DIGBY 'S MAGICAL GARDEN TOUCH

                           

Digby, the little garden gnome, had one best friend who could also be a terrible pest sometimes.  His name was Sparky and he belonged to Allison Baxter.  Sparky just loved Digby and played around him all the time.  He would sniff Digby and when no one was looking Digby would swat at Sparky.   The truth was, Digby really liked Sparky and was glad to have him around so he wasn't lonely. 

   Digby had just recently made Allison's yard his home.  Allison had spotted Digby at a garden store and bought him to put in her garden.  Allison had never had much luck with flowers and gardening so she hoped that the cute garden gnome would make her yard look a little bit nicer this year.  Poor Allison would stand and look over the fence into her neighbor Sue Ellen's yard and wonder why even Sue Ellen's grass looked nicer than hers.

Allison decided to go all out and really try hard this year to have a pretty yard and garden.  She got her hose out and started watering everything.  Allison had a pet rabbit named Fluffy, who lived in her yard and told her he would help with the vegetable garden.  Guess what the first thing he planted was, your right, carrots of course, his favorite food.

Nancy, another friend and neighbor of Allison's told her she would do some reading about gardening and help give Allison some advice.  Of course the very first thing she learned was how important water is to plants.  With out it, nothing, not even people could live.  The best water for plants is natural rain water.

    You will find the people who are smiling a lot when   it's raining are great gardeners and very happy when it rains!  One of the very first plants that come up in early spring are the crocus.  Allison planted some very pretty ones by her porch.  The next thing she planted were sunflower seeds in pots.  She intended to transplant them into the garden when they started to grow.

Sunflowers are loved by most people.  They are a lot of fun to grow and watch.  As the sun moves across the sky each day the sun flower follows it.  They need a lot of sun and will be facing east in the morning when the sun rises and west at night as the sun goes down.  That's how they got their name sunflower.  Birds love the seeds of the sunflower also.  There are many good reasons to have sunflowers in your yard.

Late at night Sparky would sometimes start barking and Allison couldn't   figure out why.  What she didn't know was that Digby would come to life and walk through her garden sprinkling a little magic dust around.  The next morning she could almost see that the plants had grown over night!.  Fluffy had planted more vegetables and they were also looking very good.

Fluffy's broccoli was some of the best looking in town.  He had wonderful watermelon and corn plus fruit of all types.  As summer went on Allison's garden got better and better.  The only thing she couldn't figure out is who was moving her garden gnome around.  She would get up one day and he would be in the vegetable garden, then the next over by the flowers.

Fluffy the bunny and Sparky knew what was going on but nobody else did.  Digby even tried to take one of Fluffy's biggest, nicest carrots.  Finally Fluffy let Digby have the carrot.  He figured he deserved it for the magic dust he kept spreading around.  Digby really enjoyed that carrot, it was delicious!  After eating it, he went back to spreading more magic dust.

Sue Ellen's daughter, Amy, stopped to smell the beautiful flowers in Allison's garden.  Her mother had her head all the way out the window of her van looking at Allison's beautiful yard and garden as she drove by.  She couldn't believe how pretty it was and she was very happy for Allison because she knew how hard she had worked on it.

The vegetable garden was more than Fluffy could have ever   dreamed of.  Juicy watermelons, fruits and yummy looking vegetables of all kinds.  Allison had so much she could never eat it all herself so she shared with all her neighbors.  Digby, Sparky and Fluffy were so happy for Allison, she walked around with a big smile on her face all the time.

                             

Allison offered Sue Ellen her choice any of the vegetables she would like    to have. There was a big selection.  A cute family of carrots, a fancy decked out carrot, a bunch of carrots even a cool carrot with his sunglasses on.  Corn on the cob with a knife and fork all ready to be eaten.  Even big juicy looking strawberries.  Sue Ellen finally settled on the cute carrot family.  She loved the bows in the mom and babies carrot tops.

Late that night Digby got his friend Toadly to take him all over the garden.  By the next morning flowers were blooming all over the garden and every fruit and vegetable was ripe.  It was the most beautiful and lush garden in the whole town.  Allison gave David a bouquet of flowers for Amy it was her birthday and David was her boyfriend.  Amy thought they were the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen!

Nancy jogged by Allison's everyday and was amazed at how   wonderful her garden had turned out.  Allison sent her home with a huge basket of fruit and vegetables.  Nancy would be eating for days and days with all this wonderful food.  Allison had given her so many tomatoes, she even made some tomato juice and ketchup out of some of them.

This was the best tomato juice she had ever tasted   and so was the ketchup.  There is just nothing better than home made.  Allison had also invited Nancy and all her neighbors to a party to share her wonderful crop of food and flowers with all of them.

Allison chopped peppers and onions for her favorite chip dip recipe.  By the time her neighbors started to arrive she had a table loaded down with the most wonderful food any of them had ever seen.  As they talked and enjoyed the food, many of them commented on the cute little gnome she had placed in her yard.  Allison told them about how she thought someone was joking with her because they moved him to a different position in the garden every night.

Next morning Digby was near the apple tree in Allison's yard.  All   the apples had ripened and were beautiful.  Even the tree was having a taste of one of it's own apples.  Then Allison spotted one real bad apple, he was quite a dude or at least he thought so!  Allison thought she was going to have great apple pies all winter from this tree.

Sparky was teasing Digby again.  He would act like he was going to use the bathroom near Digby.  Poor Digby would point out the nearest tree to him. Sparky and Digby were really very good friends.  Allison was watering the daisies and noticed Sparky was almost always in the same part of the yard that Digby was in.  She figured Sparky thought of Digby as a toy.

Sue Ellen's husband, Harry, stopped by that day to get   some roses from Allison.  That night was his and Sue Ellen's wedding anniversary.  He was so proud when he gave Sue Ellen the roses.  She said they were the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen.  Allison could probably win blue ribbons for many of her roses.

Allison ran herself a warm bath and put on her tea pot to warm.  It was turning chilly outside and Allison thought it wouldn't be long before winter was coming.  She thought how she'd miss her garden but she knew she would have the spring to look forward to and everything would come back new and even better again.

Just a few short weeks later Allison heard Sparky barking loudly outside. She looked out the window and saw him standing by a sad, cold looking Digby in the snow.  Allison grabbed her coat and ran out and scooped Digby up. She carried him in and set him on one side of the roaring fireplace in her living room where he would stay until spring.  Sparky laid down on the other side.  Allison sat in her comfortable chair, drank her tea with her two favorite things by her side.  She thought of the next spring and all the beautiful new flowers and vegetables they would have.  It was going to be another great year!

MAYBE THERE IS A LITTLE TOUCH OF MAGIC IN EVERYTHING WE DO WELL!