Bargain
Paradise
(Kindle Cover)
Synopsis
(Kindle Cover)
Synopsis
Bargain Paradise is a humorous tale
of gardening obsession. Gardeners will see a bit of themselves here. Non-gardeners will finally learn what possesses someone
to spend every daylight hour, and more, puttering around in the "dirt".
Loretta
Evens, a petit woman in her late thirties, catches the gardening ‘bug’ after
seeing a friend’s yard. She soon discovers an inexpensive way to landscape the
acreage she and her husband Jerry own. Jerry is coerced into assisting her at
first, but soon tires of the project. He wonders what has possessed her and
whether or not their lives will ever return to normal.
To Jerry’s dismay, Loretta spends
far less time in the kitchen and he is forced to dine out or go hungry. When
Jerry attempts to enlist the aid of friend and co-worker, Roger Owen, he only
succeeds in bringing his friend’s wife, Julie, under Loretta’s influence. Julie
joins Loretta on a few of her plant gathering jaunts, but even she is puzzled
by Loretta’s obsession. She tries to convince her friend to slow down a bit,
but Loretta is driven by a secret plan for the garden which she is not ready to
share with anyone.
Not
content with scentless flowers found around commercial buildings, Loretta seeks
the aid of a local master gardener who recommends seeds, plants and bulbs with
flowers known for their fragrance. She decides to grow many of the plants
herself to save money and stocks up on seed-starting kits. Jerry arrives home one
day to find every available space covered with the black trays, including his desk
and kitchen counter tops.
A
remark Loretta makes one evening leads Jerry to believe a lack of romance is
the cause of her obsession. To his chagrin, even additional attention does not
derail Loretta’s mind from her massive winter seed starting project.
The
demise of Loretta’s old truck, Bluebell, threatens to curtail her plant
gathering completely, but Jerry comes up with an idea that could both reduce
the amount of property they own and enable them to buy another vehicle. Will
Loretta agree to his suggestion? Just what is this secret plan? Only when disaster befalls both of them, as
well as the garden, do they begin to see things from each other’s point of view
and appreciate what a beautiful garden can do for their lives.
This
is a story of a marriage that has gone stale, and a woman in search of
happiness and self expression. Come into the garden with Loretta and Jerry and
you may discover what a bit of gardening can do for you.
BARGAIN PARADISE
(Nook Cover)
(Nook Cover)
Excerpt:
Free for the Taking
“Loretta
hasn’t been right since your fortieth birthday party,” Jerry complained. “Seeing your sister’s back yard gave her the
bug. Now she’s determined to turn our
forty acres into one big garden.”
“How’s she
gonna fill forty acres on your salary?” joked Roger, his friend and co-worker.
“Oh, she
has found a way.”
###
Loretta Evens, a petit thirty-nine
year old housewife with raven hair that curled naturally to her shoulders, had
been content to care for her home and husband for nineteen years. A glimpse of horticultural beauty, and a
chance encounter with a doomed landscape, planted a seed that threatened to
undermine that apparent tranquility.
Shortly after
Roger’s birthday party where she got a good look at an obsessive gardener’s
yard, Loretta came upon a demolition site while on a shopping trip in
town. Dozens of perennials and shrubs
were being bulldozed along with the structure.
What a waste, she
thought. She stopped and asked the
foreman if she could take some of them.
“I can dig
them up myself.”
“Not while
we’re working. It’s too dangerous.” He shouted to be heard above the din of the
wrecking ball and bulldozers.
She was persistent. “It’s a shame to destroy all those beautiful
plants. Can’t I stop by after you quit
for the day and dig up what I can find?”
“Lady, by the end of the day, this
ground will be level. There won’t be a plant in sight.”
Seeing her crest-fallen face, he
gave in. He was never able to turn down
a pretty woman. “Look, I can’t let you
on a site while we’re working, but I doubt if anyone will mind if you dig
before we start. We’re razing an office
building at 96th and Elm next Monday. You’re welcome to take as many plants as you
like from that site over the weekend.”
They formed an alliance. A quick look at their work schedule and
Loretta had enough locations to keep her busy the rest of the summer. Nearly every week there was a new demolition
site and a new assortment of perennials and shrubs.
