Gardening

Holding the potted marigold close to her chest, she sighed softly. How would she ever find love, at this rate she would end up in prison before she ever ended up in a wedding dress. Let alone have a child with someone; she wondered how people find each other. Is it destiny and everything is laid out in advance? If that was the case she should give up trying, and accept that the damn flower bed was all she would ever have.

It was the most spectacular flower bed in the neighbourhood. All the mothers claimed it was so much better than theirs because SHE didn’t have children to distract her time and efforts. The real reason was much more sinister.

Working from home had been such a blessing, she could set her own schedule and work with the hours of the sun. Midday was too hot to even step outside, temperatures had been steadily climbing all summer, shocking the meteorologists and weather people. Sunblock didn’t even help anymore. Her garden had a lovely shade cloth stretched above it, anything delicate could not grow in direct sunlight anymore. It just burned the tender leaves like a baby’s skin.

Setting the marigold down at the edge of the garden bed, she noticed something shiny in the soil. Suddenly the doorbell rang, and she cussed. Forgetting she had a delivery company bringing her groceries, she left the flower pot and went inside to greet the delivery person. Putting groceries away was good therapy, throwing away old leftovers was like purging, she thought to herself.

Her phone dinged a soft sound, she had set the notifications to gentle noises, as her phone stressed her out most times it rang. Usually bad news, debt collectors, or an idiot male that wanted her attention. It seemed like every man she ever showed interest in had some ulterior motive, or was lying to her. She was pretty tired of the cheaters, but at least her garden was bright and joyful. Her happy place.

Thinking back on her love escapades, she remembered Nicki, a man that told her his wife was cheating on him for years, and he needed to escape her wicked grasp. Turned out he was actually an obsessive compulsive liar, and lived two completely different sets of lives. A life with her being one of them. It had crushed her when she found out he had a second home with another woman, as well as still going to therapy with the recent ex-wife.

As she spun the bottles and jars in her fridge to read labels out, she recalled the man that she had allowed into her home most recently. He had not understood her passion for well organized fridges and cupboards. His flippant disregard for what mattered to her had been hard to swallow. One day she had come home from running errands to find he had smashed everything in her kitchen, and rushing in to scream at him, he had attacked her and nearly killed her. She had spent weeks tidying and re-organising the mess he had made. Not including hospital bills and therapy.

Good thing she had that garden, she smiled to herself. It truly was magnificent, wild and tall and bright and full. The largest tomatoes she had ever seen, in fact her neighbours had told her she should enter ‘Largest Vegetable’ contests, as she would most certainly win.

In her younger years, she had even married a man, that’s how she had the cute little home and perfect garden in the backyard. He had been in construction and they had bought and remodeled the tiny home together. It had been over a decade since she last saw him, but he had left her with good memories, even after she had caught him with the neighbours wife. Shaking her head in disgust, she peered out the kitchen window and smiled at her garden.

The neighbours would never know the secret to good gardening. And she would never tell them. She had gone on an online date recently, sparks had flown between them from the first instant they chatted. Feeling like maybe this one was different, she had agreed to meet him in person. He had shown up just to apologise to her, and explain he wasn’t done trying to make things work with the mother of his child. Again? She thought to herself, this seems to be a trend. Why can’t men just be happy with their partners, and not string along a woman on the side?

Flipping a long strand of red hair over her shoulder, she straightened her glasses. Smoothed her apron, and smiled to herself. Maybe she would enter that vegetable contest. The latest addition of fertilizer to the garden had done wonders.

Even if a man isn’t good for a woman as a lover and partner, he can at least be good plant food. Putting the last of the groceries away, she walked back out to the garden and picked up the marigold. Using her trowel to dig a little hole, she pushed aside a shoelace, the plastic tips and nylon threads just didn’t decompose the same way organic matter did.

Those men had all broken her heart, just a little each time, but she was grateful her garden grew as brightly as it did. Thanks to those men buried deep in the soil, she would win that garden contest, most certainly.