The Garden Plot Read online

* * *

  That night Frank dreamed of bean plants so tall, they climbed through the clouds. Joe dreamed of skipping through an endless garden with a troupe of dancing woodchucks in top hats, eating all the yummy fruits and veggies as he went.

  The sun was just starting to rise the next morning, and the Hardy boys were still asleep, when—

  “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

  A sound jolted the boys awake, and it wasn’t their alarm clock.

  It was a scream.

  And it was coming from across the street!

  CUCUMBER CRIME SCENE

  They boys didn’t bother wasting time getting dressed. They sprinted right outside in their pajamas.

  “I thought I recognized that scream,” Joe said as they raced across the street to Vic’s house.

  Vic was on his knees in his garden, looking up at his cucumber plants. As the boys got closer, they realized that Vic’s glorious cukes weren’t quite so glorious anymore. Half the vines were gone!

  “My beautiful cucumbers,” Vic moaned. “Someone sabotaged them!”

  “Sabotage?” Frank echoed, taking in the scene.

  “My cucumbers couldn’t have done this to themselves.” Vic’s voice shook as he struggled to hold back tears.

  Frank turned to Joe. “You know what that means.”

  Joe nodded. “A mystery.”

  “Did you bring it?” Frank asked.

  “Yup.” Joe held up a notebook. “I didn’t bother putting on real pants, but I did grab the clue book. A scream at sunrise is usually a good sign we might need it.”

  “Clue book?” Vic asked.

  “It’s where we write down the five Ws.”

  Vic gave Joe a confused look. “The five whats?”

  “Just one what,” Joe said. “The other four Ws stand for who, where, when, and why.”

  “Those are the five questions we have to answer to solve any case,” Frank explained. “Who did it? What did they do? Where did it happen? When did they do it? And why did they do it?”

  “We know what and where already,” Joe said as he wrote cucumber sabotage and Vic’s garden.

  Frank scanned the ground, trying to spot anything unusual. “We’re going to have to dig deeper to get answers to the other Ws.”

  Joe’s stomach began to rumble as he sniffed the air. “Are those bananas I smell?”

  “Let’s focus on the case. You can get breakfast after we examine the crime scene.” Frank bent over to get a closer look at the damaged plants. Some of the tall vines had been yanked off the bamboo trellis and lay limply on the ground with most of their leaves missing. Others had tattered stems that ended less than a foot off the ground. There were torn bits of vines, leaves, and cucumber pieces everywhere. “I don’t see a pattern to the damage. It looks like someone just went down the row hacking and yanking wherever they felt like it.”

  “Whoever did this sure wasn’t neat about it,” Joe said, leaning over next to Frank.

  “There are enough plants left that I can at least pretty them up for the judges before the contest ends.” Vic started pulling the ruined vines out of the ground. “I’ll have to throw the damaged plants in the compost pile, but I can transplant some of my edible flowers to fill the empty spaces.”

  Frank patted Vic on the shoulder. “That sounds like a great plan. Your garden is still impressive, even without as many cucumbers.”

  “You can’t count me out yet!” Vic shook his fist at the sky.

  “I think that brings us to why,” Frank said.

  “I bet we’re thinking the same thing, bro.” Joe picked up a piece of vine. “Could someone have hacked down our man Vic’s cukes to knock a top competitor out of the running for the FEEL Contest?”

  Vic threw a nub of half-mashed cucumber to the ground. “Isn’t it obvious that’s what happened?”

  “Something’s weird about this damage,” Frank said as he studied the ragged end of the vine he was holding. “The saboteur couldn’t have used a regular knife or scissors. The cut would be cleaner.”

  Joe took the vine from him and tried tearing it in half with his hands. It was really hard to do! When the stem finally pulled apart, the ends were a lot more bent and stringy than the sabotaged one. He held the two pieces up for Frank and Vic to see. “It doesn’t look like they used their hands, either.”

  Frank crouched down and picked up the cucumber nub Vic had tossed aside. The end was all lumpy with uneven marks all the way around the edges. Frank ground his teeth together. “You know what these look like?”

  “Oh…,” Joe muttered.

