Nina O’Connor had never worked so hard on anything before. After selling her old scooter online, she used the money to buy gardening supplies. Not for new clothes or takeout—but seeds, soil, and scrap wood to build a fence.

It started with something her ninth-grade science teacher, Ms. Isabel, had said: “Growth starts underground. You plant before you ever see results.” Nina didn’t know why, but it stuck. She wanted to see if it was true.

Behind her family’s duplex was a patch of weedy dirt beside the alley. Most people ignored it. Nina cleaned it up, tore out the junk, and framed the space with pallet wood. Then she asked her neighbor, Mr. Regan, a retired groundskeeper, for help.

“You treat seeds with care,” he told her, “they’ll pay you back.”

Nina did everything he said. She crushed the soil fine. She made straight rows with string and labeled each with popsicle sticks: pansies, sweet peas, runner beans. In the center, she planted a half-dead geranium she’d rescued from a trash pile behind the hardware store.

When she finally finished, she stood back with muddy hands and a flutter in her chest. It wasn’t perfect, but it was hers.

That Saturday, her friend Emma texted:

EMMA: “Beach trip. Whole group’s going. Want in?”

Nina stared at the message. She had really wanted to go to the beach with her friends before school started again. She could already imagine it—music, group selfies, jumping off the pier.

But then she looked outside. The forecast called for 93 degrees and no rain. Her garden would be baking. It wasn’t established enough to go two days without water, and she knew no one else would take care of it. Not really.

She stared at the message for a full minute.

Then she typed:

NINA: “Can’t. Maybe next time.”

The response came fast:

EMMA: “Seriously?”
NINA: “Yeah. Project stuff.”
EMMA: “Lame.”

Nina put her phone down. It hurt. But she wasn’t going to plant something just to abandon it.

She stepped outside with a pitcher of water.

That evening, she added new mulch to trap moisture and adjusted the fence. She tied up the bean sprouts, which were growing faster than expected.

The next morning, she was in a better mood—until she walked into the backyard and saw the gate swinging open.

Her stomach sank.

The dirt was scattered, half her rows flattened. The popsicle-stick labels were all pulled up and tossed aside. And in the middle of it all stood the neighbor’s white goat, calmly chewing the last green leaves off her geranium.

“No!” Nina shouted, running toward the mess. The goat blinked at her, unimpressed, then trotted off through the open gate.

Nina stood there in the silence. Her garden—her summer project—was wrecked. The pansies were trampled. The bean plants were snapped. All the labels were gone, which meant even if the seeds sprouted, she wouldn’t know what was what.

She sat down on the step. “This is so unfair,” she muttered. “I actually tried.”

Mr. Regan called from his porch. “You okay?”

She shook her head.

He came over slowly, wiping his hands on a towel. “Let me guess—Castillo’s goat?”

Nina nodded. “I locked the gate yesterday.”

“Goats’ll do what they do. They jump. They chew. They ruin good things. But you learn to build better fences.”

She sighed. “It took me hours.”

He glanced over the garden. “You’re still standing. That’s something.”

She didn’t reply.

Later that evening, after dinner, Nina stood on the porch again. The light was softer. Her anger had settled into something quieter.

She walked out to the garden. The geranium was stripped, but not dead. The pansies had some blooms left. And the soil still smelled good—warm and rich.

She picked up the knocked-over sticks and reset the rows as best she could. Then she gave everything a good watering.

It wouldn’t look like the pictures in the gardening book. It wouldn’t win any prizes. But it was still hers.

And it wasn’t over.

_{“The Seeds of Patience” by Bright Bunny Books © 2025. Retelling of “The Weeds” from Phil’s Pansies by Lucy Ellen Guernsey, originally published in 1880.}

---

“Seeds of Patience” is best suited for students in grades 5–7, who can relate to themes of responsibility, perseverance, and personal growth.