By the middle of summer, miniature
snowball bushes, a weeping cherry tree, day lilies, box shrubs and coreopsis
“Moonbeam” graced the front of their ranch style home. Perennials filled large oval beds in the back
yard and fan shaped beds framing the patio.
Jerry went with her in the beginning when he could, but soon tired of
the seemingly endless amount of work.
Loretta, on the other hand, was tireless in the pursuit of her new
avocation. Her goal of transforming
their property released a font of energy that took even Loretta by
surprise. Cooking and cleaning house
could not compare with creating a beautiful garden.
###
In a large corner lot on the
outskirts of town, Loretta worked around a boxy, red brick office building
circa 1950. She shoved a spade into the
soil, working her way around a cotoneaster while lifting its spreading
branches. Perspiration dripped from her
brow as she heaved the shrub from its bed and onto a pile of newspapers. Wrapping a few pages around the root ball,
she lifted it carefully and hoisted it into the back of an old, rusty pickup
truck she called Bluebell.
After hours
of digging, the truck’s bed was filled.
Hyperion and Stella d’Oro daylilies, as well as tall grasses, miniature
box shrubs and cotoneaster constituted her haul for the day.
Yellows
and greens…these will look great around the pond, Loretta decided. If only
Jerry had been able to come with me today…I could have gotten that redbud.
It had been a long day. Loretta’s sunburned face was streaked with
sweat and mud. Her hair was a tangled mess, her clothes torn and muddy. Dirt had found its way under her fingernails
in spite of the gloves she wore.
Scratches covered her wrists where thorny branches had slipped between
sleeve and glove. She felt like one big
ache as she crawled into the truck.
Settling into the driver’s seat and turning the ignition key, she
visualized the plants in the spots she had chosen for them. She saw them, not
as they would appear after transplanting but lush and beautiful, as she knew
they would look in the future. The
vision of her garden filled her with an uplifting feeling of
accomplishment. In spite of her labors,
she was energized.
I
hope Jerry helps me get these plants in the ground tonight, she
thought. It’s the least he can do.
###
Jerry glanced up warily from his
beer as the old junker loaded with greenery rattled down the driveway. He worked for a real estate firm and had just
settled into a comfortable lawn chair after a busy day showing homes.
Oh!
Man! She’s going to want help planting all
that stuff.
It was too late to disappear.
“Hi, Honey. It looks like you had quite a day!” He managed to sound pleased in spite of
himself.
“I sure did.” Loretta hopped out of the truck, bursting
with renewed energy. “I’d like to plant
these at the east end of the pond. What
do you think?”
“Whatever you say. You’re the gardener.”
“I need a few tall shrubs and trees
to plant behind them and that area will be finished. Then we can start on the southern shore.”
“Not all one hundred and fifty
feet!” Jerry spilled beer down the front
of his shirt.
“Why not? As long as I can get free plants, we might as
well fix this place up. It’s begging to
be landscaped.”
A groan escaped Jerry’s
throat. He was still sore from the
planting he did last weekend. “I’m
getting too old for this,” he moaned.
“Nonsense! You’re in the prime of life. You’re just out of shape. Gardening is good exercise. It’ll keep you young!”
“It’ll put me six feet under,”
Jerry grumbled.
The back of the rusty truck opened
with a screech and a clunk as Loretta prepared to unload her loot. “What did you say, dear?”
“I said it’ll put me where I was
when I was younger.”
“That’s right. You might even lose enough weight to fit into
those old clothes you refuse to throw out.”
An ache in his stomach reminded
Jerry that he had not eaten lunch. Since
Loretta got the landscaping bug, their meals had been less frequent. Gone were the days when she spent hours in
the kitchen.
“What’s for supper?” he asked
hopefully.
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ll have to see what’s in the ‘fridge. Give me a minute to clean up.” She headed for the house.
Jerry knew she had forgotten about
supper; that she had reluctantly submitted to this interruption in her
plans. He shook his head as he gazed at
the truck’s loaded bed. He knew they
would be planting by floodlight long after the sun went down…again.
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