lifeaftr | Better Homes & Gardens

Entry tags:

Better Homes & Gardens

Who: Gobbet (

ratsinadaze) and Muffet (

prettypurpleparlor)
What: Adventures in gardening.
When: 11/10
Where: Islet 1, Shack 1
Warnings: Obligatory aracnophobia warning. Otherwise strong language/none.

[It's a lovely day. Sunny, warm but not hot. Nothing like the perpetual icy-wet sheen that covered the dark streets of the Heoi Waterfront.]

[Gobbet sits just outside of her shack, squinting to read the isntructions on the little packet of seeds the Storyteller had given her. The packet only lists the type of seeds contained, the harvest time, and the best time to plant them. How to care for them, how to plant them properly - that information is unfortunately absent.]

Fuck, I should have though this through.

[She mutters the words under her breath, leaning her head back against the wall. The ork squeezes her eyes shut, pinching the bridge of her nose. This whole thing had been such a mess. From the moment she arrived on Enso, disaster had followed her to every corner of the mysterious island. Between the monkeys and the crystal caves and actually, literally dying, this small misfortune of not knowing how to use the gifts she asked for was...heavier, than it would have been otherwise.]

Just, dig a hole and drop in a seed, right? How hard can it be to plant a freaking potato?

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[Although she's muttering, Gobbet is still pretty audible to someone passing by. Muffet pauses briefly, debating whether or not eavesdropping is more rude than not offering to help, before speaking up.]

Potatoes in particular do tend to be relatively hardy plants, but I can suggest a few ways to grow healthy crops if you like.

Huh? Oh, hey.

[Gobbet's brow is furrowed in frustration, but not at Muffet. She'd just felt kind of clever asking for seeds to plant, only to realize she didn't know the first thing about actually planting them. But she was willing to learn. She needed to. The whole island needed to.]

I could definitely use a hand. I had the bright idea to ask the Storyteller for seeds but. Well.

[She gestures to the two packets at her feet.]

Turns out there's more to farming than digging a hole and waiting a few months.

Well, that's not an entirely inaccurate description, really- it just helps to include a few more details.

[Muffet's tone is amused but friendly, not mocking. She could remember a few awkward mishaps of her own, when she'd first gotten the idea back home to try growing fresher ingredients.]

May I take a closer look at these?

[She gestures at the other two packets, politely refraining from picking them up until given permission- she knows that people can be nervous about their possessions.]

Have at it.

[Gobbet scoops up the little paper packets and extends them to Muffet.]

[One is for sweet potatoes. It simply states that they'll be ready to wash and harvest in two to four months.]

[The second is for carrots. The package indicates that autumn is a good time to plant them, but little else.]

[The last is for strawberries. The writing is so worn out it's difficult to read, but the words "spring" and "perennial" can be made out if one squints carefully.]

[Muffet looks them over carefully, getting as much of the details as she can.]

Hm... Well, to start with, I can tell you that carrots definitely grow well enough in these conditions- there were a few wild ones growing in other locations on this island, and I transplanted a few into my own garden.

As for the strawberries, I recall that they're generally planted in rows and that they do better if you have some compost to add to the soil. They prefer warm climates and lots of sunlight, so you're in luck here.

Sweet potatoes don't need much in the way of fertilization, but they do tend to react badly to being overwatered, so I'd advise against planting them anywhere too likely to wind up flooded.

[It's lucky Gobbet picked edible plants- if she'd been trying to grow medicinal herbs, Muffet would have been no help here.]

[Gobbet takes in the information with as much attention as she can muster. The truth is that the actual act of planting and caring for the crops bores her. But she wants to eat and, even if the wait will be long, she's hoping it'll be worth it.]

[She gestures to a strip of loose dirt near the front wall of her shack, next to where she's sitting. A little earlier in the day she had spent some time "tilling" it with her bare hands. Muffet may notice they're covered in dirt.]

Think this is too sandy? There's a patch of grass inside, under the hole in the roof, that's a little firmer.

