Summer Adventures with Kate & JR (2 page)

“JR—” The teacher started to speak, but JR continued. He had one more thing to say.

“This summer is going to be very exciting. What do you think I am doing?” he asked.

The class laughed and shouted, “Fishing!” They all knew. JR had talked about going fishing with his grandfather for weeks.

“That's right! I am going to sports camp next week, too.” JR bowed to the class and returned to his seat as they clapped and giggled. JR's teacher had to applaud also as she said, “Well done, JR.”

The bell rang. School was out for the summer! Kate and JR said goodbye to their friends and teachers and ran outside to the car pickup lane. Their mother was waiting for them in their blue SUV. They couldn't wait to start their summer adventures.

Kate and the Giant Sunflower

On the first week of summer vacation, Kate went to visit Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jim while JR went to sports camp. She and Grandma Sue discussed planting a special flower bed. Kate planned to keep a journal and take photos with her new camera of the flower bed as it grew. The bed would be beautiful and attract birds, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Every flower would be a source for gathering seeds, pollen, and nectar.

As they were planning the bed, Grandma told Kate, “Not only will we have beautiful flowers to pick, but it will be great to provide food for our little visitors.”

“I like that. And I can give some flowers to Mom when she picks me up.”

Grandma Sue set a box of seed packets on the table. “I have seeds for wildflowers, zinnias, and sunflowers. Which do you like best?”

Kate looked at the seed packets. The flowers pictured on the fronts of the packets were beautiful, with all shades of yellow, orange, red, pink, blue, white, and even green. “I like the sunflowers the best,” Kate told her grandmother as she held up two packets of seeds. Each packet showed a large flower with bold yellow petals and dark seeds in the middle.

“You are officially in charge of the sunflowers, Kate!” Grandma Sue said. “Read the backs of the packets to find out how to plant the seeds.”

Kate read the information on the back of each packet and soon realized that she had two different kinds of sunflowers. One would grow four feet tall, but the other would be six to eight feet. “I had better plant the taller ones in the back row and the shorter ones in the next row. What will we plant in front of the sunflowers?” Kate asked.

Grandma Sue held up the packets of zinnia and wildflower seeds. “I think these will work well in front and provide flowers for cutting.”

Kate agreed. “I can't wait to get started. Has Grandpa Jim finished plowing the bed?”

“Yes, it is time for us to gather all the grass and weeds. We don't want those in our special bed,” Grandma said as she handed Kate a pair of gardening gloves. “We will use gardening rakes. I have the perfect one for you. Let's go to the potting shed and get our gardening tools.”

Grandma Sue handed Kate a rake that was just right for her. The handle was shorter than Grandma's and the rake was lighter. Off they went to the flower bed and started to work. The rakes made the job easy, but there were still some weeds that needed to be pulled by hand. Finally, she and Grandma Sue looked over the bed and decided their work was done. They asked Grandpa Jim to plow through the bed one more time. “It's ready,” he said. “Plant those seeds.”

Kate planted the sunflower seeds, one by one, ten inches apart, as the instructions suggested. She planted the taller sunflowers in a row at the back of the flower bed and the shorter ones in the next row. Grandma Sue planted two rows of zinnia seeds next. Then they scattered the wildflower seeds over the remainder of the bed and covered the seeds lightly with sand. Grandma Sue took a thin, wooden board about two feet long and placed it over the wildflower seeds. She pressed the seeds into the ground with the board.

“It's time to water the bed. Kate, would you like this honor?”

Kate sprinkled water over the bed with the garden hose until the ground was wet. “Our work is done for the day,” said Grandma. “We will check the bed every day and water it when it is dry. With the warmth of the sun, we should see the plants start to emerge very, very soon.”

Kate took a photo of the freshly planted flower bed. She placed the empty seed packets in her journal and wrote down what she and her grandparents had done that day.

Kate remembered she could only visit two days a week for the rest of the summer. This would be the only full week that she would spend at her grandparents' home. “Who will water the bed if I am not here?”

“Don't worry, Kate. I will water the bed, when needed, on the days you are not here.”

The next morning, after she finished breakfast, she raced from the car to check on the flower bed. It needed water, and she sprinkled the ground while looking for signs of green. But only brown soil was visible. Kate was worried. She was anxious to see the seedlings appear above the soil. “Grandma Sue, when will the seeds come up?”

“I am sure that when you come back on Monday of next week, there will be signs of green everywhere in the flower bed. By next Friday, the entire bed should be green.” Grandma Sue knew that it would take at least seven days for the plants to break through the soil. She showed Kate how to draw a calendar in her journal to mark off the days.

