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Hera · 09-09-2012, 01:13 AM

Herbology Lesson One

Another term and another lot of new faces and names to memorise. Then again, with such a good memory and the opportunity to watch the sorting, life was a lot easier.

Seren stood, arms by her side, rocking back and forth on her heels and toes. The first lesson would be... different to what she would usually do. Better in some ways, but not so much in others. Feeling all 'mixed emotions' about the task she had in mind, she waited for them to arrive.

Hopefully the students would be in a right enough state of mind to gather in front of her and not cause too much trouble. Despite her lack of instruction to do so.

Lesson Progression:

Define a Herb
Activity One: Herb Table
Activity One Continued
What is involved in general care, or maintenance?
Team Care/Maintenance
Q&A and you may be DISMISSED!.. When you're finished!

OOC: The lesson will officially begin in approximately 12 hours. If you haven't done so already then please read through the Herbology Rules and Expectations and the SS Site Rules. All SS Board Rules apply. IC rule breaking will result in IC punishment, OOC rule breaking will result in OOC punishment. Please behave appropriately and most importantly... have fun. If you have any questions don't hesitate to send me a PM.

TeafortheSoul · 09-15-2012, 06:21 PM

West kept up the weeding with no complaints. At least it kept him active and busy. He tugged a teeeeeny tiny weed out of the soil and held it up to the light, wondering what use it had. Weeds surely had some use right? It was interesting looking at it at least; seeing its roots, and its stem and how the two leaves at the top grew out of it. The roots were quite long, he noticed. West guessed that was so they could really snake in there and steal all the nutrients. Smart little plant.

He tossed it on the disposable pile all the same and went and wrenched out another of the weeds. A slightly different one, which was strange. He looked at it too, made a curious face, and then tossed it aside.

PotterWings333 · 09-15-2012, 07:03 PM

Ariella wasn't enjoying this.

She brought the dung back over to her pot. Unfortunatly she caught a wiff of it and gagged because of the strong smell. It was absolutely disgusting! Why did she have to do fertilizing? She set the hippogriff poo in her pot, almost done...

Uncle Moose · 09-15-2012, 07:22 PM

Oakey wanted to say something back to Professor Bentley about the her comment that he should apply the same care to man-eaters that he applies to people. He just gave Bentley an annoyed look.
Human's don't have spikes, tenticles, or spew acid so the Professor may need to rethink her statement.

Anyways...

Not wanting to attract anymore attention to himself Oakey slipped on his Dragonhide gloves and grabbed a watering can to begin watering Bentley's non-demonic plants. He set the can down and pointed his wand towards it. "Aguamenti"

The water shot out of his wand but it was to fast and the water was strong. Oakey's arm jerked up and accidentally sprayed Sierra Griengoth who had been on the ground weeding plants and speaking to Beezus.
"Finate! Finate!" Oakey said quickly to stop the water from shooting at Sierra any longer.
Oakey still wasn't to used to his new wand and now he was going to pay for it for sure. At least he was doing as Bentley had said and was treating humans as he should plants.

FireboltAvis88 · 09-15-2012, 07:24 PM

Alyssa was going to work on the foresees bushes when she realized that they weren't in the same greenhouse.

So she decided that since Belle had agreed to working with her on pruning and watering the Fanged Geraniums that she would go work on them instead.

Making sure that her dragon hide gloves were secure on her, Alyssa walked up to the Fanged Geranium. It immediately began snapping ar her. Taking out her wand she jabbed it at the plant and concentrating on the spell said,"VIRO TORPEO". A beam of light shot out and the plant began to behave sluggishly.

Alyssa had to work fast. She began removing the dead leaves and starting cutting off the dead branches and through them into her bucket. Seeing that the plant was starting to move a little more now, Alyssa then pointed her wand into the pot and said,"AGUAMENTI" concentrating on the amount of water flowing out of her wand.

Once the soil was sufficiently moist, Alyssa ended the spell by saying,"FINITE" and the water stopped flowing which was a good thing since the Fanged Geranium had woken up and was about to take a snap at her.

Alyssa quickly stepped aside and waved a goodbye to it.

Princesspower · 09-15-2012, 07:47 PM

Sarah stretched and examined her area... it looked good, except for the woody herbs. If she did not cut them, they would not sprout green shoots in the spring or something. She took out her wand, and using her trimming charm she cut it a few inches from the top, as per the professor's request. She went from plant to plant, the woody ones and made sure to cut them. Many of them got thicker every year, like a tree trunk. Maybe she will have to use 'diffindo' next time.