[After investing so much work into the monkey nest only to abandon it, she hasn't done much with this new shack.]

[Muffet gives it a thoughtful look, considering the area in question.]

I think it will do, although if you can save things to make compost out of- eggshells and the like- it will help in the long run. If you wanted to hedge your bets, you could plant some of the strawberries inside and the rest out there, this packet has enough seeds that you can split them.

Eggshells, huh?

[Gobbet looks down at the little strip of dirt, contemplating how delicious scrambled eggs would be right now. She knows there are chickens--or something similar, anyway--on another islet. Maybe she could barter for some eggs at some point.]

[More available would be foraged foodstuffs that she could save bits of for composting purposes. A bucket or small ditch would have to be acquired to hold the stuff, but that could be arranged fairly easily. Yes, the wheels were turning now.]

I think I'll put the potatoes on the other side of the shack, then. Further away from the water. We could split the seeds, half and half, if you want. The more people growing food, the merrier the island, to be honest.

[Muffet smiles cheerfully at Gobbet's offer.]

I'd be delighted to- as I said, I already have some carrots of my own growing, but strawberries and sweet potatoes would both be welcome additions to my garden. In return, I'd be happy to offer you some seeds or cuttings from some of my own plants, once you've gotten things here working to your satisfaction.

Honestly I have a feeling that the more people we have growing food, the better everyone's chances of survival are. Not just for the obvious reasons of sharing and trade, but because it encourages people to do useful things on their own time.

[Gobbet pushes herself up into a kneeling position in front of the proposed strip of garden and turns the package of carrot seeds over in her hands. It can't be that hard to plant a carrot, right? Even without prior knowledge of how to grow things, Gobbet is fairly certain it's a pretty straightforward process. Stick seeds in dirt. Water occasionally. ???. Profit.]

[She looks over her shoulder at Muffet briefly.]

So, just like. Dig a hole and go?

Not to mention the benefits of having edible plants growing in as many different places as we can manage, in case something happens to any one location.

[The recent flooding being an unfortunately clear example.]

[She nods in response to Gobbet's question, walking over to sit down on the other side of the little cleared patch.]

Essentially, yes- you want to dig a good few inches down so that it doesn't get blown away by the wind or eaten by birds. It's also a good idea to space them out enough so that their roots won't get tangled together as they grow, but that's less of a problem with carrots, since their roots are what you'll be harvesting in the first place.

[Gobbet nods, a tiny shred of determination flickering in her eyes. The more she thought about it as "her garden", the more invested she was becoming.]

[With her bare hands, she digs a little hole about three inches deep. She tears open the edge of the package, pouring a few seeds into her palm, and plops one into the hole. Carefully, Gobbet covers the seed with the displaced dirt from digging and smiles, satisfied.]

Well that's not so hard. I dunno what I was envisioning but it was much harder than this.

[Muffet laughs softly, patiently and steadily doing much the same thing on her end of the little patch.]

I suspect that the difficult part comes with getting them to keep growing healthily, once they do sprout- not to mention fending off any wildlife that wants a taste, although it seems that's less of a problem here on the islets.

But in the end, plants have spent a rather long time doing their best to grow, and getting better at doing it than whatever happens to be growing next to them. It's what they're designed to do, by this point.

[The task of keeping her plants alive long enough to see them harvested is less daunting now that she's actually done the first step. Really she's not sure what she was worried about.]

[Okay, she was worried because she's never grown a thing in her life and her world only serves fresh food to the rich and/or powerful, so the prospect of reaping the rewards of a garden seemed...unlikely at best.]

[But here she was. And here were her potatoes and carrots. And in a few months, there would be soup and baked potatoes to go around.]

Real talk, thanks for your help. There's more to it than I thought, but less than I was afraid of, if that makes sense.

[Muffet nods, smiling warmly.]

I think it does, yes- you know that there's work involved, but you now also know it's work you're capable of.

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We can probably wrap this soon, if you want.

Sure!

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