[Gardening & Herbalism] The Healing Harvest of the Earth

[Kavala]

Timestamp: Late Winter, 509 AV Location: Sanctuary's Grounds Purpose: Gardening & Herbalism Training Status:Open until Season Change The Konti had more books from the Academy in Riverfall. Frankly, garden and herbalism were some of the two favorites she'd been wanting to get started in. Gardening was supposed to be on the back burner until spring, but since the season was right around the corner, it was important to get started. So, Kavala had developed a two fold plan. In the morning, after her chores and seeing any patients or dealing with any stable visitors that might come forth, she'd work on the gardens. The books spoke volumes about what she needed to do. Frankly, it was easier for her to learn from literature than it was for her to learn from people, so she had no problems following directions. Much like getting Sanctuary ready to open, basic gardening was all about soil preparation and planting in its intital stages. Much like cleaning up the main courtyard and buildings, the first steps in basic gardening were simple. She needed to prep the ground. It was incredibly hard work too, clearing weeds, pulling unknowns, and loosening the soil. She started at one outer edge of the building and decided her gardens would be at the front and rear of the facility, stretching the width of Sanctuary, but leaving the sides (where stalls opened onto pasture) alone. Her tools were simple. Shovel, hoe, rack, and her own sweat and muscle. Looking at the whole of the task, it seemed daunting, but Kavala was a segmented thinker for the most part. She divided the gardens up into 'goals' staking off sections with string so she could clear each individual area a little at a time in order to make sure she accomplished her goal by the time spring came. With the first warm weather, she'd be ready to plant, and then as summer came around she'd begin to harvest. Kavala wanted to grow herbs and medicinal in the front of the grounds, while the back would be reserved for a vegetable and fruit garden. So, on a quiet overcast day in late Winter, after the soil had softened enough to be worked with a hoe, Kavala broke ground. She worked tirelessly to get her first section done, all the while reviewing her herbalism reading, which she was taking one small section at a time. So, as her hoe dug into the ground and she filled a wheelbarrow with discards for the burn pile, Kavala reviewed the small section on Drying and Preserving. The beautiful thing about Herbalism and indeed much of Philtering, was that it could be used for cooking as well. The first thing Kavala had to worry about was harvesting, that was, when the plants were ready. Her gardening book called it peak time, the ripe hour, and recommended harvesting under the moon's light because Leth had a special place in the gardening world. And at times, one would need to go forth and do so when the moon was out in the daylight sky. At this peak time, the essence of the plants were at their highest concentration, thus they would go further. This moment in time is different for each plant. She would have to pick during days without rain to prevent mold. Leaves and roots, for example, should be collected before noon, flowers should be collected in the morning if the moon was dark during peak times. Some plants, when dried, could be stored in their peel, like garlic or ginger. Other plants needed to be chopped, ground up, and dried from a paste into a powder. This was more difficult. Leaves and stems could be hung upside down in a dark cool place so they could dry before being broken up and stored. Roots were stored in hot, dark, and dry places too... so they could be ground up as well. It wasn't truthfully hard, but it took some common sense thinking to figure out how to actually preserve and store herbs once they were grown. Next came the issue of storage. Herbs had to be protected after they were harvested, no matter what the type. Depending on the part used, the storage was different for each. Herbs required their parts (either the greens or roots) to be completely dry to avoid infection via mold, mildew or the like. They were best stored in dark jars (for sunlight could damage them) in the form they were most likely going to be used as... whole, ground, or shredded. Each should be labeled carefully. Kav knew that. She continued to hoe, thinking about this intently. The fruits of her labor, of the harvest this summer, would make this very important.

[Kavala]

Kavala was glad she had the leather work apron on. It had a pocket just large enough to fit the hand-written book she'd taken notes on for what she had in store for herself today. The wonderful thing about gardening was that it gave you all sorts of time to think. In that way, it was therapeutic. But Kavala knew before she planned on what to do with her harvest, she had to really worry about getting to the point where she could HAVE a harvest. To that end, she had walked in some of Riverfall’s gardens and even out to Vyctoria’s Conservatory where she met Ailodes, the head gardener there. Ailodes had told her she’d send Kari out sometime today to teach Kavala a thing or two about gardening. Kari was one of the interns at Vyctoria’s holding the title of Apprentice Gardener. But though her skills were not as vast as Ailodes’, Kavala could definitely use the advice should the girl choose to show up.

