Fancy plants on Herbology

Nathan Xavier

June 17, 2023 11:48 PM

Beginners: Fertilizers by Nathan Xavier

It was about two weeks into term. Long enough that the beginners had attended a few Herbology classes already, had turned in their first homework essay on the purpose of fertilizer during the previous class, and had learned that the school robes were merely optional for this class. It was not long enough for the weather to have cooled down enough to actually use Greenhouse One for their classes, other than a quick tour of the place during their first lesson to introduce them to where things were in there, and also teach them about what greenhouses were and how they worked - which had also served to demonstrate very clearly why the greenhouse was not used much for classroom purposes during the first few weeks of the school year.

So he met the class today in the clearing in front of Greenhouse One rather than at its door, and handed back their graded essays as they arrived so they could look it over while waiting for the class to start. With Dora now ten, and Otto six, he had a much faster turn around time on grading now than he'd had when they'd been toddlers. Also, there weren't any crayon markings on the papers either, which was not something he could have guaranteed a few years ago.

As it was the first assignment of the year, he'd been a little bit more forgiving in his grading than he would be later, but he'd made notes where improvement was possible, and comments like *Good!* when they'd nailed any of the main points he'd been looking for.

Once everyone had gotten their paper back, he cleared his throat and called them in closer for the first part of the lesson. "Now that you've demonstrated that you all know the purpose of fertilizer, we're going to start learning about a few different kinds that we have available to us, and when you'd want to use each of them. Does anyone know any specific types of fertilizer?"

He pointed to somebody with their hand up and they gave their answer. "Good, yes, two points for your House. Anyone else?" He called on a few other students, mostly ones with their hands up, though occasionally he liked to call on someone who looked like they knew the answer but weren't confident enough to raise their hands, hoping that would boost their self-esteem to volunteer next time, and also so the same few Aladrens weren't the only people participating in the class discussion all the time.

"Today, we're specifically going to work with Dragon Dung Compost - which is different from Dragon Dung Fertilizer, which is a brewed potion. The compost version is just, well, dung from dragons that has been mixed with dirt and allowed to sit for some time. It can be quite fragrant, and I recommend using gloves when handling it. Most creature dung can be turned into a composted fertilizer, but dragon dung is particularly effective in helping plants grow faster than normal. Since we go through a lot of food feeding our staff and students, the garden the kitchen elves harvest our fresh vegetables and fruits from does use dragon dung compost."

He made a follow me gesture and started walking. "The Sonora gardens are right over this way, if you'll follow me. Do bring your gloves, everything else you can leave here if you don't want to carry it." He waited for them to gather their gloves and pile anything they didn't want to bring next to the greenhouse. He picked up his lecture again as they started moving.

"Today we're going to be fertilizing the food garden. Do be careful to use the walkways so you don't trample any of the food growing there. If anyone is interested in the Gardening Club, this is not the same garden plot they use for their growing, though we will be passing near it, so I'll point that out. Iris Cobb, in Crotalus, is the president this year, and I do recommend it if you enjoy Herbology. Your common room should have a sign about when they meet." As the club advisor, he did like to give a little plug to it every year.

As promised, he pointed out the garden plot the club used as they passed it, and it wasn't far from there that the kitchen's garden was located. Today, large tubs of fertilizer sat on each of its four sides. "As I said, your job today, is to fertilize the garden. I've divided it up into squares." As they looked out over the plot of land, they'd be able to see that lines of twine had marked it into small sections. "Each square has somebody's name on it. You're responsible for fertilizing your square. Second years, your areas are a little larger, and the plants are a little harder to work around, either because they're big and cover the ground more, or because they're delicate and you need to be careful working around them." He had tried to set the difficulty level of each square to the ability of the student assigned to it, based on their performance the year before for the second years or their diligence on the homework essay for the first years, because he did want them all to be successful and not destroy the whole school's dinners for the next few weeks.

"When fertilizing a garden, you would first fertilize the whole soil area, before doing any planting. That's called top-dressing. That was done last spring, and we'll do it again just before winter after everything is harvested. Right now, we're going to be side-dressing our compost, which is when you add additional fertilizer in the dirt around a plant that's already growing, to replenish the nutrients it's using up. You don't need a lot, but you need enough that the plants get what they need to keep growing and producing well. Everyone, gather around, and I'll show you here with this patch of cabbages." He put on his gloves, collected a double handful of fertilizer, and demonstrated how to set it around the plant. "Keep it close to the plant. Generally, you don't want it any further out than the leaves go, or it won't get to the roots. You also don't want to dig up the dirt at all, as that would disturb the plant. The nutrients will percolate down, especially with water, so when you're done fertilizing get one of the watering cans over there to water your square." He pointed out where there were a collection of them next to a fountain. "You can fill up your watering can in the fountain. When you're older, you'll learn a charm called aguamenti that will just produce water from your wand, but you're not ready for that yet, so that's why we have the watering cans. Do not over water. Just get the soil damp."

