We're the sort of people that treat the property surrounding our house as an extension of the rooms to our house. We've created gardens that fill every corner to create outdoor rooms and paths. In time, as things grow larger, we will have our own little oasis in the midst of civilization. Living in town, it is the only real way to get some privacy outdoors.
Normally, our gardening tapers off during the heat of the Summer. Typically each year there is a slow buildup after the holidays as we can see the end of Winter coming and we start our planning. Time is spent looking through seed and nursery catalogs, making lists and plans for annuals and any new perennials or larger plants. Then we start checking to see what will be available locally and what will have to be ordered. Orders are placed, plans are refined, and we begin to start our seeds in the basement under the gro-lamps. Then as the cold weather recedes, we are in a flurry of activity through the Spring as we clean up our planting beds and gardens, put down mulch, and plant our new additions. Usually by June we are winding down on things as we head into the heat of the Summer. Hopefully everything is established as the weather gets drier. At that point it is more a matter to tending to things, some weeding, and watering during the driest periods. Then in the Fall we get back into things, cleaning up things for Winter and doing some Fall planting as well.
The Summer had turned out wetter than normal and we had a couple areas that we wanted to do some things with that we had not gotten around to in the Spring. A couple evening conversations led us to plan another trip to the garden center with some ideas and some items to look for. Although it was unspoken, it was on both our minds that this would be the first time that we would be back to the garden center since Katie got the chance to wander around the greenhouses topless.
I had little doubt that they would remember us, but I wasn't exactly sure how they would react to seeing us again. Not that I expected them to complain if Katie came by to disrobe in front of them once again. Just that the first time we had the element of surprise. I wasn't sure if now that they knew what to expect whether it would make them bold and lead to any potential problems.
I could tell that Katie did not share my concern and was actually eager to put herself on display again. It was a little amazing to think that there was a time that she would never have even considered doing such a thing. Actually, there was a time that she was uncomfortable being naked around me if I paid too much attention to her. And then to go through the stages and watch as she would do it but only to humor me and then as it progressed to the point that she actually took pleasure in it for herself. She had definitely come a long way!
The way she saw it was that they had treated her politely the last time and she figured that they were smart enough that they would most likely continue to mind their manners because they would realize that any problems would quickly put an end to the show as well as any future shows. That made sense, but there was also the chance that someone would get greedy and want more. I decided I'd go along with Katie's instincts on the matter while keeping alert for any signs of trouble.
It did not take Katie long to prepare for our trip, basically because there was not a whole lot that she had to put on. Forgoing any undergarments whatsoever, she put on a one piece sleeveless denim dress that reached mid-thigh and zipped up the front and then slipped on her white sneakers. The dress was modest, your typical soccer mom type fare. But the zipper all the way down the front made it quite simple to get daring.
Our trip to the garden center was made without incident. Katie did take the opportunity to tease me a bit by unzipping herself to give me a view of her breast and pert little nipple. She went so far as to tug on it and tweak it to bring it to full arousal. When we got to our destination, she made sure to swing her legs wide so that I got a good glimpse up her dress to her cutely trimmed pussy as I held the door of the truck open for her, just in case I had forgotten that she was not wearing panties. I had a feeling that some people were in for quite a show this afternoon!
We entered the garden center and began browsing without incident. Despite having this conducive weather, the place was pretty deserted. I guess that people were just not thinking about gardening out of force of habit more than anything. That worked to our benefit, though. Less chance of "civilians" seeing our show and complaining to anyone or otherwise interfering.
We were probably there for ten or fifteen minutes before one of "our" guys happened to walk by and see us. He got a smile on his face that pretty much said that his day had just gotten a whole lot better and I watched as he sized up Katie's outfit before coming over to say hello and ask if he could help us.
Katie gave him one of her best sweet smiles and launched into a discussion of paperbark maples, river birches, wintergreen, and assorted perennials to complement the specimen plantings. To his credit, he seemed to shake off his thoughts of Katie's outfit and what may hide beneath it and concentrate on what items Katie was listing and where the plants were located. He suggested that we look at some of the larger items first and then work back towards the smaller fill-in items which would give us more variety to work with and pointed the way to start out.
As I said in the last story about this place, it is not your nice, orderly, sterile suburban garden center but rather a sprawling complex of greenhouses, sheds, barns, and open areas in between. Most of their business is from commercial landscapers and the more serious amateur gardeners, so you don't exactly have all the nice displays and careful signs to let you know where items are and what exactly they are when you find them. Sort of like exploring an old country general store where you never quite know what you'll find tucked in some corner or up on some shelf.
I trailed along as he led Katie towards the back to the trees. She was talking about how she liked the bark texture of the two trees and how the evergreen of the wintergreen would complement the stark bare trunks in winter. But she was undecided on which one of the two trees would work best in the location she had in mind. He asked about the siting for the trees and she described the low hill backing up along a rocky area along the driveway where we planned to plant things. He asked the usual questions about how much sun the area received, soil types, and such. Her description of good soil, but on the dry side led him to suggest a river birch as the paperbark maples required moister conditions.
As they talked, he led us out through the greenhouses to the open areas where they had the trees and larger bushes heeled in until someone bought them. We passed a couple of the other guys that we recognized from our last visit. You could see them perk up when they recognized Katie and I also noticed a few nods from the guy with us to his coworkers. Probably to let them know that he'd do his best to let them know if anything was happening this time or possibly just to acknowledge that he was "the man" for spotting us first.
He led us to the trees and showed us a few samples of the river birch and then we walked further on to see some of the paperbark maples. For those of you unfamiliar with them, these trees have bark that flakes off as it grows. It isn't much of an issue during the summer, but during the winter it makes for an interesting spectacle.
Katie had examined several examples of both types of tree as we stopped at each, genuinely interested in them but also giving the guy a chance to look her over as she was looking the trees over. The denim was too thick to see the shape of nipples or anything through it and it wasn't tight enough to really show off her curves, but that did not stop him from taking the opportunity to check out her ass when she bent over or to try to look down the front when she was facing him.
Katie straightened up from looking at one paperbark maple and caught him doing his best to look down the top of her dress. It wasn't like she didn't know he would be trying. Heck, it wasn't like she wasn't giving him ample opportunity to look either!
She had started to ask him a question about the tree but then paused and asked him his name, explaining that it was sort of awkward to carry on a conversation when she could only refer to the other person as "you" all the time.
