Each morning, I searched for a sign of growth. The mums hadn’t moved. Little, bent sticks. I was looking out the window, Sunday morning, and a robin stood in front of one of my mums.
‘Josh, look – ‘
We watched as the robin braced both feet and tugged. Bending backwards, he pulled and pulled. My mum came out. The robin looked down at it, then flew away.
Josh laughed and I cursed the robin. I had to go out and replant that mum. I moved it closer to the house. I had always liked robins, until that day.
I was given five, dahlia plants by my father-in-law. I happily added them to my collection. I admired and sent for: silver mounds and lavender mounds.
With my hat and gloves and my new garden tools, I felt I at least, looked like a gardener. I carefully watered and eagerly searched for signs of growth.
During the next week, little green things sprouted in the vegetable garden and I watered and checked on their progress.
By the time the weekend arrived, they had grown. Up and down the rows, they flourished under my devout care. When Josh came home, I proudly showed him.
‘They’re weeds,’ his voice was quiet.
‘What?’
‘Weeds. You have to pull them.’
‘All of them?’
Yes.’
‘By hand?’
Josh nodded.
‘I’ve been watering them! I thought, they were vegetables!’
‘No. They’re weeds.’
‘Damn! I’ve been watering weeds!’
‘What’s planted here, anyway?’
‘Here? I don’t remember.’
Josh looked at me for a long time. ‘How are you going to know what’s what?’
‘Well, when they grow. A tomato is different from a pea. One’s red. One’s green. One’s big. One’s small. Of couse, I’ll know. Anyone can tell the difference. Why do you look at me like that?’
‘Both have flowers.’
‘Flowers?’
‘Yes. Small ones.’
‘We can’t eat flowers!’
Josh is smiling at me. ‘The flowers blossom first, then the peas grow.’
‘Oh,’ I nodded.
‘Each plant grows differently. What have you got here?’
‘In the garden? All of it? Well – there’s tomatoes, peas, onions, carrots, radishes and cantalopes.’
‘Cantalope won’t grow here.’
‘Why not?’
‘The season is too short.’
‘Oh,’ I was definitely disappointed.
‘Well, maybe, they’ll grow. We’ll see.’
‘Yeah,’ I followed Josh back to the house.
In the weeks that followed, I pulled weeds constantly. All sizes and I counted five, different varieties.
One day on my knees in the hot sun, I looked at the sky and I thought:
What am I doing here? Why am I doing this?
I remembered, somewhere, I had read: Gardening is good for the soul.
Well, my soul now had enough good to last a lifetime. I never knew gardening was such hard work.
You can’t just put the seeds in and walk away. No, it’s daily care. It’s fighting against all kinds of vicious insects and crawling bugs.
This project became very important to me. I waited for the day, when I could cook Josh a meal with fresh vegetables from the garden.
That day, wouldn’t be far away. Things were growing and they weren’t weeds. The radishes came up first. I picked the first one, wiped it on my jeans and enjoyed every, small bite.
The second one was for Josh. He looked very proud of me when I handed him the radish. I had worked hard and I was finally being rewarded.
The onions followed, then the peas and the start of the tomatoes. I was feeling very capable. The next week, I pulled pea pods and cooked pods and all.
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