  “Oh?” Vic looked between Joe and Frank. “What does oh mean?”

  “I don’t think your vines were hacked or torn,” Frank said. “They were chewed!”

  “Chewed?” Vic repeated. “Who would do such a thing?”

  Joe looked nervously down at his feet. “Um, I think we have our prime suspect.”

  “Wait, why do you look guilty?” Vic asked, eyeing Joe suspiciously.

  Joe gulped. “I think the culprit might be a friend of mine.”

  Frank glared across the street at the Hardys’ own garden. “Woody.”

  FENCE DEFENSE!

  “Your woodchuck ate my cucumbers?!” Vic yelled.

  “Woody sure isn’t my woodchuck.” Frank threw his hands up in the air. “It could have been one of his relatives. He’s not the only one in the neighborhood.”

  Joe smile nervously. “Normally, we’d confront the suspect, but it’s not like we can interrogate Woody and his friends.”

  “We may not be able to talk to them, but I do know how to keep them from doing it again,” Frank said.

  “Your WDS!” Joe declared.

  “Yes! A fence! I’ll have my mom go to the hardware store to pick up the supplies,” Vic called over his shoulder as he sprinted toward the house. The brothers followed.

  After Frank gave Mrs. Blake a list of what to get, the boys changed into their gardening clothes. A few hours later, the three were hard at work putting up a Woodchuck Defense System fence around Vic’s garden.

  “We have to dig down and put the wire fence a whole foot underground, so the critters don’t get any ideas about trying to dig under it,” Frank explained, grabbing a shovel. “Remember when I told you woodchucks are also called groundhogs because they hog all the veggies? Well, there’s another reason. They’re experts at digging holes and underground tunnels.”

  A few minutes later Audrika came outside. “Whoa, what are you guys doing?”

  Joe chuckled. “You mean Vic’s scream didn’t wake you earlier?”

  “I’m a heavy sleeper. My brother says I can sleep through just about anything.” Her mouth dropped open when she noticed Vic’s half-eaten cucumber plants. “What happened to your garden?”

  Vic angrily stabbed a fence post into the ground. “Woodchucks.”

  By the time the boys finished telling Audrika the whole story, she looked horrified. “What if the woodchucks attack my garden next?” She eyed her family’s fenceless yard. “I need a WDS too!”

  “We can help you build one when we’re done over here,” Frank offered.

  Joe handed Audrika a hammer. “With four of us working together, we can get them both done in no time.”

  Frank smiled as Audrika started pounding down a post. “See? You can be competitors and teammates.”

  * * *

  “Woodchucks won’t be bothering either of you anymore,” Frank said a few hours later when the final nail had been pounded.

  DING! DING!

  “Those are some fancy new fences you all have,” Violet said, pulling the Pickle Palace to a stop in front of Audrika’s house.

  “We built them together,” Audrika proudly replied.

  “Wow, look at those peppers! And that cabbage!” Violet was practically drooling over the produce in Audrika’s garden.

  “The best on the block,” Audrika said, flipping her hammer in the air and trying to catch it.

  Only she missed. r />
  “OUCH!” Vic screamed.

  “Oops! Sorry!”

  Vic glared up at her as he took off his boot and rubbed his foot. “It’s a good thing I’m wearing my gardening boots, or you might have broken my toe.”

  “Speaking of broken…” Violet whistled. “What happened to your cucumbers?”

  Vic groaned.

  “A woodchuck got them,” explained Frank.

  “What a shame. All those cukes will never grow up to be tasty pickles.” Violet shook her head sadly. “Well, I gotta go,” she said after a moment. “The people need their pickles!”

  “There’s one more thing we need to do,” Joe said as the Pickle Palace drove away. “The WDSs should protect the two of you, but we should look out for the rest of our neighbors. If we put more fruit out, it will help keep the woodchucks happy so they won’t have to break into anyone else’s yards.”

  “Good call, Joe.” Frank gave his brother a pat on the back. “I think a trip to the farmers’ market is in order.”

  After grabbing their bikes, the Hardys invited the others to come, but Audrika said she was going to hang back to clean up the construction site, and Vic wanted to tend to his wounded cucumbers.