“I'm glad I will be able to come on Mondays and Fridays to visit with you and Grandpa Jim this summer. I want to take a lot of photos of the bed as it grows.”

The first weekend after they had planted the flower bed was the longest for Kate. She told her friends about the flower seeds she had planted with her grandmother. “I will bring photos and flowers to show you soon.”

Just as Grandma Sue had said, on Monday of the second week, Kate found green seedlings appearing all over the bed. She ran into the house and exclaimed, “Grandma, the bed is all green! The flowers are coming up! Come and see!”

“Let me finish the dishes, Kate,” Grandma Sue replied with a smile. “Get your camera and journal. We can spend some time in the garden looking over the bed.”

Kate took a photo of the bed. The wildflowers and zinnia seedlings were small compared to the sunflowers, which had larger leaves. Kate made a note in her journal and marked the calendar with a green smiley face. She lightly watered the bed. “When will we see the flowers bloom?” Kate asked her grandmother.

“They will bloom at different times. Some will only last a day or two, and some will stay for weeks, like the sunflowers.”

“I can't wait!”

“The secret to gardening is patience, Kate,” Grandma Sue said.

“That is a hard one!” Kate said as she wrote the word patience in her journal.

As the weeks of summer quietly came and went, Kate kept busy taking notes and placing photos in her journal of the growing garden. She had a lot of photos of the wildflowers and zinnias. She had photos of butterflies and bees as they tasted the sweet nectar the flowers provided. But she was never quite quick enough to capture the hummingbird.

The sunflowers had not bloomed. The only photos of the sunflowers Kate had were of green stalks with big leaves. It had been weeks since the plants had come up. “When will they bloom?” Kate wondered.

Finally, one Monday morning when Kate arrived at her grandparents', she discovered something new happening to the sunflower plants. “Look, Grandma Sue, something is different about this plant,” she said, pointing to the top of the stalk where a round green ball had formed.

“That's the flower head,” Grandma Sue explained. “It will produce the sunflower filled in the center with seeds.”

Kate was excited. She took a photo of the top of the plant. The taller sunflower plants were now the same height as Kate, about forty-six inches. “How much taller will they grow?” Kate asked her grandmother.

“Let's look at the seed packet you saved in your journal,” replied Grandma Sue.

Kate read the height out loud. “Six to eight feet. How tall is that?”

“Well, let's see. Grandpa Jim is six feet tall. Maybe a little taller than he is.”

“Wow!” exclaimed Kate. “That is really, really tall. I hope they wait until Friday to bloom. I want a lot of photos.”

On Friday, Kate got her wish. Some of the sunflowers had begun to open, while others were still tightly covered by the green outer leaves. Kate had to stretch up on her toes to get the best photo. She snapped photos of the sunflowers in different stages of opening. Soon, the bees found the sunflowers and stayed for hours. But Kate did not mind. She was very pleased with the sunflowers, and the work she had done didn't really seem like work at all. Her patience had been rewarded.

Kate told her parents about the flowers. She couldn't wait to show them. She was especially thrilled with the giant sunflowers. They towered over the other flowers in the bed. When the blooms were fully opened, their heads drooped down as if bowing. Kate had to stand under the giant sunflower and point the camera upward to take the photo of the seed head and bright yellow petals.

“Grandma Sue,” Kate announced one day, “I was looking over my photos of the flower bed. I have one of every flower. But I'm missing an important one.”

“What's that?”

“I do not have one of you and me with the flowers.”

“I can help you with that,” Grandpa Jim said as he entered the room. “Show me how to use your camera, Kate. I will take all the photos you need.”

“Okay,” Kate said as she quickly showed her grandfather how to turn on the camera. “Push this button to take the photo. Let's go to the garden.”

Grandpa Jim had them pose in several places in front of the flower bed. He took several photos of Grandma Sue and Kate picking flowers, smelling the blooms, and holding their gardening tools.

“Enough!” exclaimed Grandma Sue. “Give Kate back her camera.”

“But I haven't taken the best photo yet!” said Grandpa Jim. “I need one of Kate standing among her favorites, the giant sunflowers.”

Grandpa Jim pointed to the tall sunflowers. “Kate, stand right in the middle of the sunflowers.” He took the shot, making sure to capture Kate and the tall sunflower. Kate's smile was big and genuine. It was a perfect photo: Kate, the giant sunflower, and a bee or two.