In the mean time, the Konti just kept plugging away at what she thought was the best course of action. That action involved clearing out the garden beds. She was well ahead of the curve too, because while the Sanctuary had no formal gardens, the place did have wide green spaces and a terraced set of steps out front facing the sea that lent itself to natural raised beds of significant enough size that Kavala could for sure grow things there.

So she had taken stakes, hammered them into the ground, and marked out where she wanted her beds. Then, taking the shovel from her gardener’s kit, Kavala began to dig at the hard-packed soil, meaning to turn it over and loosen it up. She’d been busy at work for about an hour when a shadow blocked the weak winter sun and caused her to look up. Kari stood there smiling. Kavala offered her a smile back, and nodded her gratitude. “Thanks for coming!” Kavala said, putting her shovel aside and wiping off her hand so she could shake Kari’s. “Ailodes told you I’d give you free healing on your animals for a season for helping me out with this project right?”

Kari nodded. “She sure did. And I jumped on it because I’ve a horse that needs some tending too and two dogs that are going to welp fairly soon. One’s had problems before and we almost lost her over the last litter. Any help you can give her would be most welcome, especially if you could keep her here and welp her out when the time comes close. I am loathe to loose her for she’s a great guard dog.” Kavala nodded. “There’s no problem with that at all. Sometimes too dogs have far easier births after they’ve had a particularly had one too. They are tougher than they let on.” Kavala said, offering Kari a smile

Kari grinned and answered with enthusiasm. “I hope you’re right. I could use a break one of these days. Life’s been a string of bad luck. I’m glad this opportunity opened up.” She said. Kavala laughed. “You and me both. I’m glad to have some guidance for what I’m doing here.” She said, gesturing around.

“Well, what is it exactly you are trying to do? I mean, I can tell your trying to put in flower beds, but what kind and what’s your big plan?” Kari asked.

Kavala looked thoughtful. “Well, there’s at least 50 feet of flowerbeds here divided by four sections. That’s a lot of flower bed. I’d like to take one side and turn it into a vegitable garden while the other side I’m going to plant with herbs and medicines.” Kavala said. “I just don’t think this ground has ever grown anything, so I need your advice on how to get it ready and maybe how to keep things growing.” The Konti said, looking perplexed.

“Right now I just want to get them looking a little like flower beds rather than a whole nest of weeds. Can you help? I have been clearing away the grass to make way for planting, but I really don’t know what I’m doing…” Kavala said.

Kari examined Kavala’s space for a long while, seeming to digest what she was saying before commenting on it herself. She saw the string, stakes, and nodded. “You’ve got a good start with these stakes, but let me show you something else. Once you have a full section of yard divided off as to where you want this garden, then go ahead and divide it in half once more then go ahead and divide it into two sections the short length because then you have a piece of dirt that looks like a double row of squares, like in a hopscotch game. Then, you make it easy on yourself… you dig out the sod in section one… set it aside, then using your shovel and your fork, turn the soil and loosen it up. You’ll have to scoop it out of the first section and set it aside.” Kari took a break to divide the sections up with Kavala’s help and then explained with the visual right there in front of the girls.

“The idea is when you turn the soil in section two, you can just throw the excess soil that’s been turned already into section one, refilling it. You move around the beds this way and when you get around the entire group of squares and land back on section one, you can use the dirt you set aside while you were digging out section one and then fill it with the dirt you already turned and discarded outside the bed when you initially turned the sod at square one. It’s a neat system really.” Kavala nodded. The explanation was confusing, but it was definitely something she understood staring at it once Kari had it all staked out.

“The rest of what you plan is wholeheartedly doable. We just have to prepare the beds first. You take one shovel and I’ll take another and we’ll get these worked out faster than you can imagine.” She said, smiling.

KAvala nodded, grateful for the help. She picked up her own shovel, went to the very next section, staked it out and sectioned it off, then began digging. Before long she’d worked through her first section and was working on the second one. It got easier the more you worked on, and she went from cautiously spearing the soil to turn it, Kavala found her mind wandering back to what she wanted to grow and making a list of herbs that were a must-have in her garden.

Working side by side with Kari, Kavala was able to get all the beds turned and waiting for augmentation before she could even remotely begin to plan her harvest.

