s breath and asters, pretty common wild flowers so I’m not surprised they are growing, and they will make a great addition to our flower bouquets. I also see some butterflyweed; they will love growing in the rock garden, and sweet William. Ah, we have quite a few edible ones, too, the most common being nasturtium and mint. I’ll have to move the mint to its own area before it takes over the rock garden, it is really a herb anyway, so I will put it in a pot near the other herbs by the house”, added Sara. She also added Queen Anne’s lace, primrose and Johnny-Jump ups to her edible list, although were not often thought of as edible. Then the garden heard Sara gasp, “We have a few poisonous wild flower, too! Let’s see there is larkspur, hounds tongue, bluebonnets (lupines) and foxglove. Hmm, foxglove makes a good heart medicine, yet it is dangerous to eat, how interesting! I will have to make sure no one eats these flowers.” Then Sara packed up her things and left the garden. Soon she returned and placed several of her metal tags near the plants that she had identified as poisonous. The garden assumed she had labeled then with warnings. “That will work for humans that read, but what about animals”, thought the garden, “they won’t know what is on the metal tags!” Of course, not many animals entered the garden now, the fox’s urine had done its job well, and most birds seemed to know instinctively which plants they could eat. “So, I guess it won’t be a big problem’, sighed the garden with relief.

 

Rain, yet more rain and what a storm:

 

The garden awoke in the early morning feeling miserable. It was raining, as it had everyday this week, and the garden was wet and soggy. The soil was turning to mud and the grass was beginning to feel like a saturated sponge waiting to be wrung out! And, to top it all of the heavy rain last night had left the leaves in the garden all muddy, and of course the garden had no love of mud on its leaves.  The garden could also tell that the roots of the flowers and vegetables were not happy. Some were beginning to get root rot, as the continual rain was not allowing the soil to dry out; making it difficult for the roots to absorb enough air. If the sun didn’t come out soon some of the plants would not survive, as root rot usually destroyed a plant. Sara had come out daily in between the rainstorms to check on the garden, but there was little she could do to help. However, she and Garth had been able to improve the drainage a little by making small channels in the soil to help the excesses water run off from the flowerbeds and into the small wooded area at the back of the garden. This had helped a bit, but the garden feared it would not be enough to save all the plants in danger of root rot. Sara had also tried to clean some of the mud off the plant leaves, but this was a tedious task, she finally had just decided to wait until the sun came out to dry the leaves, then she could just brush the mud away.

 

Later that day, the sun had almost poked itself through the dense cloud cover, but this had only made things worse, producing the most fierce thunderstorm the garden had know in all its years. The sky had become as dark as night, and the garden felt the serge of an electric current run through it as the first large lightening bolt hit it. The garden squirmed under the force of it and the subsequent thunder that followed. This was not a pleasant sensation at all; the garden felt itself wishing for Sara to come out and tend it, but knew she would not appear in a storm this intense. Then it hit, the biggest and loudest bolt of lightening to ever land in the garden, it was followed by a loud, anguished groan. “What was that?’ thought the garden, it was truly scared now! Suddenly, CRASH, and down fell the old oak tree, the very first tree planted in the garden. It landed right in the middle of the flowerbeds, the flowers it landed on squealed with the shock of the sudden weight being dropped on them. “Oh my, how terrible, my favorite tree is down and my lovely flowers are being squashed!” cried the garden. At that point, it also began to rain incredibly heavy; the rain stung the garden; it was hailstones coming down, pinging the air and landing hard and cold on the garden. The garden was now the most distraught it had ever felt. All the beauty was being destroyed, and the garden could not do anything but wait for help.