"Alright. Unless there are any questions, you may begin." He stood up and waved them toward their own patches to work. "Raise your hand if you have any questions or problems."

OOC: Hello, and welcome to Herbology! This is a class, which means it's one of the ways you earn House Points! Points are based on writing quality, not what actually happens, though relevance to the Herbology lesson does play a part. Remember to stop your post in a place that allows others to reply, both giving them something to react to, and also not writing for them (god-modding). Happy posting!

Reference: How to Side Dress Compost

Subthreads:

Fun times! by Ida Stanford with Alma Brockert

Fancy plants by Leo Lyons with Ursula Arcadius

1 Nathan Xavier Beginners: Fertilizers 28 1 5

Ida Stanford

June 22, 2023 8:59 PM

Fun times! by Ida Stanford

Ida generally liked herbology. She liked Professor Xavier, he understood things such as 'inside the greenhouse is really hot' and 'robes are uncomfortable outside this time of the year'. He was also very clear when his rules overrode the general rules of the school. This was good.

The subject matter was usually interesting. Charms and Transfigurations were the 'big' magical classes with potions not far behind. Herbology was one of the 'source' classes though, you couldn't get far in potions without it. What was learned here was fundamental, her parents had made no secret of how herbology knowledge had helped them in their investigations.

As such, she was pleased with the good comments on her homework. They weren't all good, but more were good than not. Once the professor began describing the task for the day, she began to doubt that this would be one of those things she would use much later in life. Fertilizing was important for plants, and she appreciated the garden and the food, she didn't really seeing herself becoming a farmer or much of a gardener. As such the comment about the gardening club did not interest her much.

Regardless of her thoughts and feelings, they had a task to do today and it was important enough to dedicate a class to do it. As instructed, she brought her gloves and left her other belongings behind. Once they had arrived at the garden, she found her square of garden and noticed that while it wasn't as big as some of the others, it did contain some of the more delicate plants. She was mildly proud that the Professor thought her careful enough to handle them.

Ida watched his demonstration carefully and made mental notes of his instructions. After which she tugged on her gloves and smiled at one of the classmates who had gotten a neighboring square to hers as they returned to their designated areas. "Are we ready for this?" She asked pleasantly.

2 Ida Stanford Fun times! 1571 0 5

Alma Brockert

June 23, 2023 2:32 AM

You're being sarcastic, right? by Alma Brockert

Alma was really glad that she had been Sorted into Crotalus. She had been a little worried since she had wanted to be Sorted there for decidedly Tepp-ish reasons. The first year was pretty sure that her cousin Miles would be Sorted there while his older sister Libby and their cousin Uriah would be in Teppenpaw and Alma did not want him to be alone or the odd one out if the rest of them were in Teppenpaw. It was entirely possible that he could be sorted into Teppenpaw or Aladren and in the latter case, he’d be on his own, but at least it wouldn’t be a thing where he was the only one different and ended up feeling left out.

She wanted to avoid that for him as much as possible since she was pretty sure that with his allergies, he felt different enough. Like others had allergies-her older cousins who’d taken their CATS had mentioned the test examiner who at least seemed to have seasonal ones on par with the ones Miles had, partially to let the younger ones know what to expect, but also so Miles would know that others had at least some of the same problems-but Alma didn’t know of anyone as allergic to absolutely everything as her cousin. There would have to be food that was not only allergy friendly but cooked separately to avoid cross contamination. There were lessons, particularly involving Herbology, COMC and Potions, that he would need alternatives for. Plus, there was the Bonfire, which was both outside where the pollen was and involved potential cross contamination from people cooking things that Miles was allergic to over open fires. So that was not an especially allergy friendly event, and even if they could make modifications, he still would not be able to participate fully.

