Between You and Me

Chapter 16

"I guess I better get to it and stop stalling."

While she was out with her sister for her birthday, they stopped to pick up some seedlings for her to plant in the garden. Having no idea what to do, she Googled everything she could about gardening. She decided to simply plant what her grandmother had for years, and then maybe expand on that later. So collard greens, tomatoes, and a few herbs.

She would love to do more and eat homegrown fruits and veggies. Starting with something she could not mess up much would help her confidence.

She dressed in some old khaki pants and a dark red t-shirt she did not mind getting dirty. She found a gardening set with a small hand shovel, or a hand trowel as it was called, and included a hand fork, also known as a cultivator. Hopefully, those two were enough.

Once outside, she looked over the mess that was left of her grandmother's garden. Dead weeds and wilted leaves, and just dirt. She realized she would need more than the little shovel, but for now, she got started pulling out the old weeds and anything that was not edible, everything, into a pile.

She was not out there for twenty minutes but was already sweating bullets from the heat. But she was on a mission to get this garden started.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Tristan walked out from the basement door.

"You're not an idiot, what does it look like I'm doing."

"You and that smart mouth..." He started to say then stopped. "You know it's hot as hell out here, right? You wait until the hottest day of the year to do this?"

"It's not that bad," she lied as she wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Do you even know what you're doing?"

"Nope."

"Did you YouTube or watch anything on what to do?"

"Nope. I googled."

"And you're the smart one?"

She grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at him, he moved away and missed him.

"One you need gloves, two, you need a rake, a hoe, a bigger shovel, and something on your head to protect you from the sun."

She glanced over at him, checking him out from top to bottom. When did he learn so much about gardening? He must have been working out, he wore a loose-fitting white t-shirt and workout leggings topped with shorts. His messy braids were pulled back in a ponytail. He looked good enough to eat.

"Oh," was all she could say, holding up her little hand shovel. "Well...this was all I had so-"

"All your grandmother's garden stuff is in the basement. Come on, I'll show you."

She really did not want to go down there. She had not been down there in maybe years. No reason to. But she needed those tools, so she stood and started to follow him.

"Hold on there, shorty, wipe that dirt off you before you come in here messing up my shit."

She rolled her eyes at him then dusted off the knees of her pants and stomped her feet to get the dirt off her shoes. She stepped through the backdoor to go inside.

The back area was a smaller room with all the yard stuff and other junk. The lawnmower, weed whip, trimmer, some large shears, two kinds of shovels, two rakes, a spade, a garden hoe, some other tool with spikey points on it, a watering can, several pairs of old garden gloves hung on the wall, and smaller tools like the hand rake she bought, plus other things she had no clue. There was even the large straw basket she remembered her grandmother used when she wanted to pick something and carry it inside.