I was just an ordinary person. I was doing my shopping and just happened to pass by a big parking lot, but full of people planting flowers and fruits and vegetables. Seeing so many of them there and what they were doing got me interested. I wondered if they even went to the grocery stores anymore, seeing as they have their own growing before their eyes.
After seeing the garden, I decided to go to the store the next day and buy some gardening tools. I also got pack of tomato seeds, corn seeds, and sunflower seeds. The sunflower seeds were for me to eat if I got hungry, also to help me make some friends at the garden. I didn’t really know how to take care of a garden, which made me think why I even going to try. But if I could make some friends, and then successfully start a garden, I wouldn’t have to go to the store a spend as much money buying food.
Once I arrived at the garden, I found some space next to an elderly couple, who looked pretty professional. Their plants were all almost as tall as them, towering over the rest of the plants growing. As I laid down my tools, I saw that they were backing away from their plants, admiring them, and I thought to myself this is my chance. I walked up to them, said hi, and then asked if they could give me a few pointers on how to start growing my plants. They kindly replied but said that they were only filling in for their son, who had gotten sick and could not care for his plants. He had asked them to just water them two times a day and make sure no one violated them.
After I got that answer, I felt slightly nervous about how I was supposed to grow a bunch of plants without even knowing how. For a moment I even felt like quitting, but then I saw a little girl watering her plants, growing them tall, with green leaves, and bright yellow corn. I decided to just dig a hole and put some seeds in. After that I covered the hole with dirt and watered it. But I still didn’t have a fence or string to mark my space. After I realized that, I sat there, thinking. Then I decided to make a line in the dirt with my shovel, showing people my territory. Then I rushed off to the store and bought some yarn. I then ran back to my space, and stuck some sticks that I found in the dirt and tied the string between them, showing people my space.
The next day, I came back to my site, and saw the elders were back. I sat down on the ground to plant a few more seeds. We started a conversation. They asked me if I had gardened before, or if this was my first time. I said that it was my first time, and told them that I really did not know what I was doing. That I was just experimenting different ways to grow my plants.
The next day, when I came back to check on my plants, I didn’t see them starting to sprout. So what I did was I emptied my whole bottle, showering water all over the the tiny seeds in the dirt.
I did the same that very afternoon and when my neighbors saw what I was doing to my plants, they told me that too much water would drown them, but too little would dehydrate them and they would still die.
After hearing that, I was afraid to plant any more seeds, after the catastrophe that was my first gardening experience. And so I waited to see if my seeds would ever evolve into sprouts. And on the seventh day of waiting, I had finally given up on that first set of seeds.
Then, without hesitation, I went back to the garden, and planted 15 more seeds. I was so ready to restart with my garden because I saw that the experienced gardener was back in the garden, weaving between plants, watering different amounts as he went. I then went over to him to ask how he had made his plants so successful.
Once I was within conversation distance, I told him my name, and asked what his was. He responded, and said his name was Tony. Then I asked him how he made his plants so big. He said he just used gut instinct. When I said that my gut instinct was to drown my plants, we both laughed. Then he told me to use only about one third of my bottle to water at a time, so as to flood the soil.
I did what he told me, and five days later, I saw sprouts. Tiny green stems poking out of the ground. I kept watering them that same amount of water from my bottle, and by the end of the first month, I had several tomatoes that were almost ready for eating. After my success with the tomatoes, I decided to plant some corn. With the corn, I did the same thing. The corn grew just like the tomatoes and I felt so proud of myself when I stepped back to admire them. Within the next few days, I had picked a bunch of tomatoes that tasted delicious in my salad. I also gave some to some of my friends. I did the same when my corn was picked the next month.
Amazed with my unexpected success, I felt the need to plant more seeds, let them grow, and eat them with a joyful smile on my face. But when I went to go plant them in the once rich soil, I felt that the ground was hard, and cold. I decided to pour water on the dirt to make it softer, and easier to dig in. But the water did not have this effect. The water seeped into the soil, making it wet, but not soft. And then I noticed browning leaves on others plants. I went back home, and when I checked my calendar, and discovered that it was nearly winter. And it would be a long time before my garden would be green again.