So,therefore, Alma did not want him to feel further isolated and different. If she ended up as the only Crotalus-out of the four of them, obviously, her brother Christopher and Amethyst and a lot of the rest of her group of first cousins were Crotali-she could live with it, but she did not want Miles to go through even more of that. Because Alma was pretty sure he would be in Crotalus, because the types of people who went into her house were either super shy or super proper, the latter of which included the snobby elitist sort of purebloods. Which, she felt wasn’t quite fair to do to people who were already anxious as it was to be put in with people who were mean and nasty. Then again, the two worst people that Alma knew, her uncle Eustace and her cousin Topaz were a Pecari and an Aladren, respectively and all the Crotali she knew were actually all nice. Anyway, Miles was not only quiet and shy, like Chris and Allegra and Sapphire, but also though it might be partially out of total necessity, he was the most cautious person Alma knew, even more so than Christopher.

She supposed though, that she was in Crotalus more because she was proper and polite than because she was shy and cautious. Alma was not by any means the reckless type, but cautious was not her dominant personality trait. Nor was she extremely bold-boldness and ‘telling it like it is’ was all too often a euphemism for being rude and mean-but she had more confidence than her brother and some of her other relatives. Because Alma didn’t have either Uncle Eustace or Topaz really chipping away at it, given that she was female-her uncle made negative comments about females in general but not her specifically, while picking on her brother and male cousins as not being masculine enough, because of a lack of interest or ability in Quidditch as well as mocking Miles for his allergies and Uriah for being overweight-and not either close in age to Topaz or one of her siblings.

In other words, Alma was one of the lucky ones.

Today was Herbology and it provided two problems for the first year. First of all, they were allowed to ditch their robes. Which would be fine, except that she mostly had nice pretty clothing that she did not want to ruin but at the same time, it was too hot to be wearing robes.

Secondly, the assignment today was going to involve fertilizer . Ewwwww! And Alma was pretty sure it was the kind using…dung. Actual dung. As in, animal waste. She had no moral objections to using animal products, she liked meat and appreciated being able to eat things like eggs and cheese since not everyone could and she was perfectly comfortable using animals and animal…byproducts in potions. The problem was that Alma…did not want to handle this particular animal byproduct. Because it was disgusting.

It was honestly the sort of lesson that made her wish that she could claim allergies. Except that she knew it was wrong to do that, not just because lying was bad-necessary occasionally, like when you wanted to avoid hurting someone’s feelings-but because there were people who really had them and because she wasn’t special or above the rules and given she actually did not have a documented health issue that would get her out of participating in this particular lesson, Alma had to do what everyone else had to.

Besides, she knew how it would look to everyone if she tried to get out of something. Like she was an entitled prissy pureblood girl. Like the most negative Crotalus stereotype. Which would lead into all the other parts of that stereotype, that she was mean and stuck-up and then nobody would really want to be friends with her. The fact that she was the Headmaster’s granddaughter-though how anyone could keep track of which Brockerts were which was beyond her-would only make it worse.

That was not the reputation that Alma wanted. Therefore, she had to suck it up and…handle fertilizer. Despite the fact that even the thought was stomach churning and she might very well lose her lunch. Because of course they had to be handling animal waste right after they ate lunch.

Alma listened with some trepidation as Professor Xavier gave their instructions. Helping with the food gardens sounded like a worthwhile enough endeavor, she just wished they could have done it in some other way. Like planting them or watering them or just…well anything that didn’t involve handling…dung. Alma basically was having a visceral reaction not unlike the one that her brother and Jasper had around flying, but without the surrounding trauma. Her visceral reaction was mainly based on the fact that animal waste was inherently revolting.

She found her plot, put on her gloves and-very reluctantly-opened the Dragon Dung Compost. It was…every bit as nasty as she had expected. Not only was the sight and texture of it something that made Alma glad she’d had a very light lunch, but it was the worst thing that she had ever smelled in her life. It smelled like…well, like what she would imagine Uncle Eustace’s personality would smell like if personalities had smells.

The Crotalus wrinkled her nose. How was she going to do this without looking at it? And even if she could avoid that, there was no way of avoiding the smell. She had never thought of herself as having a particularly weak stomach but she had never handled dung before and never ever wanted to again.

As she tried to figure out how to manage this in the least unpleasant way-there was no such thing as a pleasant way for this to go, so the best that Alma could hope for was the least un pleasant way-the girl next to her asked if they were ready for this. Remembering the fact that she did not want negative stereotypes about her house or those of her blood and social status applied to her, the first year forced a tight smile, and gave the most diplomatic yet honest reply that she could. “As ready as we’ll ever be.” She hoped the other girl didn’t notice that she was looking a bit green.

