Growing a Garden. A brother and sister learn that you can’t expect a beautiful garden to simply appear overnight. You need to practice patience every day and you do this and work hard then good things will come to those who wait.
Make your child the main character. Replace this (_____) with your child’s name.
Growing a Garden
Sunshine and _____ were sister and brother. Every day, they walked a mile to see their grandparents.
They always enjoyed their daily walk, greeting the other villagers and seeing what was new or different along the way.
Some things stayed the same on every walk, like Mr. Tobermory who always sat in his garden drinking lemonade…
…and the three cats who sunbathed on the roof of the purple house.
But every day, there were always a few surprises, too. Once, Sunshine and _____ saw someone walking a pet lizard!
Another time, they saw a goat gobbling up Mr. Tobermory’s trees.
Out of all the amazing things they discover on their walk, though, they most liked to look at the garden with the windmill.
It had topiary hedges trimmed into neat pyramids…
…and palm trees that reached the clouds.
Sunshine loved the yellow roses which smelled just like summer, and joy, and vanilla cake.
Dean liked the berry bushes, covered in red fruits which attracted the vibrant blue and green birds.
One day, the pair walked by the windmill garden and stood for a few moments, as usual, to admire the view.
“I wish our garden looked like this,” said Sunshine.
_____ had an idea. “Well,” he said, “why don’t we plant a garden just like it?”
Sunshine clapped her hands in excitement. A garden like this! Of their very own! Was it really so simple?
At their grandparents’ house, the siblings asked if they could have some seeds to plant a garden.
“What sort of seeds?” asked Grandpa.
“Colourful seeds, please!” said Sunshine. “Bright, happy ones if you have any.”
Grandpa said, “I know just the thing!” and whispered to Grandma.
She left the room, and the children hopped about with anticipation.
“Quickly, Grandma!” said _____. His excitement had begun to turn into impatience.
Grandma returned with a few packets of seeds. “Feed them plenty of water!” she said with a smile.
The children thanked their grandparents and rushed off toward home with the seeds.
“Remember to be patient!” called Grandpa, but the children were already too far away to respond.
That afternoon, they dug and dug and dug in their back garden.
_____ planted the berry seeds. Sunshine planted the rose seeds.
And, just like Grandma suggested, they poured lots and lots of water onto the ground.
The next morning, they pulled their shoes on at top speed and raced downstairs to the back door to look at their garden.
It just looked like mud. Nothing had grown.
Sunshine shrugged. “What a waste of time!”
_____ frowned. “Those seeds were useless.”
The following day, they arose with a little bit of hope still in their hearts. They walked downstairs to see the garden.
“See!” said _____. “I knew it. Nothing. Just mud.”
Sunshine sighed. “How disappointing!” she said, and kicked a rock.
On the third day, the brother and sister woke up. They shuffled downstairs and peered outside.
“I give up,” said Sunshine. “We will never have a garden like that beautiful windmill garden.”
“It’s not fair,” said _____. “We did all that digging! It was such hard work.”
The children were so disappointed that they agreed not to look at or talk about their garden ever again.
Instead, they just took their daily walk to their grandparents’ house, saying hello to Mr. Tobermory with his lemonade…
And waving to the three cats sunbathing on the purple rooftop.
They did this through spring, summer, autumn, and winter, until finally, spring came around once more.
_____ and Sunshine were sitting in their kitchen, eating pancakes when they heard loud birdsong.
_____ stood. “It sounds like it’s coming from…”
“The garden?!” said Sunshine.
They opened the back door and stepped outside. They could not believe their eyes.
The birdsong had indeed been coming from their garden. Fantastic blue and green birds were fluttering around everywhere.
The birds had been attracted by the enormous berry bushes growing in the siblings’ garden! _____ was happy.
But what was that enticing smell? “Oh!” gasped Sunshine. “The yellow roses!”
Over the past year, seeds had turned to shoots, which turned to stems and blossoms. They just never noticed them!
The siblings skipped happily around their amazing garden and agreed that something so special was truly worth waiting for.
