It was late in the evening when Natsuki finally finished setting up the automatic drip system in her friends new vegetable garden. The moon was full and there was a slight damp crisp in the air. She was in no hurry to get home so she decided to take some time and talk to the plants. She was well aware of how much this often helped them grow. As she knelt down to talk to a small sweet pea plant that was just beginning to flower, she noticed something had been eating it's little blossoms. Quickly she knelt down a new lettuce plant. It too showed signs of something small munching on it. She knew immediately these werent her usual friendly garden visitors, these were aphids and that was dangerous to these young new plants. She knew immediately what to do. Quickly she rushed home.

Once home she gathered up a small box, some netting and tape. She cut the top off the box and taped the netting to it, being sure to leave one edge open. She then took the box and her butterfly net out to her garden. After a few hours, and more than a little hard work, she had about 100 ladybugs in the net covered box. She then hurried back over the the new garden and carefully set them free.

Feeling very tied and proud of her self Natsuki then wandered home to sit in her garden with a glass of lemonade and a fresh salad. As she sat, however, She slowly noticed more and more ladybugs. Slowly it dawned on her they were her own ladybugs coming back to her. As much as she was touched she was concerned for her friends garden. He plan had apparently not worked.

As much as she wanted to do this on her own she knew that part of being responsible was knowing when to ask for help and she knew just who to ask. She knew roses often attracted aphids and Rosa always tended the most lovely Rose gardens, she must know a trick. She finnished her salad put some extra in a plastic container and some lemonade in to a thermos and went over to Rosa's house.

When she got there she knocked on the door and politely waited for the guardian to come to the door. Instead she heard Rosa calling from the back yard, Please come around back, I can't quite stop what I'm doing just this moment. Natsuki wandered around back to find Rosa high up on a later pruning a large rose bush. "I'll be down in just a moment." Rosa said. As Rosa finished up what she was doing Natsuki sat in one of Rosa's lovely wicker chairs and set the salad and lemonade on the table. When Rosa came down Natsuki offered them to her and told her the problem.

"Dear, you have such a lovely garden I wouldn't want to leave either." With with Rosa gave a heart laugh that still managed to sound like a babbling brook. "Tell you what. I'll help you catch some more ladybugs and take them over to the new garden. If we will mix some sugar and water together and spray that on the garden before we let them out they will probably stay put this time. It won't hurt the garden but it will help the ladybugs feel at home and stay put."

The two ladies set about their task and soon Natsuki was back at home happy as a clam. The ladybugs stayed put this time and took care for the aphid problem. When harvest came arround Natsuki's friend even shared some extra veggies with Natsuki and Rosa.