Cassirin · 09-15-2012, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahlooo

From his peripheral vision, Milton could see a figure come over to him with a pail of poo. Euurrgh. Whhhyyy? Milton glanced up with a slight wrinkle in his nose to see that Branxton girl. Vivian or something like that.

She DID have a point. But when Milton looked up at her again, she seemed to be looking mischievously at their fellow students. Milton raised an eyebrow. "Or are we?" He certainly didn't want to get in a poo fight, but it was somewhat amusing.

Returning his attention to the plants, Milton saw another droopy one and stabbed a stake into the ground next to it, assuming he was doing the right thing. "This one needs poo, too."

"We are. Definitely," Vivi moved back to put fertilizer around the plants indicated by Milton. She made every attempt not to get any of the dung on his hands, his shoes (dropping bits just seemed to happen!), or any other part of him, but the smell... Merlin. It was everywhere.

"I think I'd better switch tasks before this one makes me a nutter and I start flinging the dung at people. I'd end up hitting the wrong person and hearing about it for weeks." Because obviously there was a right person to be hit by dung... she just hadn't picked out who it was yet.

Vivi left the bucket of fertilizer for Milton's use, stripping off her gloves and giving them a thorough washing. She didn't need them for staking and rather thought the material would get in the way of work that required fine motor skills.

DaniDiNardo · 09-15-2012, 08:18 PM

Before attempting to disfigure another plant Lex felt it was time she asked for a little assistant...or maybe a change up. "Umm...Professor...I don't think I'm quite cut out for this weeding and pruning business..." Her eyes darted to the plant she had tried hiding behind the others of its kind before looking over at the woman.

It was pretty well hidden...no one had to know...

From the corner of her eyes she saw Vivi remove her gloves and gave an audible sigh of relief. That was one less person to worry about being eaten if that dragon did show up.

While she waited for a response that would hopefully say that she could stop making the plants worse she casually strolled over to another one. This one didn't have nearly as many weeds...Perhaps she would try her hand at this one. She could even give it a good pruning too!

Anna Banana · 09-15-2012, 08:57 PM

Text Cut: xXxPandora

Text Cut: MyPatronusIsaMoose

Sierra grew wide-eyed as the Claw began brushing the dung off WITH HER GLOVE. Wasn't she a witch?! Didn't she know MAGIC?! "With. Your. Wand," Sierra hissed through her teeth. She glanced down at her dragon hide gloves, now with smeared with dung--way more than had been there before.

...and then all hope was lost when Beezus followed up with a very un-Ravenclaw-like question. Did she like DUNG?! "On plants," she clarified. "Not on my glove." She sighed and was just about to offer Beezus a look that said it was all okay anyway, when a sudden BURST of water hit her square in the face.

"DEAR MERLIN!" she exclaimed, spitting the water from her mouth. She blinked a few times to get the water out her eyes and tried to focus in on the culprit. WHODUNNIT?!

OAKEY GUNTER.

Hadn't he been the one to fling something at her in Potions class last term? He had. Yes, she remembered all too well. She drew in a deep breath and fixed a glare on Oakey. Hopefully she wouldn't freeze in place this time. "On the plants, Oakey Gunter," she said. What was WRONG with her classmates?!

She huffed then sat down again, fixing her eyes on the weeds and trying hard not to plot revenge on Beezus and Oakey. She jerked a hand full out the ground and added them to what was left of her pile. The part Beezus hadn't destroyed.

emjay · 09-15-2012, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ashfig

Cora laughed. He seemed so care-free about things, and Cora's already good mood brightened. She was so thankful she didn't have to do all of this alone, even though the task at hand sounded very...fun.

As he set her bucket down, Cora smiled and grabbed a small shovel. What she lacked in size she hopefully made up for in enthusiasm. "It's nice to meet you, too, Ethan," she said brightly. Ethan. That was a nice name. Cora had met someone named Ethan at the playground when she was little, before her mom stopped letting her go there.

To Cora's surprise, he agreed to work with her. Yes, everyone was definitely a lot nicer this year. "Sounds like a good idea," she responded with a smile, since Ethan would need his bucket, too. As Ethan went to grab his bucket, Cora got started scooping fertilizer into basil plants' soil. Poor plants, Cora thought. She realized helping plants was a lot like the help she was giving to the animals in the barn with Professor Newlin. She really liked to help.

