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The Boy's Garden that Grew

© Linda Mazar

A long time ago there was a grassy patch of lawn. Actually it wasn't all that grassy. The dandelions, broad leaf weeds, and crab grass were as likely to grow there as anywhere else on this hunk of hard clay. The clay was soggy and spongy in the springtime after the winter snow had melted. It was so soggy that it could not be worked for several weeks. In mid to late summer, it was dried out and hard as a rock, just daring the rain to attempt to penetrate it. Nothing but weeds and some scrawny grasses wanted to grow in this patch until one late summer day when a boy took an interest in it.

The boy saw the weedy, grassy patch of clay and decided it would be just the place for his very own garden. He had long wanted a garden of his own where he could grow vegetables to eat (especially zucchini as mom might be talked into making breads and cakes with it - if he helped). He wanted some flowers as well to attract the bees and maybe pumpkins for Halloween and a bean teepee. He wanted it all.

Since getting a garden ready is a lot of hard work, he asked his mother to help him get the garden started. His mother looked at the hard clay. "First, we need to kill the grass and weeds, " she said. She sent the boy to get a bucket of water and a bag of newspaper. They wet the paper, using several sheets together at a time to cover the grass and weeds. They put rocks on the paper to hold it in place. Over time this killed the weeds and grass.

One autumn day the boy and his mother came to check on the progress and the mother said, "We'll need to improve the soil here." The boy took the wheelbarrow to the compost pile and they filled it with dark, rich compost. He dumped it on top of the newspapers and removed the rocks as he went along. The mother spread the compost out so that it was several inches thick everywhere the newspaper had been. The mother explained to the boy that the compost would make the clay accept water and drain water better. She explained that the compost would make the soil rich so the plants could grow happily in the garden. They worked together bringing even more compost to the new bed.

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