 

The garden eventually feel into a fitful sleep; to be woken by the sound of Sara and her whole family assessing the damage done to the garden by last night’s storm. Her father was talking about the tree, and how they would have to pay for someone to haul it away. “What a shame”, he had said, “after all these years to be felled by a thunderstorm.” “Yes”, replied Mother, “ it is very sad to see our lovely oak ripped out of the ground. It has been a part of this garden for so many years.”  The garden thought back to when the tree had been planted, so young, with a straight trunk and shiny, fresh leaves. It wondered what that owner would think about the violent end to his beautiful oak. He had lived in the house by the garden, tending it for many years, taking special care of the then young oak tree. He would often sit near, and eventually, as the tree grew, under it, reading and on occasion, sleeping there. The garden would hear the man (the garden never did catch his name) telling the tree how proud he was of it growing taller and stronger; how it would provide wonderful shade for years to come. When this man moved away, the garden heard him tell the tree how much he would miss its cool shade from the summer sun and watching the beauty of snow landing on its bare branches in the winter.

 

The garden’s reverie was broken by a loud mechanical buzzing sound and human voices shouting. The garden realized it was a chain saw; the humans must be removing the tree. The shouts heard above the noise of the saw, were instructions for safely moving the tree trunk being given by a tall man in a helmet standing near the fallen oak. Slowly, the garden could fell the weight of the tree being lifted off the flowerbed. “Oh, look at the mess it has made of our beautiful flowers”, Garth cried to Sara. Sara replied, “We will have some hard work ahead fixing up the poor flowerbed. However, it does look like many flowers survived, they are just squashed from the weight of the tree.” Indeed, the garden could feel some plants already stretching and trying to lift their flattened heads up, however, other flowers had been completely crushed and would have to be pulled up. The garden assumed new ones would be planted in their place.

 

It took a couple of weeks, but finally one day the garden heard Sara exclaim to Garth that the flowerbed was looking beautiful once again, and so it was. The flowers that had survived being crushed had bounced back nicely and new blooms were forming and starting to open up. Sara had managed to find some interesting new flowers to replace those that were ruined. She has planted some dahlias, verbena and moved some asters from the rock garden into the flowerbed. She had also put in some ornamental grasses. Sara had told Garth how lucky they were to find such pretty replacements so late into the summer season. The garden was just happy she did find them. It felt beautiful once again, although it missed the shade of the oak cooling the grass during hot summer afternoons, but at least the flowerbed was once again flourishing. 

 

That afternoon, as the garden listened to the children talking, it found out a new tree would be planted in the place of the old oak next spring. Their father said he would buy the tree, and the children would tend it. They would be able to watch it grow from a young sapling into a tall sturdy tree, much as they were now growing from small children into grown ups. Sara and Garth had talked enthusiastically about this and how it would be exciting to watch the new oak grow; they were still sad about losing the old oak, but the thought of the new tree cheered them up.

 

LATE SUMMER:

 

The summer was going by quickly now; the weather had been peaceful these past few weeks, with mostly sunny days and occasional gentle rain showers. Sara and Garth had been busy harvesting vegetables, and they were very pleased, as the garden had produced an abundant harvest even though there had been many challenges to overcome this summer. All the flowers were doing well, too. Sara and Garth took great pride in the rock garden they had started. Sara had talked about how with the addition of the new flowers; they would have blossoms to cut for many more weeks.  Garth had even been willing to try tasting some of the edible flowers. He had liked the pungent taste of the nasturtium, but thought the other ones tasted, as he put it, weird and nasty! He did agree the wildflowers made a great addition the bouquets they still bought their mother.

 

 

Soon the garden knew the children would be returning to school and they would be spending less time in the garden. Although, sometimes they would bring heavy books out to it to do something called ‘homework”. The garden could never understand how work that is being done on the house could be accomplished in the garden; still it enjoyed having them lean against the oak and looking at these books. The garden hoped they would still bring their “homework” to do even though the oak was gone. It would be awhile until it knew that, so the garden relaxed and enjoyed the late summer sun beaming down.

 

As it turned out, the children did bring their “homework” out to the garden. Sara talked excitedly about what she would be studying in school this year; she was going to be studying botany. The garden wondered what that was and so did Garth. “So, what will you learn in this botany class you are taking?” Garth asked Sara one afternoon. She replied, “I will be learning all about plants, the different types, how they grow, which ones are edible or poisonous, and plant diseases, too.” 