[Kavala]

As Kavala’s mind drifted, thinking once more of how much Tamar – Vanator’s first wife – would have been proud of her for doing a garden, the konti couldn’t help but think of the first herbal medicine the two had made together. Their lives were vastly different in what she did this day and what Tamar was forced to do to survive. Always moving, the Drykas had no means of gardening other than sowing seeds as they migrated in hopes that next year something wild would have survived when they returned. Being stationary, Kavala had every opportunity to grow exactly what she wanted and keep it happy and healthy under her watchful eye all year long. As Kiri demonstrated the steps to correctly preparing the ground which involved a lot more than staking off new sections, Kavala focused trying to drive back the memory of her first herbal concoction with Tamar.

Kiri was speaking. Kavala focused her attention on the girl. “When you dig you aerate the soil and expose pests to predators which can give you a chance to have them be killed off naturally. Also, when you dig, you can mix in nutrients for the plants you will grow here by adding compost like your horse manure into the garden. We call the overall profile of the garden’s soil the ‘structure’ and constantly enrich it throughout the year. So what we need to do, Kavala, is start with our grid of six sections for each plot, remove all the sod or old weeds… we’ve done that already…then remove a trench with the spade that’s exactly the width and depth of the spade.” Kiri said, demonstrating.

“Take the dirt completely out of the hole, setting it off to the side, like you did in the first plot section. Then push the spade into the soil at a right angle, no more than the spades width away and scoop up the soil in bite size pieces, breaking it up. Make the ‘bites’ about six to eight inches deep and toss them into the trench you have just removed dirt from. Break them up by chopping them with the shovel. Then, do it again… see how you’ve made a new trench? By removing the first bit of dirt, you’ve made room for all the other bites of dirt. Always turn the bite of dirt over, so the top is bottom side and the bottom is pointing towards the sky. Remember, we’re exposing pests. Now, when you reach the far side, we are going to fill the last trench with the soil we removed from the far side. It is time to change tools, moving from a shovel to a garden fork. Leave your shovel aside, pick up your fork and begin mixing the soil once more, loosening roots and pulling up any weeds left by hand.” Kavala nodded. After thusly instructed, she was off and running, working on plot after plot, which finally gave her time to really think about her first memory of herbalism with Tamar.

It had been ages ago. The two had rode out of camp together, deep in the heart of the Sea of Grass, and had just talked while they hunted for simple herbs. Kavala, at that point, was still leery of Tamar, not sure her status had having moved into their pavilion when Vanator had brought her home as a wife. Tamar had decided they’d both needed bonding time, and being a skilled herbalist, she’d decided it was a craft Kavala should know because the Konti was already marked by Rak’keli.

Tamar had smiled, laughed, and told her she was going to teach her a secret… a secret about the most common medicinal herbs out in the world. It seemed the dandelion, common weed everywhere, was in itself a small miracle. Tamar was going to teach her how to utilize it.

“Dandelions are easy to spot, Kavala. They grow tall here. They have a single golden-yellow flower head sitting on top of each individual flower stalk. This flower head can grow up to two inches wide. The flowers open with the rising of Syna in the morning and close with her setting at night. That is why they are sometimes called Syna’s Children. They can appear almost any time of year, flowering, but in the late summer, throughout fall, and early winter they are most predominant.” Tamar said. Kavala nodded and the two rode on looking.

“A dandelion’s impetuous blossoming is Cayhia’s never ending reminder that diversity is favored and therefore rules. This plants green stalks are round, smooth, brittle and hollow. They grow from two to eighteen inches tall and have no other branching stalks off them, Kavala.” Tamar said, going into teaching mode. “Each dandelion stalk is straight and unjointed, growing individually and separately out of a base having a rosette crown of numerous bright green leaves. Sometimes you’ll see the flower stalks growing directly out of the ground without their crown of leaves, but that’s normal. Their stalks never grow leaves, so if you are looking at a plant that has tall stalks bearing leaves and flowers, it’s not a dandelion but more likely a yellow daisy. Now, a dandelion, in good years, can have more than one bare stalk rising out of the central crown to flower, so don’t worry if you see this. One is common, but two or three is not unlikely. You’ll see this after grass fires too. Dandelions are some of the first plants to come back.” Tamar said.