Ethan returned with his bucket of manure and a couple hand-rakes. He often worked the fertilizer into the soil with gloved hands but the rakes would make it easier especially since there was more work to be done when they were finished with that part. Noticing that Cora had already begun her work, Ethan chose a potted basil near hers and set his bucket down. The fifth year laid one of the hand-rakes on the shelf next to Cora's plant and said, "Here, this might help work the fertilizer into the soil." He took a handful of his manure and sprinkled it around the base of the plant. Using the hand-rake, he worked the dung about 3 cm into the soil as he spoke. "The nutrients seem to get to the roots best if you mix it into the soil a bit," he explained. "And then another layer on top," he added, half to himself and half to Cora, not sure if she already knew this. Ethan patted a little more dung on top of the mixed layer, then moved on to the next plant. Just how many were they supposed to care for again?

sarahlooo · 09-15-2012, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

"We are. Definitely," Vivi moved back to put fertilizer around the plants indicated by Milton. She made every attempt not to get any of the dung on his hands, his shoes (dropping bits just seemed to happen!), or any other part of him, but the smell... Merlin. It was everywhere.

"I think I'd better switch tasks before this one makes me a nutter and I start flinging the dung at people. I'd end up hitting the wrong person and hearing about it for weeks." Because obviously there was a right person to be hit by dung... she just hadn't picked out who it was yet.

Vivi left the bucket of fertilizer for Milton's use, stripping off her gloves and giving them a thorough washing. She didn't need them for staking and rather thought the material would get in the way of work that required fine motor skills.

"Good answer." Because he didn't particularly want to get in a dung fight. That sounded messy and incredibly disgusting. And unsanitary. But this girl was getting POO on his SHOES. "Watch where you're dropping that," he grumbled and scooted back. Now he would have to wash his shoes after this class.

Seeing another sad-looking plant, Milton drove another stake into the ground. He looked around at the plants and his fellow classmates and it appeared that the staking was almost taken care of. And then Milton was left with a bucket of dung. Hoorah. "Thanks," he muttered.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LilFox06

Anya leaned in and used her wand and a trimming charm to carefully snip about a half inch below where the branch started wilting on the plant. There. All better. This little guy was practically all better now.

She straightened out and several things happened nearly instantly.

She felt a sudden jab in the side... and she somehow managed to end up nearly two feet away from where she was standing earlier. Her back was now pressed up against a table and both of her hands protectively on her left side over the spot she was poked.

She stared blankly at Milton for several seconds. For some reason being jabbed in the side was enough to cause the Gryffindor to lose her words. ~~Or maybe it was Milton that did that.~~

"I'mfine." she half-mumbled quickly averting her eyes. "Just... aim for the dirt in the pot next time." she said before turning around to find another plant that needed attention.

Milton ignored his bucket of fertilizer for a moment just to make sure Anya was okay. He found that he couldn't look at her for too long. He also noticed the air between them get very rense. It had been that way for a while now.

He almost couldn't believe what she said though. What was she implying? "Anya-" he started and grabbed her arm before she could go to far. But he couldn't say what he WANTED to say because they were in class and surrounded by a lot of people. "It was an accident, alright?" He didn't know what her problem was. It wasn't like he intentionally tried to stab her with garden tools.

Uncle Moose · 09-15-2012, 10:27 PM

SPOILER!!: Whoopsies my bad XP

Maybe if he turned around quickly enough it would seem like Oakey wasn't the one who sprayed water all over Sierra's face. He picked up his empty watering can, stuck his wand behind his back, and began watering air onto some nearby plants. He turned his head when she accused him of spraying the water on her face. This time he didn't freak out though, instead he just pointed a finger to his chest and gave the She-Snake a surprised look. How could she know it was him with all that water being sprayed in her face. "wasn't me." He tried for that excuse, maybe he could get away with this one.

Realizing that water is needed to water plants Oakey quickly took his wand again and softly spoke the water summoning charm, streaming water into the watering can. He took the can once more and began watering some herbs not to far from the glare Sierra was still giving him.

Expecto-Penguin · 09-15-2012, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireboltAvis88

While waiting to wait for the Professor to give them permission to numb the Fanged Geraniums, Alyssa decided to move on to the other plants. Petting each plant as she came up to each of them, she whispered to them.

"Don't worry. I'm not here to hurt you. I just want to help you get rid of some of your dead leaves and branches that might make you sick."

