Free Killing Weeds by Jim Lavene, Joyce

that it?”
    In answer, he walked around in a circle on his rug and then collapsed on it. He whined and beat his tail on the floor once or twice before laying his head down and closing his eyes.
    Peggy patted his head and gave him a kiss. “I guess that means you don’t want to go out. But you know how boring it is for you being down here so you’re taking a nap. Good choice.”
    She hadn’t exaggerated about staying in the basement. She’d put in a cot and a small fridge years ago. Sometimes when she was working on a project that needed to be checked every twenty minutes, it was easier to stay down here.
    It hadn’t happened as much since she’d married Steve. She tended to limit those time-consuming projects, but that didn’t stop her from being a member of several botanical groups that did research into various types of plants.
    She really loved working with groups that were looking for ways to make food plants go further. She’d grown large tomatoes—the size of soccer balls—and fast-growing short wheat that took less time and space to produce a full harvest.
    Peggy liked working on ornamental hybrids too. She’d produced the first night blooming rose, dozens of miniature lilies, and huge ferns.
    She checked each of her experiments every day and kept records of their growth rates and variables of temperature and humidity as well as any problems she encountered.
    Currently she was working on a project with twelve other botanists from around the world to prove if melatonin enhanced growth in soybeans. So far her findings had been good. Her soybeans had grown more energetically and abundantly than soybeans grown without melatonin.
    With the basement running the entire length of the big house, and every inch of the ceiling covered with grow lights, she had a big project at the far end. Enhanced spinach, the size of ten-foot elephant ears, was growing. Normal spinach was packed with vitamins and iron. One leaf of her spinach held enough vitamins and iron for an entire day.
    She was thrilled with the thick, dark green leaves and enormous stems. They didn’t require good soil either, which was always a plus for growers. And the taste was excellent. She picked off a small leaf and chewed it as she went to check on her other plants.
    In the heart of the basement was a small pond where she worked on the dwarf cattails, irises, and other water plants before she took them to The Potting Shed to sell. She also had some lovely water lilies that always made her day better just looking at them.
    She cupped one of the large floating yellow lilies with her hands and smiled. They were so beautiful. It was hard to maintain any anger or frustration when she was down here with her babies.
    Peggy was getting ready to check on her peanuts that could remove food allergies from other peanut plants and foods derived from them. The doorbell rang upstairs. She jumped nervously, and for the first time since Steve had the unit installed, she turned on the monitor that could show her who was at the door.
    “Hi, honey.” Her father and mother waved to her. “Sam gave us a call and told us about what’s happening. We’ve brought a few things so we can stay here with you until Steve comes back.”
     
    Cotton
    No one knows exactly how old cotton is. Cotton bolls and cloth have been found in Mexico that are at least 7,000 years old. Cotton has changed very little from what is grown today. Colonists in America were growing cotton in 1616 along the James River in Virginia, creating a whole new, wealthier way of life for many.

Chapter Twelve
     
    Like many people, Peggy had a love-hate relationship with her family.
    She got along better with her father, Ranson Hughes, than she did her mother, Lilla. She was more like her father in personality but more like her mother in looks. She got her red hair from her mother and unfortunately, her short body, prone to gain weight by looking at a slice of cake.
    Ranson was tall and thin with a patient