They paused then, dismounting their striders, and walked over to examine what Tamar had been talking about. Evidently the herbalist had spotted what she was looking for. “Here, this is one too. See the sphere of plummed seeds? That’s a mature flower that’s been fertilized by the bees and insects, and its ready to launch its children off on adventures of their own.” Tamar said, plucking the plummed seed head and blowing on it, casting the dandelions to the wind. She smiled, handed one to Kavala, who did the same thing, then went on to talk about leaves.

“Dandelion leaves are lance-shaped and long, having lobes that are serrated, unevenly pointed. They are pliable and three to twelve inches long… half an inch to two and a half inches wide. The leaves must be smooth, Kavala. There are a great many ‘copycat’ dandelion wannabes that are hairy. Don’t be fooled. Harvest only the smooth leaved plants. If they are hairy, warty, or prickly, then leave them..” Tamar said, smiling.

Bending at a grouping of Dandelions, she used a forked knife that she wore at her belt to dig up the plant all in one motion, pulling it from the ground. She handed it to Kavala and continued the lecture. “When you harvest, thank the gods, Kavala. For it is because of plants we live… even if we eat meat, that which we eat lives because they eat the plants. If you are just harvesting a few leaves, take one from one plant, another from another plant, like a grazer would, so that all the plants you harvest from live and can grow another leaf to replace the one you’ve taken. If you need to harvest the whole plant, like we do here, then feel free to do so, but do not harvest all plants in a group, move on and take a plant here, one a quarter mile there, etc. It takes longer, but it keeps the Sea of Grass productive.” Tamar said.

Kavala nodded, glancing around, plotting how she would harvest if it came to that.

Meanwhile Tamar continued the lecture. “Now you’ll find Dandelion root to be thick and brittle, having thing beige skin and when broken it bleeds a milky-white sap. The flesh inside is white as well. The sap gets sweeter, believe it or not, in the spring. All parts of the Dandelion plant, when broken or wounded, will bleed this sap, Kavala.” Tamar added.

“Once we’ve found them, harvest the whole plant, including the root, leaves, buds, blossoms, and seed heads if they have them. If a piece of the root breaks off in the ground, that’s fine, because it will grow a new plant! Once you harvest, offer a prayer of thanks to Caiyha and then give something of yourself, Kavala, in exchange. I like drops of blood, strands of hair, a song, even a poem. Anything that has meaning the Goddess will enjoy. I harvest those dozens at a time and once I’ve gotten enough, I ride back to camp.” Tamar said, and in saying so the girls did just that.

Kavala snapping back to the present, realized she and Kiri had all the plots turned and Kiri was leaning on her fork looking a bit puzzled at Kavala. “Got things on your mind?” She asked. Kavala smiled. “I was just thinking about the past. When I live don the Sea of Grass we never got to garden. We could only gather what we found. Doing this reminds me of my dead sister-in-law who was a wonderful herbalist. I was just thinking about the time we made my first Dandelion tincture and how we had to go gather the dandelions. Now I can grow whatever I want too without searching. It’s an unusual feeling.” Kavala said.

Kiri nodded. “I imagine life here in Riverfall is vastly different than life on the Sea of Grass was. It’s better, in a way, Kavala. Trust me. I love living in Riverfall among these people. These are some of the best men around.” Kavala nodded. She new it, but it was hard to remember at times especially when one was bound to them with debt.

“So what’s next?” She asked, laughing and getting back into the swing of things.

[Kavala]

Kiri smiled. “What’s next? Kiri asked, pipping Kavala's question back at her, clearly amused. “The shitty part.” She said with a laugh. Kavala raised her eyebrows and then watched as Kiri gestured towards the stables. “I saw the manure pile you have over there. We’re going to haul wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of that into the garden here and turn it into the soil, mixing it up. Then afterwards, we’re going to take the ash pile you save from cleaning out your hearth and mix that in as well. I don’t know if you were going to make soap from it or what, but its really needed in the garden badly and I saw you had quite a bit of it.” Kiri said.

Kavala nodded. “Yes, of course. I do have a lot. So manure first, then mix well, then ash, then mix well, got it.” The Konti said, taking a moment to stretch then show Kiri where they kept the wheelbarrow and other assorted things. The girls then spent the next two hours shoveling manure into the wheel barrows and moving it across to the flower beds and mixing it in. It was hard work, but Kavala knew it was necessary to keep fit and make sure the gardens could handle all she was going to plant in them the following season.

