Solo Starting the Summer Planting

[Baeye]

Summer 1, 518AV

Summer had finally approached, Baeye had been waiting for the season change to officially begin her new garden. Her recent movement into the Okomo Estates provided the perfect avenue to grow vegetables from her own home. The Estates provided the homeowner with a personal, if not small, plot of land for growing. The soil was, supposedly, fertile and Baeye was excited to try her hand at gardening at home.

Previously she had simply farmed and gardened for a professional use. This made her happy, and she was not one to complain. However, she never had a direct choice in the growing process because of this. She had attempted growing some plants out of pots in the house, but there was something about kneeling in the soil under the sun that called to the woman. Now she had the perfect place to do so.

She had carefully researched and chosen specific vegetables to begin sowing in the Summer. It was important she only plant vegetables that could actually survive the warm air of the season. Fruits, and their soft textures and mushy outsides usually did not fair well in the semi-harsh environment. Baeye would have to rely on their hardier plants to make it through the season. She finally decided on a top five, kale, broccoli, turnip, cauliflower, and her favorite, carrot. All these veggies had a hard, dense exterior and Baeye was confident that if she sowed and cared correctly, she would end up with a bountiful harvest.

She had acquired five seeds each of the plants of choice. It was possible that may be too few and she was slightly worried about losing all five of each seed, which would end up in a complete loss of the plant itself for the season. However she did not want to go too big and end up with too large of a garden, both for her own time as well as her garden space.

Some of the plants she chose had to be planted inside. The kale broccoli and cauliflower were to fragile in their seed state to be planted directly outside. The carrot and turnip, however, were steady enough to germinate in the actual soil. For now, the prior three would germinate in small flower pots she had in her home. They would sit in the windowsill during the warm days to oak up the sun, and placed on the table at night so they would not be too cold.

[Baeye]

Baeye started inside first. She gathered her three small, clay, pots and placed them on the table. Taking one each, she headed outside to gather soil from her garden patch. Taking soil directly from her patch would allow her plants, when ready, an easier transition to the ground. The same makeup of soil would not shock the plants, since transferring them was really not too much of a change. The gardener would fill the pots mostly all the way. A couple inches at the top, just because, but she wanted the seeds to have plenty of room to extend their roots. She returned the first pot to the table inside and repeated this process with the final two.

Sitting down at her table, she would focus on the first pot again. Since she had five seeds each, she would make five little divots in the soil, spaced evenly apart in a circle, with one in the middle, to separate the seeds. She then plopped one seed into each little hole and gently covered it in a fair amount of soil. She began with the kale.

Placing the Kale aside now, she made to sure to place a small stick in the pot with the word, ‘kale’ written down it so that she would be able to recognize which pot had which plant growing inside it. When each pot simply looks like it’s full of soil and nothing else, it would be easy to forget the order. Even when they germinated a bit, most plants looked relatively the same when they were super young. Baeye simply did not want to mismatch them.

She moved on to the second pot, again making five little divots. This time she worked with the broccoli. Placing the seeds in, she gently covered them and set the pot aside. Once again placing her stick that said ‘broccoli’ in the pot. Finally, she repeated the process with the cauliflower, labeling it as well.

Her final step for the veggies that would have to begin inside was simply watering them. She already prepared a full watering can for the planting process and with it she gave each pot a generous helping of the liquid. She had to be careful, though. Too much water would dislodge the tiny seeds and they could get stuck somewhere in the pot, like near the edge, that may dampen their germination success rate. For now, she simply intended them to have enough to drink for the night to hold the seeds over to tomorrow when she would water them again.

As Baeye placed the pots along the windowsill that looked out to the garden, she made a mental note of the date. It was pretty easy to remember, the First of Summer, but still. She would give the plants three weeks inside to germinate, and then she would transfer them to the garden along with the carrots and turnips. She hoped they would succeed in their germination. She would be so disappointed if her first attempt at growing plants at home failed her.

[Baeye]

With her potted plants successfully potted, Baeye moved outside. The process here would be pretty simple, even compared to the simple process of potting. Kneeling down in her garden plot soil she began to make little rowed mounds of dirt. They didn’t need to be too long, she only had five seeds after all. She made two rows, side by side to each other, around an arm long each. These would serve as little beds for her seeds. She was grateful her garden has a dome top, she was too nervous a storm would roll through and wash away her mounds. In this enclosed setting she had the benefits of the sun, and the safety from the elements. Of course, this would mean she was completely in charge of watering, but that suited her just fine.

Focusing on her first row once more she, just like her pots, created five little divots along the row of dirt. These, again, would serve as the holding places for her five little seeds. She spread them evenly apart and made sure to give each room to grow away from each other and not hog up all the root space. With the divots made, she plopped the carrot seeds into them, one seed for one divot, and then carefully brushed dirt back over them, burying them until they, hopefully, reached for the sunshine in a few days. She finished this planting by placing a fourth stick, labeled 'carrot' into the soul at the head of the row.

Moving on to her second row, she repeated her process. Gardening was a lot of repetition, but it was almost meditative. It was certainly calming to be out in the fresh air, hearing the birds and bees and wind around her. She loved it. Once again, Baeye created five little divots, placed her turnips seeds in each one and covered them in soil and placed their 'turnip' label nearby. She was basically done at this point.

All she had left to do now was to water the new seeds. Her worry about dislodging the seeds in the pots, ws even greater in this situation. The mounds the seeds called home outside, were much more fragile than the pots inside. When she watered them she made to sure hold the can close to the dirt, so gravity had little effect on the force the life giving liquid hit the ground with.

Again she did not water them too much. Just enough for the soil to turn a healthy dark, moist, brown. Now, she just had to wait. Tomorrow, when she woke at sunrise, she would water all the seeds again, and again at sunset. She would do this until the plants were entirely finished growing. But for now she would stick to that routine, making sure her dirt was never too dry, and wait in excitement for those tiny plants to pop out of the soil.

[Baeye]

Summary

Tools Used

Small Pot (3)
Watering Can

Materials Used

Common Seeds Carrots (5)
Common Seeds Turnip (5)
Common Seeds Broccoli (5)
Common Seeds Kale (5)
Common Seeds Cauliflower (5)

Items Gained

TBD Pot of Cauliflower
TBD Pot of Broccoli
TBD Pot of Kale
TBD Row of Carrot
TBD Row of Turnip

[Madeira Dusk]

Grades Awarded!

Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request!

Baeye

Skills

• Planning: 3xp
• Gardening: 3xp
• Botany: 3xp
• Observation: 1xp
• Meditation: 1xp

Lores

• Lore of the differences between personal and professional farming
• Gardening: fruits are more delicate than vegetables
• Gardening: how to tend to germinating plants
• Gardening: planting vegtables
• Gardening: don’t overwater!
• Meditation: the lull of repetition

Awards & Retribution


Notes
Heres to hoping for a successful harvest! Give me a shout if you have any questions or concerns about your grade. Especially is you think I missed something. And congrats on your first completed thread!