11 Alma Brockert You're being sarcastic, right? 1580 0 5

Leo Lyons

June 24, 2023 4:19 AM

Fancy plants by Leo Lyons

Herbology was one of Leo's best subjects, although he mainly chalked that up to experience. Fertilizer worked the same in the soybean fields back home as the garden beds at school. His essay came back to him with mainly good marks, and only one or two areas where he could have explained things better. He quickly ditched his robes. That was one of the best parts about Herbology- no hot, itchy robes dangling in your work.

"Muggles use livestock manure," he answered after his polite hand-up was acknowledged, "And nowadays agricultural companies make special blends that can get sprayed over the fields."

He didn't think that Muggle-related facts would be excluded from this type of question, and even if nonmagical fertilizers didn't imbue the plants with magical growing energy or whatever, they still added nutrients to the soil, which was the whole point.

After the Q&A session was done, Leo grabbed his gloves and followed the professor with the rest of the class. He was pleased to see that his plot gave him just enough room to maneuver around his plants without squashing them, so long as he was careful. He was less pleased to see, on closer inspection, that he'd ended up with some variety of eggplant. Not his favorite veggie in the patch, as it were. He wrinkled his nose in distaste, but seeing as he only had to fertilize them, not eat them, he got down to business.

The fertilizer wasn't terribly smelly, at least not by farm standards, and it patted into place with little fuss. It was quite warm out, and Leo wiped the sweat from his forehead with his mostly clean forearm. As he worked to the edge of his patch, he noticed that his plot-neighbor was also moving towards the same edge of their own patch.

"What veg did you get?" Leo asked, vaguely hoping that his sweaty bangs weren't sticking straight up, or he hadn't accidentally wiped dung on his face, or something equally as embarrassing, "I've got eggplants, but they're pink."

64 Leo Lyons Fancy plants 1568 0 5

Ursula Arcadius

July 05, 2023 11:04 AM

I have an exotic salad leaf by Ursula Arcadius

Ursula was so far excelling at Herbology, which had—in her limited exposure to it—required her to look, listen, and write a short essay. She had put extra effort into the latter. Whilst she didn’t exactly compete with Quillan in written homework any more, owing to that being a very uneven playing field, she wanted to underline her own flawlessness in the field of composition, checking the boxes in handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and content. Of course, Quillan’s essays did that too when he used his dictation quills, and so the difference might not be really noticeable anyway, but it never hurt to aim for (and achieve) excellence.

Today, they would actually be getting their hands dirty, and the more Professor Xavier described the assignment, the less certain Ursula felt about it. She didn’t mind a little dirt in the name of a good cause. She had grown her own poinsettias and amaryllis at Christmas, and been gifted various pretty little herbs and flowers to tend to as pet projects. She knew she would have to get her hands dirty to practise potions, and the ends there justified the means. The act of spreading manure on a vegetable patch did not quite meet with any of these experiences or definitions.

She followed Professor Xavier, wondering what type of thing the gardening club did and what it used, and wrinkling her nose as they arrived at their assignment. She didn’t mean to make a face, as that would be rude, but it did rather smell. She had encountered a similar scent at winged horse stables before, but that had involved swiftly being spirited away from it on a pretty animal, and not being expected to interact with the cause of the smells. Her expression further twisted into a look of shock when the professor dug his hands into the bin of… aforementioned substance. She had already been planning on following his advice of donning her shining, silver dragonhide gloves but that was more in case a speck of the stuff went astray.

When they were set to work, she pulled on her gloves and took out her trowel. She took her time finding her name and waiting politely in line for the necessary wherewithal. When she got to the bin, she tried not to linger too long, though it took her a moment to bear going near it, which she did with a slightly horrified expression, scooping it with her trowel and then holding it at arm’s length as she walked back to her plot, where she tipped it immediately onto the side, deciding she could work it around with her trowel from there, but mostly wanting to get it away from herself.

She glanced up, and found Quillan looking her way. Or at least, looking near her, but perhaps more at her neighbour? Though he seemed to be using the serious Don’t Mess About face he used when he thought she was pushing her luck with Mother or their tutor. Which was rude, because she wasn’t pushing her luck, she was just trying to avoid nasty smelling substances. Though he really did seem to be looking not-quite-at-her… Her neighbour was quite nearby, and offered her a perfectly polite greeting. And a puzzle. All she could see above the ground were leaves.

“Some kind of salad, I suppose,” she said. Although she knew some vegetables grew below the ground, she’d only ever seen the tops of carrots, and didn’t know any other root vegetables well enough by their leaves to know that she was tending a patch of potatoes.