 

Sara told Garth that the first chapter covered basic plants including the differences between cultivated and wildflowers, herbs and weeds. She explained that there really wasn’t a big difference and that a plant could fall into more than one classification. In fact, what might be considered a weed in one part of the world could be considered a wildflower or a culinary delight in another. Sara showed Garth the book she was given to learn about botany, and Garth flipped through it, he stopped at one page and showed it to Sara. “Look”, he said, “ it is all about garden weeds, and it says some can be eaten if prepared correctly.” Well, that certainly surprised the garden, it had given up hope that the children would figured out the weeds could be eaten by humans. Its excitement at hearing this news caused all the roots on its vegetation to stir; the worms under the soil wiggled like crazy. The worms that wiggled top of the soil were quickly nabbed by passing birds. The children wondered what was going on, “It almost seems like the garden is happy I am studying botany!” laughed Sara. “Don’t be silly,” said Garth, “the garden couldn’t possibly know what you are saying.”

Tags: Gardening Fantasy Story Personification Chapter Stories

My Garden Story:   

 

A Garden’s Tale: A Perspective On Life!

 

By Gillwho

 

Background:

 

The garden was set behind a beautiful white Victorian house in a small New England, USA town. The house was surrounded by perennial flowers and had herbs growing in window boxes attached to the kitchen window. There was a lush lawn with a willow tree in the front of the house. Annual flowers and vegetables were grown in the garden, which was in the back of the house, and flower/ vegetable beds ran along the outside, with several shade trees in each corner of the garden. In the middle of the garden was the lawn and in the center of that was an elegant old oak tree, providing shady spot on a hot summer’s day.

 

The humans currently living in the home were two children and their parents. The family was originally from England, and had worked hard to have the landscape around their new home resemble the one they left behind in their homeland. The flowers by the house and the herbs were Mother’s responsibility, Father was in charge of mowing the lawns, both front and back, and the garden itself was cared for by the children, Sara and Garth.

 

 

EARLY SPRING:

 

The garden stirred slowly, it was quietly waking up after a long winter’s sleep. It could feel the snow receding and the warmth of the spring sun on its soil.  The first signs of new growth were happening slowly just under the soil. Weeds and flowers were stirring, their roots pushing carefully through the still chilly underground. In a day or two, the first green tips of the stem and leaves would poke through the ground. “Ah”, thought the garden, another growing season will soon be under way. The humans that tended it would soon return. The garden missed them over the winter. It especially missed Sara; she understood the garden and its moods. Sara knew where and when to plant flowers and vegetables in the garden to get the best results. The garden wondered too, what Sara would look like this year. She had been very small the first time the garden had seen her, and she was full of delight as she smelled the flowers and tasted the vegetables. The first few years, a bigger human had helped her care for the garden. Then one spring she appeared alone and much taller. The garden heard her exclaim, “Mum, said I can start working in the garden by myself this year!” Sara had proved to be very skilled in tending the garden over the years, except the garden wished she didn’t pull up all the weeds! “How wasteful”, thought the garden.” She could be using those weeds to feed the other humans.” There was quite a variety, too, including dandelions, perslane and violets, although violets were sometimes considered wildflowers by some humans. This also made the garden think how closely related wildflowers and weeds were, like cousins, the garden thought.

 

Thinking of them reminded the garden of the other growing human, Garth. He was quite the opposite of Sara; he loved to tear through the garden, disturbing the peace and quite of the growing vegetation. When he was very little he would dig holes in the ground and fill them with water, then he would jump and splash around in the hole, spreading mud onto all the nearby leaves, ugh, the garden disliked having muddy leaves. Last year. Garth started hitting all the pretty flower heads with a stick! Fortunately, Sara generally chased him out of the flowerbeds. “Oh my”, thought the garden, “what will he do this year!”