  “There’s Violet’s house,” Joe said when they reached the end of the block.

  “I can smell it from here.” Frank inhaled deeply. “Oregano. Rosemary. Is that thyme?”

  Joe sniffed. “And dill! You can practically taste the pickles!”

  The boys pulled to a stop in front of the house. Violet’s family had an edible garden as well, but unlike the other neighbors’ neatly tended yards, the Parkers’ was totally wild-looking and overgrown.

  “It’s like an herb jungle,” Frank said. “I’ve never seen so many different types in one place.”

  Some plants grew in sprawling bushes, some in tall stalks. Some were planted in the ground, some sprouted from clay pots and apple boxes and even an old bathtub. Others crept all over the place, spilling onto the walk or poking up through cracks in the stone.

  “If there’s a FEEL award for the messiest garden, I think Violet has it in the bag,” Joe quipped.

  Frank leaned down to pluck a dandelion from the edge of the yard. “She did say she didn’t care about the contest.”

  Joe took another deep breath. “There are herbs everywhere, but I don’t see any veggies. I wonder where she gets all the stuff she pickles.”

  Frank shrugged and started pedaling again. “Speaking of getting stuff, let’s go pick up that woodchuck fruit before the critters strike again.”

  * * *

  “Violet was right,” Frank said as they pulled up to the not-so-crowded Bayport Farmers’ Market. “The stalls don’t look as busy as they usually do.”

  There were stands for all kinds of produce, baked goods, and crafts. The biggest tent had a sign out front that read FARMER PHIL’S FARM-FRESH FOOD—GROWING OUR COMMUNITY. Crates overflowed with fruits and veggies. A tall, lanky man sat on a barrel behind the folding tables wearing faded blue jeans, a plaid shirt, and a ball cap with a smiling cartoon carrot on it.

  “Hey, boys,” he called.

  “Hi, Farmer Phil!” Joe waved, pulling his bike to a stop. “We’re here for a fruit refill.”

  “Well, you’re in luck. I’ve got extra for you that I’ll throw in for free. Unfortunately, my produce isn’t selling like it used to.”

  “We heard business was down because of the FEEL Contest,” Frank said.

  “Yeah, I’m not really feeling it.” Phil wiggled his bushy eyebrows.

  Joe laughed. “Wow, that pun was almost as bad as one of Frank’s.”

  “Sales are down, but I’m not too worried,” Phil said, tossing an onion up in the air and catching it. “I bet my old customers will be back in no time. People will get bored of growing their own food once the contest is over and there aren’t any more prizes to win. I sure do appreciate you boys helping me out, though. And the environment.” He picked up an overflowing bin of assorted fruit. Some of it was overripe, but most of it was still edible, even for a non-woodchuck. “I don’t want to haul this back to the compost bin on the farm, and I definitely don’t want to throw it out. Way too much uneaten food gets wasted or ends up in landfills already.”

  Phil pointed to a hand-painted sign behind the counter:

  FARMER PHIL’S PHILOSOPHY

  LET’S GROW OUR COMMUNITY TOGETHER

  EAT LOCAL • PICK FRESH

  WASTE LESS • ENJOY MORE

  SUSTAINABLE FOOD & FRIENDSHIP

  Joe took the bin of fruit from Farmer Phil while Frank pulled out a few dollars to pay.

  “Well, thanks for the extra leftovers. We can sure use them. The woodchucks we told you about are attacking our neighbors’ gardens now. We put up more fencing, but these goodies should keep the critters from sneaking snacks they’re not supposed to.”

  “Those ’chucks sure can be pesky,” Phil said, tidying up the onion bin. “It’s awfully nice of you boys to give them a free meal instead of just shooing them off.”

  “Woody and his pals are too cute to chase away,” Joe said, strapping the fruit bin to the back of his bike. “No bananas?”

  “I only get a few at a time from my friend’s greenhouse. Gotta save the hard-to-grow specialty items for my customers, and I know you said your ’chucks like them nice and ripe. This batch is still green.”