13 Ursula Arcadius I have an exotic salad leaf 1577 0 5

Ida Stanford

July 05, 2023 7:34 PM

A bit perhaps by Ida Stanford

Ida thought her new housemate was looking a little green. That was understandable, this certainly wasn't the most pleasant task she had ever been given, but it wasn't the... Ida had to pause and think, it might actually be the worst thing she'd been asked to do. Compared with some of the stories her parents had shared though, fertilizer didn't seem all that bad. And those were just the stories they had told her about. Plus, they had gloves.

She made good use of her gloves to scoop some of the fertilizer from the container and drop it into a small pile in her square where she could gently work it in under the plants. "It's not to bad," she commented to Alma, "And I'm sure the professor knows how to purge the gloves clean again once we're done." Ida thought that perhaps some small talk might help distract Alma from what she was actually doing while they worked. If nothing else, it might work for herself.

"How are you liking Crotalus so far? Have you gotten all settled into your dorm room by now?" It had occurred to her that she hadn't swung in to check in with the new inhabitants of the Crotalus girl's hall. She hadn't' wanted to intrude to early, and now it seemed a bit late for that sort of thing.

2 Ida Stanford A bit perhaps 1571 0 5

Leo Lyons

July 11, 2023 2:21 AM

I wouldn't eat that salad if I were you by Leo Lyons

Upon closer inspection (and shielding his eyes from the sun) it was Quillan's little sister that had the veggie patch next to him. Ursula, he thought her name was. She'd been sorted into Teppenpaw with him. She seemed to be reluctant to touch the fertilizer, a sentiment Leo could understand but didn't personally experience. Honestly, Donovan's cows smelled worse.

Just beyond Ursula, Leo saw Quillan eyeing him, some sort of squinty-stare thing, although Leo couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a hairy eyeball or if Quillan was just squinting because it was bright outside. Judging by the frown accompanying, Leo figured it was a "don't get my sister in trouble" sort of glare.

Fair enough. Time to prove he wasn't going to be the screwball kid forever.

He crouched down next to Ursula's plants to get a better look. He was fairly confident in his plant identification skills, having helped his mom in her vegetable patch. However, it was entirely possible that this was a magical variety of vegetation that he hadn't seen before, so he looked closely, gathering clues.

Broad, flat leaves, no visible fruits or flowers, so probably a root vegetable. The stalks were beginning to yellow, a sign that either the plant was dying, or that the potatoes beneath the soil were reaching their peak.

"I'd steer clear of sneaking a taste of this salad," he said, "I think these are potatoes, which are delicious, but the leaves are poisonous. Could be a variety that I don't know about, but better safe than sorry on that one."

He glanced quickly through his patch to make sure he'd finished with his side-dressing.

"I think I'm done fertilizing mine, if you want some help. It's easier to get the compost where it's going if you use your hands, but it is stinky."

64 Leo Lyons I wouldn't eat that salad if I were you 1568 0 5

Ursula Arcadius

July 11, 2023 5:42 AM

Duly noted, thank you by Ursula Arcadius

Ursula had not been planning on sneaking any tastes of anything in this garden. Firstly, because sneaking was naughty, and secondly because they were all currently covering the contents with matured dragon dung. She had, in fact, been questioning whether she wanted to eat any vegetable presented to her at this school ever again.

Still, Leo’s information was useful—even if it was unnecessary to her eating habits it might prove essential for her grades, though it did cause her cheeks to redden slightly at having been so blatantly wrong.

“I’ll remember that, thank you,” she said, regarding his little lesson, trying to commit the shape of potato leaves to memory. She suspected it would be most likely to come in handy in being suspicious of any rivals to a suitor’s hand who served her a salad that looked like this, than it would for cultivating a garden, but knowledge was knowledge.

“That would be wonderful,” she readily accepted his help. On the whole, Ursula liked to do things for herself. Had it been Quillan offering, she might well have stuck to that. But most things she was asked to do didn’t involve dung, and this person was not her brother, both of which made a world of difference to her readiness to be helped. Especially when he mentioned using hands. “I think I’ll try with the trowel for now… Perhaps you can show me what I should be aiming for though?” She wasn’t going to let him do it all for her, that wasn’t fair, and she was perfectly willing to crouch down and get her trowel dirty, just maybe not her hands, or even her gloves.

13 Ursula Arcadius Duly noted, thank you 1577 0 5