 

“Well, that is something to deal with later”, thought the garden, as it turn its attention back to what was happening currently. It had felt the earth moving, the worms had awakened and were stretching their long thin bodies for the first time this spring. It felt good to the garden, and it relaxed, forgetting about the humans for the moment. As the worms turned the earth, the new roots from the vegetation were able to push further out and gather nutrients from the soil. Now, they were quickly able to produce steams and leaves, to grow quickly, in just a short amount of time now, the garden would be going from brown and bare to green and lush.  Early spring was well under way!

 

SPRING:

 

It was a loud thunderstorm that woke the garden from its dreamy state with a start. Spring was in full bloom now, the grass green, the leaves on the trees fully open and an array of wildflowers and weeds covered the garden’s now warm soil. Frogs sung the garden to sleep at night and a chorus of birds woke it in the morning. Now though, the storm had disturbed its afternoon nap. Crashes of thunder reverberated through the ant nests scattered around the flowerbeds, and the garden could feel the ants working to secure their hills. Lightening scared the baby birds, the garden could hear them tweeting loudly for their parents. Then the rain started, it felt cool and refreshing to plants and birds. The garden insects were not so pleased with the rain; they worked to keep their small structures from collapsing from the weight of the raindrops. Many had to bail out their little sleeping holes. A few spiders lost their beautiful webs and would have to make repairs. Honey bees that had been too busy gathering pollen to notice the impending storm took cover under flowers. Soon however, the storm passed and the sun returned. The smell of warm, moist soil wafted up from the ground, a few worms wriggled up from underneath the soft soil to warm their bodies for a bit. “Not such a good idea”, thought the garden, “with all those baby birds to feed, those worms will be afternoon snacks!” And sure enough, a group of birds swept down and in an instant had plenty of food for their young.

 

“Hey, leave some worms in the garden, they are good for the soil”, the garden heard Sara cry as she ran towards it. The birds quickly flew away. The garden was happy to see Sara, she had already been busy, tidying up, clearing away the muck from winter and cleaning up the garden decorations. The birdbath was scrubbed clean and filled with fresh water, the small garden fence was brushed clean and the assorted gnomes and fairies statues were washed clean. Next, the garden knew, would come spring planting. That is when Sara would pull all those weeds, how the garden still wished it could tell Sara the value of some of those weeds!!!

 

The garden was tired and was looking forward to a quite night of sleep after an active day. Sara had been busy planting today, digging holes, and carefully putting the young flowers and vegetables snuggly into their new homes. She had made smaller holes and tenderly placed and covered seeds in them, then marking the rows with little shinny metal tags. Once done, Sara had gently watered all she had planted. Sara had help planting this year, which surprised the garden, as it was Garth! He was taller and quieter this year. Now instead of tearing through the garden, making a mess, he was helping Sara pulling up the weeds, (oh well), and taking them to the compost pile for her. At least they would do some good there. He also helped her with the digging and raking to get the flowerbeds ready for planting. “My, how he has grown up”, thought the garden, “it will be a peaceful year without Garth’s wild behavior.”

 

As nighttime approached, the garden was relaxed and ready to feel the new plantings pushing their roots into the soil. The garden loved to drift of to sleep with the thought of plants snuggling into their new homes! In the middle of the night though, the garden awoke to a tickling sensation. It was coming from some of the new flowers, there was someone was nibbling on them! It must be that pesky rabbit that comes around every year. It always managed to get a few good meals from the garden before it got tired of being chased away by the neighbor’s dog, Rex. Sara would not be happy when she found out it had paid a visit in the night, but the garden was powerless to make the rabbit stop munching. It could hear the gnashing of its teeth on the tender flower tops. From the location of the tickling, the garden knew the pretty yellow and orange marigold heads were the victims of tonight’s foraging. The garden could also feel digging going on in one of the flowerbeds. It was squirrels stealing the alyssum to line their nests with. It would provide a soft bed for the young ones. The squirrels made quick work of their gatherings and soon disappeared into the night. Then the garden heard a loud belching sound, apparently the rabbit had had its fill for the night, and it too, soon scampered off. “Poor Sara, she would be very displeased now,” the garden thought as it drifted of to sleep again. 

