Emma and Leo lived in a beautiful little town called Sunnyville. They were the best of friends, holding hands every day while going to school, sharing secrets, and picking apples in autumn. They even dreamed of planting a garden together, but they had one big problem: they couldn’t agree on what to plant!
One bright spring morning, Emma suggested, “Let’s plant a vegetable garden! We can grow tomatoes, carrots, and green beans.” Her eyes sparkled at the thought of fresh vegetables.
“Yuck!” Leo exclaimed. “Vegetables are boring. We should plant roses, daisies, and sunflowers. Think of how beautiful it will be!”
“Oh, Leo,” Emma sighed. “How will we eat flowers?”
“How will we play in a vegetable garden?” Leo replied, crossing his arms.
They argued about this until at last, Leo said, “I guess we’ll just have to look for other gardening partners.”
The next day, Leo went looking for a new gardening partner. He found Sasha, who was new in town. “Would you like to be my gardening partner?” he asked.
“Of course!” she said. “What shall we plant?”
“Flowers!” said Leo. “Thousands of flowers!”
“Okay,” answered Sasha, eyeing the empty garden plot. “But I sort of like vegetables, too.”
Meanwhile, Emma went to see Kelly, her best friend. “Kelly,” she said, “Leo is going to plant a garden with a new girl in town. Let’s plant a vegetable garden together.”
“Sure, that sounds great!” Kelly exclaimed, and she wondered if Leo had yet found a new gardening partner.
When the two new gardening groups met at the place by the apple tree, they said politely to each other, “Hello!” and then got to work. Emma and Kelly marked out their rows with sticks and a string. Meanwhile, Leo was piling up dirt at one end of the plot to make a hill to plant his pumpkins.
From time to time, Leo peered over at Emma and Kelly. It seemed to him they were digging a very deep hole. At last, he couldn’t help going closer and asking, “What are you digging so deep for?”
“We’re planting a garden,” said Emma, who didn’t like Leo peering, then the first seeds might not grow.
“Well,” said Leo, “if you’re planting a vegetable garden, you only plant the seeds a little way in.”
“But we want our seeds to grow tall,” Emma told him.
Leo walked away, shaking his head. “Doesn’t know anything,” he said to himself. “Why, if the seeds are so far down, they will never find their way up.”
Each day, Leo’s plot became more and more covered with dirt, while Emma and Kelly’s plot grew greener and greener. One morning Leo came to look and found all their seedlings up. “Ah,” he said, not liking to seem disappointed, “the weeds are coming up.”
“Weeds!” exclaimed Emma indignantly. “You didn’t look to see if this is a vegetable garden, did you?”
That evening, the next day, Emma and her partner Kelly worked every moment they could, trying to keep up with the rival plot. But every evening Emma would be sure to hear Leo’s voice saying, “Oh, dear, the weeds are coming up!”
Then, one night, a heavy rain came, and next morning Emma jumped up, and with Kelly rushed out to see their garden. “Oh dear!” cried Emma. “Our beautiful up-and-down rows have all washed away. Our vegetables are all tangled up together, and they will never, never be good-for-nothing like them!”
“What can we do?” five children looked at each other, but Emma could think of nothing, except to cry.
Then a sensible lady came along. “Why, children,” she said, “if you can’t overcome that but by wearing out your eyes crying, why not plant a few up-and-down rows of flowers between, and interplant corn and green beans with your vegetables?”
So Emma and Kelly dug their garden into straight rows again, and planted some of Leo’s flowers between in a lovely pattern. Leo and Kelly made mixed vegetable and flower rows in their garden with a path down the middle. Each plot looked prettier than ever.
When all the children saw how beautiful these gardens looked, they thanked the sensible lady, who had helped them out during the rainy night, and worked till it was quite dark that evening.