It's not a retelling - sorry - but a script.
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This episode is a dialogue between Zully and Eric about flowers and trees. Let’s get started.
Zully: Hurry up! Mom will be home any minute and we’re not done planting.
Eric: Whose idea was it anyway to plant a garden for Mom for her birthday? We’ve been working under this hot sun all day and the smell of the fertilizer is really getting to me.
Zully: It was our idea, remember? We both wanted to give Mom something special this year. Look, we’re almost done. We’ve already picked the weeds, prepared the soil, and dug the holes for the new seeds and flowers. I’m taking the flowers out of their pots now and I’ll have them in the ground in a minute. After that, all we have left to do is to plant the new tree. Keep digging!
Eric: Are you sure the hole needs to be this deep?
Zully: Yes, the book says that the roots need to have room to grow. That’s the perfect place for it, too. It’ll get a lot of direct sunlight.
Eric: Great, but my arms are so tired, they’re about to fall off.
Zully: Move over. I’ll dig for a while. Why don’t you water the new flowers?
Eric: Sure, right after I take a little break. In the meantime, I’ll supervise. Come on. Keep digging. You’re almost there.
Zully: I think you’d better keep your mouth shut, or I’ll think of some new uses for that fertilizer!
Zully and Eric are brother and sister. Zully says to Eric, “Hurry up (go faster)!Mom will be home any minute (meaning very soon) and we’re not done planting.”
“To plant,” as a verb, means to put seeds or plants into the ground so that they can grow, either to produce a flower or some kind of food typically.
A “seed” is a very small part of a tree or plant that when you put it in the ground grows another tree or plant. It’s how, one way how trees and plants reproduce, how you get more of them. The verb then is “to plant” seeds, flowers, or trees – to put them in the ground.
Eric says, “Whose idea was it anyway to plant a garden for Mom for her birthday?”
A “garden” is an area often near your house where you grow plants, either flowers or food. Many people grow certain kinds of food in gardens. When I was young we had a small garden where we had tomatoes and carrots and, I think, green onions. I was never a very good gardener. A “gardener” is someone who works in a garden. A “gardener,” more commonly pronounced [gardner] is also someone who you bring to your house to cut your grass and trees and so forth.
So, Zully and Eric are planting a garden – that’s what we would say, “to plant a garden” – for their mother. He says, “We’ve been working under this hot sun all day and the smell of the fertilizer is really getting to me.” “Fertilizer” is often made from the waste of animals – if you understand what I mean. When the animal goes to the bathroom, you take what comes out of the animal, and you put it in your garden, because it will help the ground. The soil we would call it, the dirt (it will help it give nutrients) give food to the plants that will then help the plant grow. At least that’s what I think happens – I’m not a gardener!
“To get to someone” means to bother someone, especially after a long period of time. My new colleague (my new co-worker) is really getting to me. He’s bothering me.
Well, Eric says that the smell of the fertilizer is getting to him. Fertilizer doesn’t smell very nice! Zully responds, “It was our idea, both of us, remember? We both wanted to give mom something special this year. Look, we’re almost done, we’re almost finished, we have almost completed the garden. We’ve already picked the weeds, prepared the soil, and dug the holes for the new seeds and flowers.” Couple of words there: “We picked the weeds.” A “weed” is a plant that you don’t want, that you didn’t put in your garden but is growing there anyway. That’s a weed.
“Weed” informally/slang also can mean marijuana, the drug that some people smoke. In fact, there is a television show, I think it’s still running (it’s still being shown) called “Weeds”, about a family that grows marijuana. Strange but true
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P.S. A few months ago I got a chance to feel what it means - to be a garderner))))
I grew flowers and some vegetables) I was so excited about the flowers - and I'm still ))) Making compositions of blooming flowers in my head for the next season at the moment))) I want my garden to be a peace of real beauty and an eye-relaxation)))
Do you like flowers?
Americans first give you the concept and then go into discussions. Russians vice verca, usually)