 

The morning quite was broken by Sara’s cries, “Oh Garth, look what happened to the garden last night, it has been chewed on, rabbits and squirrels I would guess, looks like I will have to stay out here at night to keep the little animals away!!!” Garth said, “I don’t think Mother and Father will let you do that, and I don’t want to spend every night out here with you. Besides,” Garth said proudly, “I have a better solution!” Sara looked at him, “You do?” “Yes, foxes urine, we sprinkle it around the garden, and it will seem like a fox lives here. That will keep animals out of your garden, Sara.” “Yuck!” exclaimed Sara,  “That sounds disgusting, and how would you get this urine from the fox anyway?!?” “Oh silly, you buy it, I’m not sure how the manufacturer gets the urine, but they turn it into crystals that you put around the garden,” replied Garth.  “In that case, lets go buy some right away,” said Sara, looking relieved.

A little later, the garden felt Sara and Garth working in it. The stolen and chewed flowers were being replaced, and the garden could smell a slightly unpleasant odor around its perimeter. However, the garden felt it could get use to the odor if it stopped critters from chewing and digging around in the night! And work well it did!!! Soon all the new flowers and vegetables were growing full and strong. The garden felt comfort in the lush spring growth.

 

LATE SPRING/ EARLY SUMMER:

 

 The warm spring rain was soaking gently into the garden, refreshing it. As everything was growing quickly now, the need for moisture was constant, and the flowers and vegetables perked up as their roots drank in the cool liquid. The garden was proud of how it looked. The flowers all had blooms and many had beautiful perfume emanating from them. They were also loaded with pollen, and the bees were keeping very busy gathering it to take home to make wonderful honey! While the bees were in the garden gathering the flower pollen, they were also attracted to the less powerfully scented, but abundant pollen in the blossoms on the vegetables. This had allowed for the bees to spread the pollen to create even more blossoms, which would eventually lead to more vegetables to be harvested.

 

Sara and Garth had been busy, too, “grooming” the garden, keeping the flowerbeds neat and tidy. They “dead headed” flower blossoms that were old, and trimmed unruly leaves. They raked and loosened the soil around the plants, and they continued to pull up weeds as they grew. At least most of the weeds sprouting up now were not of the edible variety!

One day, a large truck had pulled up just outside the garden, and Sara and Garth had carried something together out of the back of it, as they walked carefully away from the truck, the garden could see it was a “baby” tree. The garden was getting a new addition! It had been a long time since the garden had a new tree planted in its soil, and so the garden was excited at the prospect of watching the tree grow. It wondered what type it was, and if it was a pine tree, maybe a new maple, or even a fruit tree. As the children approached the garden, it could tell it was an oak tree, how exciting, the garden loved to watch oak trees grow from infancy into large shade trees. This made the garden think about the first oak that was planted in its soil many years ago. The garden was very different then. It was mostly just a lawn, with a few simple flowers planted in a flowerbed at the back of the lawn and a hedge or two. An elegant lady and gentleman owned the garden at that time; they often invited many people to the garden and set up fancy parties on its well-manicured lawns. Then one day, a new person arrived in the garden. He immediately added the first tree to it, an oak. It was still there in the middle of the lawn, providing ample shade on hot summer days.

 

While in the garden, Sara and Garth also checked for signs that the garden may have been nibbled on, but the fox’s urine was working well, and the garden had no invading, munching critters. In fact, the garden had observed a squirrel eyeing it with great care the other day. It had then zipped by at top speed, after which, the squirrel leaned on a tree just outside the garden and let out a sigh of great relief, the little critter thought it had evaded the fox!!!. All in all, the garden was content and happy, and it put all it’s energy now into making it’s growth as abundant as possible. The garden was looking forward to a lush summer season.