  “That’s okay,” Joe said. “There are more than enough yummy goodies here to keep them happy.”

  “Good luck, boys!” Phil called as the brothers rode away.

  Frank waved back. “Thanks, Farmer Phil!”

  By the time they got back to their block, Vic had almost finished replacing the damaged cucumber plants with an eye-popping mix of red and yellow marigolds. His garden wasn’t the cucumber paradise it had been, but it was still impressive. And a few minutes later, there was a new woodchuck buffet set up outside Vic’s fence to help keep it that way.

  * * *

  “That was a successful day of detecting and protecting,” Joe said as the boys brushed their teeth before bed that night.

  “Yup.” Frank said through a gurgle. “We identified the suspect and helped save our neighbors’ gardens in time for the contest.”

  “And kept Woody and his woodchuck friends happy at the same time.”

  “I’d say it’s case closed.”

  “Eyes closed too!” said Joe. “Good night, bro!”

  The boys barely noticed the crashing thunder and pouring rain outside as they fell asleep.

  The next morning the sun was just starting to rise, and they were still asleep when—

  “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! NOT AGAIN!”

  NEFARIOUS NEIGHBORLINESS

  The boys ran across the street in their pajamas (again!) to find Vic on his knees (again!) staring at his cucumber plants (again!). Only this time, there were almost none of them left.

  “The woodchucks came back!” Vic wailed.

  The damage was like the day before, just worse. There were more gnawed and tattered pieces of vine, more bits of leaves, and more chunks of cucumbers everywhere.

  “It’s total cucumber carnage,” Joe whispered.

  “But how?” Frank stared at the brand-new double-layer fence around Vic’s yard. “We put up the WDS.”

  Vic pointed at Frank. “Your fence is a failure!” He moved his finger to Joe. “And your woodchucks are weasels!”

  “We followed my blueprints exactly. The WDS has to be secure.” Frank gave the fence a shake. It seemed as sturdy as ever.

  “And I was sure the fruit buffet would keep them happy.” Joe examined a piece of chewed-up vine. “This does look like another groundhog heist, though.”

  He went over to the fence and eyed the bin of fruit he’d set up a safe distance away on the other side. Some of it had been eaten by the woodchucks, but not that much. He stared at the muddy ground.

  “Hmm…” Joe grabbed the top of the fence, lifted himself up, and climbed over.


  Frank hurried to get a closer look; he couldn’t tell what Joe had seen, but he knew from his brother’s expression that it was probably a clue.

  Joe pointed to prints in the mud. “Look at those thin-fingered paws with pointy nails. These are definitely woodchuck tracks. They aren’t the only ones, though.”

  Frank hopped over the fence and leaned down to study the ground where the mud was streaked beneath the paw prints. “Huh. It looks like someone brushed over the mud with something before the woodchuck stepped in the same spot.”

  “Almost like they were trying to cover up a different kind of track.” Joe drew an air circle over a curved dent in the mud. “That looks like it could be part of a heel print from someone’s shoe.”

  Frank frowned. “If it is, it’s too smudged to tell how big the foot was.”

  “You mean someone tried to cover up their footprints?” Vic asked.

  Joe nodded. “Like a bigger, human pest tried to make it look like a woodchuck did the damage.”

  Vic gasped. “A person did this?”

  “It’s possible,” Frank said. “The clues don’t totally add up. Those are definitely woodchuck tracks, but something about these marks smells fishy. And by fishy, I mean human-y.”

  “Audrika,” Vic snarled.

  Frank held up his hand. “It’s never good to accuse someone of a crime without evidence. Just because you two are rivals doesn’t make her a prime suspect.”

  Vic scowled at the house next door. “No, but her sneaking out of her house late last night does.”

  “She what?” Frank and Joe asked at the same time.

  Vic turned back to the brothers. “The thunder woke me up. I meant to go right back to sleep, but I had an idea about a new pruning technique that would make my tomato plants look perfect before the competition, so I went to grab my garden journal. It’s kind of like your clue book, just for gardening notes instead of mysteries. Anyway, that’s when I looked out the window and saw it: Audrika wearing a raincoat, running out her back door into the storm.”