And of course, it gave her liberty to keep thinking about Tamar and that first dandelion tincture.

The two girls rode back to the pavilion where Tamar carefully gave Kavala her first lesson in dandelion 101.

“Now, beyond medicinal, Kavala, dandelion is important to the clan because when we dye wool, we use it to color our wool magenta. I bet you didn’t know that? So even if you harvest a great deal of dandelions and don’t want to use the roots, bring them, because that’s what we need to make dye with. All the parts are useful. Lets think about what Dandelions do. They help with our digestion, our liver, and our kidneys. Breaking it down, lets see… the root has awesome healing powers on the liver as a detoxifier. You can clean out a gall bladder with dandelion root as well. It is an anti-rheumatic so it can help with pain. It can help relieve skin disorders and degenerative joint disorders. It can be a mild laxative. You can eat the leaves for food,but they are diuretic as well and very healthy for their nutrients.” Tamar said, pointing out namely that while it was edible, most of the dandelion’s value came in the form of its roots.

When they unpacked the plants they’d gathered, the two girls settled around the campfire and pulled out chopping blocks. Tamar instructed Kavala, but the girl did all the knife work. “Chop them fine, Kavala.. Include the leaves, roots, flowers, everything… we need them almost as fine as seasoning. When I chop I always think the smaller the better, depending on my patience and enthusiasm. When either of those vanish, I think they are good enough.” Tamar joked, relaxing as Kavala chopped. “If you use dried stuff, hon, don’t hesitate to grind them with a mortar and pestal. We can’t with fresh, but anything dried works well.” The Herbalist said. As Kavala got the plant material reduced, Tamar began gathering it up, placing it in a jar. She then poured strong alcohol over the material, filling the jar with liquid just to the top of the plant material. She carefully wiped the rim of the jar, then lidded it tightly. Then, with a wax and lamp blacking stick, she carefully wrote the name, plant parts used, and date on the bottle.

“Welcome to the world of Herbalism, Kavala.” Tamar said with a grin, handing her the jar. “This is called a tincture and you’ll want to shake it daily vigorously for fourteen days until its ready to separate out the saturated liquid from the depleted plant material… the waste material is called the marc and the liquid is called the menstruum. As you shake, always visualize what you want the result to be as you craft your medicines, Kavala. That keeps the process on tract.” Tamar said.

After that they’d put the tincture away for fourteen days, throughout which Kavala shook it diligently each and every day before she went to bed. Then, on the allotted date, they’d went back to work on the mixture.

“Okay, now we need to separate out the plant material, Kavala. Do you remember what it was called?” Tamar asked. Kavala nodded.

“The marc.” Tamar nodded and Kavala smiled. They then lined a large strainer with undyed cotton large enough to hang the edges over another jar, and slowly dumped the contents of the first jar into the cloth. The two girls let them strain carefully then had forced the issue with the remaining marc. Gathering up the cloth while holding it over the jar, Tamar had showed Kavala how to strain the liquid out of the plant material. It involved grasping and twisting the cloth into a ball, squeezing violently all the remaining liquid out.

“We need to remove as much of the liquid as possible from the plant fiber and then discard it.” They did so, as Tamar acted as instructor, and when they were finished they had a nice herbal dandelion extract. “For your finished products, Kavala, we need to store them in amber glass bottles. The amber helps keep the liquid cool and dark. It should keep for many years. Then, when you need it, just bring it out and add it to whatever you need to – food, liquid drink, even giving it to your patient directly is fine. It will be ready when you need it.” Tamar had said. Kavala was astonished at how easy the process was.

She couldn’t imagine, snapping back to the future and leaving the memory behind, how valuable having a garden was going to be. Kavala surveyed Kiri’s handiwork and her own labor and smiled at the other girl. “Thank you so much for coming to help today. It means a lot to this Drykas girl to finally be able to stay in one place and grow an actual garden full of the things I need daily rather than having to hunt for them in the wild.” Kavala said.

Kiri grinned and bowed at Kavala’s acknowledgement cheekily as if saying ‘no problem, at your service’.. “Well, there’s a lot more I can tell you about. Do you want to hear about fertilizers?” She asked, knowing it was an apropos topic since what both girls were doing was mixing manure and wood ash into the soil.