Tags: Gardening Fantasy Story Personification Chapter Stories

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

My Garden Story:

A Garden’s Tale: A Perspective On Life!

By Gillwho

EARLY SPRING:

The garden stirred slowly, it was quietly waking up after a long winter’s sleep. It could feel the snow receding and the warmth of the spring sun on its soil. The first signs of new growth were happening slowly just under the soil. Weeds and flowers were stirring, their roots pushing carefully through the still chilly underground. In a day or two, the first green tips of the stem and leaves would poke through the ground. “Ah”, thought the garden, another growing season will soon be under way. The humans that tended it would soon return. The garden missed them over the winter. It especially missed Sara; she understood the garden and its moods. Sara knew where and when to plant flowers and vegetables in the garden to get the best results. The garden wondered too, what Sara would look like this year. She had been very small the first time the garden had seen her, and she was full of delight as she smelled the flowers and tasted the vegetables. The first few years, a bigger human had helped her care for the garden. Then one spring she appeared alone and much taller. The garden heard her exclaim, “Mum, said I can start working in the garden by myself this year!” Sara had proved to be very skilled in tending the garden over the years, except the garden wished she didn’t pull up all the weeds! “How wasteful”, thought the garden.” She could be using those weeds to feed the other humans.”

Thinking of them reminded the garden of the other growing human, Garth. He was quite the opposite of Sara; he loved to tear through the garden, disturbing the peace and quite of the growing vegetation. When he was very little he would dig holes in the ground and fill them with water, then he would jump and splash around in the hole, spreading mud onto all the nearby leaves, ugh, the garden disliked having muddy leaves. Last year. Garth started hitting all the pretty flower heads with a stick! Fortunately, Sara generally chased him out of the flowerbeds. “Oh my”, thought the garden, “what will he do this year!”

“Well, that is something to deal with later”, thought the garden, as it turn its attention back to what was happening currently. It had felt the earth moving, the worms had awakened and were stretching their long thin bodies for the first time this spring. It felt good to the garden, and it relaxed, forgetting about the humans for the moment. As the worms turned the earth, the new roots from the vegetation were able to push further out and gather nutrients from the soil. Now, they were quickly able to produce steams and leaves, to grow quickly, in just a short amount of time now, the garden would be going from brown and bare to green and lush. Early spring was well under way!

SPRING:

It was a loud thunderstorm that woke the garden from its dreamy state with a start. Spring was in full bloom now, the grass green, the leaves on the trees fully open and an array of wildflowers and weeds covered the garden’s now warm soil. Frogs sung the garden to sleep at night and a chorus of birds woke it in the morning. Now though, the storm had disturbed its afternoon nap. Crashes of thunder reverberated through the ant nests scattered around the flowerbeds, and the garden could feel the ants working to secure their hills. Lightening scared the baby birds, the garden could hear them tweeting loudly for their parents. Then the rain started, it felt cool and refreshing to plants and birds. The garden insects were not so pleased with the rain; they worked to keep their small structures from collapsing from the weight of the raindrops. Many had to bail out their little sleeping holes. A few spiders lost their beautiful webs and would have to make repairs. Honey bees that had been too busy gathering pollen to notice the impending storm took cover under flowers. Soon however, the storm passed and the sun returned. The smell of warm, moist soil wafted up from the ground, a few worms wriggled up from underneath the soft soil to warm their bodies for a bit. “Not such a good idea”, thought the garden, “with all those baby birds to feed, those worms will be afternoon snacks!” And sure enough, a group of birds swept down and in an instant had plenty of food for their young.

“Hey, leave some worms in the garden, they are good for the soil”, the garden heard Sara cry as she ran towards it. The birds quickly flew away. The garden was happy to see Sara, she had already been busy, tidying up, clearing away the muck from winter and cleaning up the garden decorations. The birdbath was scrubbed clean and filled with fresh water, the small garden fence was brushed clean and the assorted gnomes and fairies statues were washed clean. Next, the garden knew, would come spring planting. That is when Sara would pull all those weeds, how the garden still wished it could tell Sara the value of some of those weeds!!!

