Backyard Giants by Susan Warren

Author:Susan Warren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2009-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

Down the road from the Wallaces, Scott Palmer was in need of some help. Because of his hernia surgery, he was still barred from any strenuous activity, especially the kind of bending and lifting and reaching required for work in the pumpkin patch. Dick and Ron and Peter Rondeau had spent a recent afternoon in Scott's patch to help prune and bury the vines. Then Dick had appeared one day with the backpack sprayer to give the Palmer plants a dose of compost tea. Scott and Shelley appreciated the help—were grateful for it—but felt guilty. The backpack sprayer was heavy. Dick was getting older, and he wasn't exactly a prime specimen of good health. But he wasn't ready to think of himself as old, even though his body was sending a different message. He'd gotten the job done, but he was red-faced and soaked in sweat when he finished. Shelley was horrified. She fussed at Scott, "Why did you let him do that?"

"You know I can't get him to stop," Scott answered.

"I just feel bad about it," Shelley said. "I told him, 'You're going to go home and Cathy is going to yell at you. In fact, I'm going to tell her to yell at you.' "

But the extra dose of fertilizer had helped. Scott's plants had caught up. He had pollinated three pumpkins—one on the exact spot where he'd grown his prizewinning 1,443-pounder the year before. Still, things weren't going perfectly. "I've been having to water every single day. My dirt just won't hold any water. I need some more organic matter," he fretted. Scott was beginning to regret that he hadn't done more work on his soil that spring. His experiment in letting well enough alone was beginning to yield some results. And he didn't like what he was seeing.

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