![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/owasco/EoiUgF1jEdQ7k4gkXEt7DZcyEknyGXNqHn46FJks2F2eTEhZgtWqhPsm9vXpKsMq7Fv.png)







The Mother was talking on the phone to the Elder Daughter who was now living far, far away. You know how mothers are. We like our adult children to feel we are content, safe, and healthy. This mother was no different. On this day, she was bragging about her veggie garden, her first. Now that the kids were all grown up and gone, the Mother needed some new hobbies, and growing veggies seemed like just the place to start. 

"You won't believe it honey! I have cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, okra, swiss chard and eggplant coming up! It all looks so good! I'm so proud of myself! Next year, I’m going to plant corn!" The Mother was walking toward the front door as she bragged about her garden to the Elder Daughter. 

“That’s so cool Mom! Can you send me pictures?”

“I’ll show you right now!” 

The garden had been planted just outside the front door; the tiny front yard was the only place on the property with enough sun to grow vegetables. The Mother, remembering a tiny bit about gardening that she had learned from her Aunt Jane, had amended the soil in an eight by ten foot plot with five bags of of humus, and a cube of peat moss. The soil was dark, friable, moisture retentive, and fertile. The Mother had toiled diligently every day in her little veggie patch for a couple of weeks, planting, watering, pfutzing, and spreading the Love on her tiny charges for hours of every day. The day before this one, her seedlings, which she had started herself, had been thriving out in their little sunny patch in the front yard. 

The first thing The Mother noticed as she stepped outside were two groundhogs (known as woodchucks to many around these parts) hightailing it in two straight lines away from the veggie plot and into the neighbor’s yard. 

The next thing she noticed was – nothing. 

There was nothing left in the garden but leafless stalks. 


 

<center><img src="https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/thekittygirl/PQJh5NGi-BarnDivider.png"> 

This is my entry to the Hive Garden Community's [creative garden challenge](https://peakd.com/hive-140635/@gardenhive/creative-garden-challenge-july) for July. It is an embellished, but true, story. 

Yes, I know [the photo](https://pixabay.com/es/photos/panda-rojo-bostezos-curioso-1194506/) is of a red panda, but it captures the mood I hoped to set here! 

Come join us, all you creative writer gardening types!!! @deirdyweirdy and @carolkean, I'd love to see what you do with this! I think the deadline is very soon though...



![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/owasco/EoryPnta6XTvtmEpAJznsDKJQKQXuwmnNSYTmkCjq8dVMKfxLvcxBB9Lg5Qy9YzoxLE.png)