The garden was tired and was looking forward to a quite night of sleep after an active day. Sara had been busy planting today, digging holes, and carefully putting the young flowers and vegetables snuggly into their new homes. She had made smaller holes and tenderly placed and covered seeds in them, then marking the rows with little shinny metal tags. Once done, Sara had gently watered all she had planted. Sara had help planting this year, which surprised the garden, as it was Garth! He was taller and quieter this year. Now instead of tearing through the garden, making a mess, he was helping Sara pulling up the weeds, (oh well), and taking them to the compost pile for her. At least they would do some good there. He also helped her with the digging and raking to get the flowerbeds ready for planting. “My, how he has grown up”, thought the garden, “it will be a peaceful year without Garth’s wild behavior.”

As nighttime approached, the garden was relaxed and ready to feel the new plantings pushing their roots into the soil. The garden loved to drift of to sleep with the thought of plants snuggling into their new homes! In the middle of the night though, the garden awoke to a tickling sensation. It was coming from some of the new flowers, there was someone was nibbling on them! It must be that pesky rabbit that comes around every year. It always managed to get a few good meals from the garden before it got tired of being chased away by the neighbor’s dog, Rex. Sara would not be happy when she found out it had paid a visit in the night, but the garden was powerless to make the rabbit stop munching. It could hear the gnashing of its teeth on the tender flower tops. From the location of the tickling, the garden knew the pretty yellow and orange marigold heads were the victims of tonight’s foraging. The garden could also feel digging going on in one of the flowerbeds. It was squirrels stealing the alyssum to line their nests with. It would provide a soft bed for the young ones. The squirrels made quick work of their gatherings and soon disappeared into the night. Then the garden heard a loud belching sound, apparently the rabbit had had its fill for the night, and it too, soon scampered off. “Poor Sara, she would be very displeased now”, the garden thought as it drifted of to sleep again.

The morning quite was broken by Sara’s cries, “Oh Garth, look what happened to the garden last night, I knew we should have borrowed Rex to stand guard!!!” Garth said, “Well, he couldn’t be there all night, he would probably get bored and do more harm digging than the rabbit. He’s only helpful when we see the rabbit and have him chase it; besides it looks like other critters were in the garden, too. And”, Garth said proudly, “I have a better solution!” Sara looked at him, “You do?” “Yes, foxes urine, we sprinkle it around the garden, and it will seem like a fox lives here. That will keep animals out of your garden, Sara.” “Yuck!” exclaimed Sara, “That sounds disgusting, and how would you get this urine from the fox anyway?!?” “Oh silly, you buy it, I’m not sure how the manufacturer gets the urine, but they turn it into crystals that you put around the garden,” replied Garth. “In that case, lets go buy some right away,” said Sara, looking relieved.

A little later, the garden felt Sara and Garth working in it. The stolen and chewed flowers were being replaced, and the garden could smell a slightly unpleasant odor around its perimeter. However, the garden felt it could get use to the odor if it stopped critters from chewing and digging around in the night! And work well it did!!! Soon all the new flowers and vegetables were growing full and strong. The garden felt comfort in the lush spring growth.

Late Spring/ Early Summer:

The warm spring rain was soaking gently into the garden, refreshing it. As everything was growing quickly now, the need for moisture was constant, and the flowers and vegetables perked up as their roots drank in the cool liquid. The garden was proud of how it looked. The flowers all had blooms and many had beautiful perfume emanating from them. They were also loaded with pollen, and the bees were keeping very busy gathering it to take home to make wonderful honey! While the bees were in the garden gathering the flower pollen, they were also attracted to the less powerfully scented, but abundant pollen in the blossoms on the vegetables. This had allowed for the bees to spread the pollen to create even more blossoms, which would eventually lead to more vegetables to be harvested.