[Kavala]

Kavala nodded. “Yes, fertilizers and manures are something I need to know about right? When to use them, etc? I always have horse manure and wood ash on hand, but what about the rest? Is it easy to acquire?” Kavala fired of questions to Kiri even as the girls worked, finishing the last of the enriching process to make sure Sanctuary’s flower beds would have enough nutrients so the plants Kavala planned to grow would thrive.

Kiri nodded. “Okay, there’s tons of different fertilizers in the world, but let me just go over some that are common in Riverfall and that you’d have access too.” Kiri added.

“The first and foremost thing I can think of is blood, fish, and bonemeal. Those three things you can get from the butcher here or the fish market. Lots of times they have spoiled fish and will gift it for free to the gardens or conservatory. If you get on their list in the market, they’ll let you come pick up bad product too. You’ll have to grind the bone and fish up, but its not really hard to do once you chop it up, let it dry in the sun, then grind. You’ll have to set guards though because if your Sanctuary is anything like Vyctoria’s Conservatory, then predators flock when they smell something dead left out in the sun.” Kiri said, laughing. Kavala nodded.

“Oh, that is definitely true. Is there anything else easier?” She said, looking thoughtful and thinking of the logical nightmare of drawing predators into a stable facility. No, that wasn’t a smart idea at all.

“Sure. Any animal manure works. Cow is the best but horse works well too. You can also get hooves and horn from the butcher and those will grind up. Another thing that’s great is when it rains and you have liquid pooled in your manure pile. That’s called Compost Tea and the soil loves it. Gather it up like precious metal and pour it over the gardens. You won’t be sorry.” Kavala nodded, taking heavy mental notes. So far, horse manure fertilizer seemed the best way for her to go, though with the milk cows, she did have some cow manure as well.

“Oh, another thing that’s great is seaweed. You can gather it up as flotsam or harvest it right out of the sea since you are a Konti. If you let it dry then chop it up and add it to the soil, its amazing for all it can do for a garden. Its best to apply it when the soil is warm, but all the rest of this stuff can be added at any time.” Kiri added helpfully. Kavala nodded, then laughed.

“With as much running on the beach as I do, finding seaweed is not a problem, especially after storms. The stuff washes up like crazy. And to think I never knew it was good for anything. Its like green gold, just laying there on the beach.” Kavala said, finishing the last bed and turning it up.

“The final thing we’ve already talked about.” Kiri said. “Wood ash is amazing for what it does for the soil. Some plants around here wont’ grow well unless ash is mixed into the soil. Now the ash is different depending on what types of wood you burn, but all in all the pine around here along the shorelines and fringe forests do a great job of augmenting garden soil.” Kiri said as Kavala nodded.


“That’s good to know. Now, are we done here?” Kiri nodded. “The only thing left to do is cover up your beds – I’d recommend with burlap feed sacks…. And wait for the warming in the spring. Once things thaw and start warming up, but after the spring rains, go ahead and plant like crazy. I can come back then to help if you’d like.” Kiri offered.

Kavala smiled. “Great. I’ll cover them up right now. And you can come back any time… remember I’ll see to you animals at no charge for this help you’ve given me. There’s so much to know about gardening and not a whole lot of information out there unless you talk to someone who lives and breathes plants.” Kavala said.

Kiri smiled. “Well, we’re always glad to help spread awareness. I would be happy if everyone in Riverfall grew gardens. We’d have much more medicine around and a lot more food.” Kiri said, nodding at Sanctuary’s now impressive empty beds.

“Once this gets growing, it will be a rival to almost any estates I’ve seen around here. If you expand them and say put in corn in one of the pastures, It will be even better. There’s nothing you can’t grow here with time and patience.” Kavala smiled.

Spontaneously she gave the girl a hug of thanks, and with that Kiri was on her way, promising to bring her dogs by for Kavala to check out in a day or two.

[Gillar]

XP AWARD Lore: General growing cycle of plants Lore: Basic planting of plants; plant choice, bed/soil preparation and maintenance Lore: Crop arrangement and rotation Lore: Harvested plant preparation and storage Lore: Dandelions, parts, planting, harvesting Lore: Herbal and medicinal uses of dandelions Lore: Preparation of dandelion-related materials for use in medicines Lore: Manures and fertilizers; creation, collection, preparation and uses Gardening 5 Herbalism 4 Medicine 3 Philtering 2 Kavala, I honestly feel like I could go out and start gardening myself. Great job at taking a mundane topic and giving it some life.