Marvin’s Bountiful Reward

Written by Jessica Lewis

Marvin was a young boy around the age of six years old. He has always had a passion to be outside all of the time. Almost every day, his mother would find him outside playing. She could barely get him inside to eat. Marvin would stay outside from sunup to sundown.

One day Marvin’s mom asked, “Marvin would you like to plant a garden with me?” Marvin was too busy playing in the soft dirt to hear his mother ask him a question. So she asked him again but even louder this time. Yelling, Marvin’s mother asked, “Marvin would you like to plant a garden with me?” Marvin looked up from the dirt as him mother finished her sentence and was silent for a moment.

After quite some time, Marvin replied back to his mom, “What is a garden?” He had never seen or heard of a garden before. Mother then explained to him what a garden was. She told him, “A garden is where you plant seeds in the ground and watch them grow. Then after all of the vegetables start to show up, we are able to pick them and cook them for food.”

Marvin was still playing in the dark soft dirt, but now he had a stick and was starting to dig small holes. As his mother was walking over to see why Marvin was not talking to her, she noticed the small holes. She squatted down to his level and whispered, “Those would be great holes to plant some seeds in.”

Marvin looked up at his mom, “You think this would be a good spot to start a garden?” His mom looked at him and said, “No child, we need a place that will get sunlight for most of the day. This is a very shaded place that is too close to the house. I think we need to find a better place to plant our new garden.”

As Marvin’s mother started to walk inside, Marvin asked her one more question before she reached the door. He asked, “But mom I have never planted or even seen a garden before, how am I supposed to know how to start one?” His mother replied and said, “Oh son, I will be there every step of the way to guide you and tell you all of the tips and tricks to keep a garden healthy and bountiful.”

It was a Thursday afternoon and today was the day, Marvin was so excited because he had been waiting for this day. The day his mom and him would get all of the seeds from the store and plant their garden. After they had finished at the store and returned home, Marvin wanted to see all of the seed packets that they bought. He asked his mom to show and read the packets to him. He begged, “Mom can you please read all of the seeds that we got today?” Marvin’s mom said in a soft motherly tone, “Yes darling, I sure will.”

His mother started to read off each seed packet to him, “The first one we got is a tomato, then this one is a zucchini seed. We also got potatoes, peas, and cucumbers. This packet right here is a yellow squash seed, and the last packet of seeds that we got were green beans.” Once his mother was done showing Marvin all of the packets of seeds, they started to head to the fresh patch of soil that was in their backyard.

Mother says excitingly, “This patch of soil is perfect for our garden, Marvin!” Marvin does a little happy dance when he hears his mother say that. Marvin starts to dig the holes for the seeds. He uses his small hands and his mother hands him each seed to put in the hole. Once the seeds are in place, his mother tells him, “Now you need to cover each seed up with the surrounding soil and water each spot that has a seed.”

After that day, Marvin and his mother tended to the garden everyday eagerly to see the fruit of their hard work. Marvin continued to do the chores for the garden as his mom requested of him.

One day when Marvin went to the garden to water each plant and pull the weeds, he noticed small little baby vegetables. He yelled for his mother to come outside. Marvin screamed, “Mom you need to run to the garden as fast as you can. There is something amazing that you need to see!”

When his mother finally got outside to the garden, Marvin thought it had been hours since he told his mother to come. As she was walking closer to the garden, she could see Marvin jumping up and down with excitement. Marvin’s mother finally asked, “Marvin, what are you doing?” He replied and pointed to the vegetables, “I am so happy because I can see little baby vegetables growing.” His mother squatted down to where Marvin was pointing and looked really closely. She grew a huge smile on her face and said, “Marvin you just successfully planted your own garden. You should be so proud of yourself!”

Marvin looked at his mother with the happiest look a kid could ever give his mom and said, “Thank you, momma.”

As the month continued, the vegetables started to grow larger and larger. Finally on a Monday morning, Marvin went out to his garden to check on the vegetables. He came back to the house with handfuls to vegetables. He was trying so hard not to drop all of the vegetables out of his arms.

Once he made it inside with all of his vegetables, he was so happy, he started to dance. His mother joined him, and they both danced in the kitchen. Marvin was so proud of himself for being able to grow and tend to these vegetables. His mother was also proud of him and they both enjoyed eating all of the vegetables that Marvin grew in his first garden.