Sara and Garth had been busy, too, “grooming” the garden, keeping the flowerbeds neat and tidy. They “dead headed” flower blossoms that were old, and trimmed unruly leaves. They raked and loosened the soil around the plants, and they continued to pull up weeds as they grew. At least most of the weeds sprouting up now were not of the edible variety!

One day, a large truck had pulled up just outside the garden, and Sara and Garth had carried something together out of the back of it, as they walked carefully away from the truck, the garden could see it was a “baby” tree. The garden was getting a new addition! It had been a long time since the garden had a new tree planted in its soil, and so the garden was excited at the prospect of watching the tree grow. It wondered what type it was, and if it was a pine tree, maybe a new maple, or even a fruit tree. As the children approached the garden, it could tell it was an oak tree, how exciting, the garden loved to watch oak trees grow from infancy into large shade trees. This made the garden think about the first oak that was planted in its soil many years ago. The garden was very different then. It was mostly just a lawn, with a few simple flowers planted in a flowerbed at the back of the lawn. An elegant lady and gentleman owned the garden at that time; they often invited many people to the garden and set up fancy parties on its well-manicured lawns. Then one day, a new person arrived in the garden. He immediately added the first tree to it, an oak. It was still there in the middle of the lawn, providing ample shade on hot summer days.

While in the garden, Sara and Garth also checked for signs that the garden may have been nibbled on, but the fox’s urine was working well, and the garden had no invading, munching critters. In fact, the garden had observed a squirrel eyeing it with great care the other day. It had then zipped by at top speed, after which, the squirrel leaned on a tree just outside the garden and let out a sigh of great relief, the little critter thought it had evaded the fox!!!. All in all, the garden was content and happy, and it put all it’s energy now into making it’s growth as abundant as possible. The garden was looking forward to a lush summer season.

Tags: Gardening Fantasy Story Personification Chapter Stories

This week the F5M conference room continued to offer
support, education and companionship. There were many ideas for how to promote
our business, including of course too use the resources available at our
Business/ Social Networks. Carl presented these wonderful suggestions at his
marketing in-services, and others members freely shared their marketing ideas
as we chatted in the room. We also encouraged each other to try these new
ideas.

During the week, we chatted about a variety of
subjects, of course weather continued to be a big topic. Many of our members
were effected by the ice storms in the middle of the States this week and were
with out power for sometime. We warmly welcomed them back once they had
electricity again! We also talked about how to handle people who were negative
toward F5M, best not to argue, just do our work and prove them wrong as we
continue to grow and make more money. All in all it was a fun learning
experience being in the F5M room this week. I am sure I will learn more cool
marketing tips next week. If you would like to enhance your marketing skills,
come to the conference room through this link: http://www.fortune5minutes.com/?id=6483/ . Anyone
can come to Carl’s free in-services given Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3:00 and
9:00 PM EST.

If you love social networking and interacting with people
from all over the world, this business is for you! Although, of course the point of joining any business is to make money, Fortune 5 Minutes offers the addition of global friends through theConference room. When you sign up for the program, you get access to this room.
The room is used for explaining the business and for support or in-services formembers. This room is open, as they say, 24/7, just like a social network. Youwill find yourself conversing with people from Australia, The UK, Iceland, and many other countries, not only about Fortune 5 Minutes, but about many othertopics as well. I have had conversations about where I grew up, how the weatheris where I am, where I like to vacation, and many other subjects. An addedbonus to communicating in this conference room is that if you have a web cam,or even just a mike, you can actually talk to another person. However, don’t worry if you don’t, one can also text message to carry on a conversation! One can also have the conference room open all day, go about other work on the computer, then poke your head in once in awhile to see who is there. Just like a social network, there is usually someone around to chat with. Everyone hereis just as friendly and welcoming as Zubby. So I say in conclusion, Zubby is a
social site with a business side and Fortune 5 Minutes is a business with a social side. They make great companions. I hope to be friends with you in bothplaces.

For business information about Fortune 5 Minutes, please
click the following link:

http://www.fortune5minutes.com/?id=6483/