Alyssa came across one of the wooded basil plants she had identified earlier in the lesson. She first plucked off the dead leaves. Instead of throwing the basil leaves, Alyssa decided to keep them. She always loved the taste of basil in her food, as well as, the smell of them. She smelled the leaves. They still had the minty smell to it, even though they were dead. She continued to pluck off the dead leaves, gathered them and put them in her jacket pocket.

Now for the pruning. Since the Basil has thicker stems, Alyssa took great care in making sure that she only pruned off the tips of the branches.

SNIP....SNIP....SNIP went her pruning shears as she cut off the tips of the bush's branches. She snipped and began shaping the Basil bush until it looked neater.

Then she stepped back to admire it before turning to Belle.

"Belle would you like to swap tasks with me. I could take over the watering while you did the pruning?"

"I was also wondering after we were done here and finished working with the Fanged Geraniums, whether you would be interested in checking on the Fireseed Bushes? I know that they are handle and water but I've always loved taking care of them." Alyssa hoped that the Prefect would agree to doing that.

Annabelle took over and started to finish pruning the Fanged Geraniums. Alyssa did a pretty good job already, but Belle was making the finishing touches. She had on her dragon hide gloves of course and was snipping and getting the plant all healthy. Belle know was beginning to have sympathy for plants. They are living creatures too and deserved to be cared for. Belle heard Alyssa's question and said, "Oh sure i can take over pruning, sure thing!" she said as she was already busy pruning the plant and wiping the sweat off her face.
Then Alyssa mentioned looking at the Fireseed Bushes. Belle smiled and said, "Yeah we can go look at them. I never took care of one and i would love to learn. You do know how to take care of them right?" she asked quietly so she wouldn't look like a fool in front of Alyssa.

TeafortheSoul · 09-15-2012, 11:05 PM

Having cleaned a pretty big patch now, West checked over and continued pulling out the teeny little weeds that had escaped his notice, again looking at each one and having a bit of a wonder about it. He would ask a bit later, yes? For now though the mess of weeds needed to be composted or something. Heck might as well ask about stuff now.

He put his hand up.

"Professor do we compost the weeds and stuff instead of chucking them out? Where do you want us to put them? Oh and, do any of these weeds have other uses?" He tried to put his thinking into words. "Like, if weeds grow around a magical plant, or around a herb that has a certain property, and its stealing all the nutrients and good stuff, does it pick up any like.... good properties for itself? And what about in potions or something?"

Just stuff to know. Stuff about weeds. Since he was busy weeding and all. And then, what was next?

ashfig · 09-15-2012, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay

Ethan returned with his bucket of manure and a couple hand-rakes. He often worked the fertilizer into the soil with gloved hands but the rakes would make it easier especially since there was more work to be done when they were finished with that part. Noticing that Cora had already begun her work, Ethan chose a potted basil near hers and set his bucket down. The fifth year laid one of the hand-rakes on the shelf next to Cora's plant and said, "Here, this might help work the fertilizer into the soil." He took a handful of his manure and sprinkled it around the base of the plant. Using the hand-rake, he worked the dung about 3 cm into the soil as he spoke. "The nutrients seem to get to the roots best if you mix it into the soil a bit," he explained. "And then another layer on top," he added, half to himself and half to Cora, not sure if she already knew this. Ethan patted a little more dung on top of the mixed layer, then moved on to the next plant. Just how many were they supposed to care for again?

Cora could tell that Ethan was a bit more experienced than she was. She felt a little embarrassed, especially since her mom had a garden at home, but her two years being...homeschooled away from Hogwarts left her inexperienced and anxious to be back. Not that Cora didn't know what to do. She had read PLENTY of books while her paranoid mom wouldn't let her back. But now that she was here she could tell that some things couldn't be read in a book.

Thankful to have help, she replied, "Thank you. That makes a lot of sense." She copied his movements, mixing the fertilizer into the soil. "I was home-schooled for the last two years so the last time I did anything like this was my first year." Cora hoped he wouldn't read too much into that, but she felt the need to explain, not wanting Ethan to think she wasn't good at it.

Now that she had a routine down, she began to fertilize the plants with ease. Ethan had already finished a couple pots, and with his help Cora continued on to add fertilizer to the row. "This goes really quickly with two of us," Cora observed. Cora didn't mind that she was scooping dung, or the smell, or the soil. When the row was done, Cora turned to Ethan. "On to staking?" she asked enthusiastically, unsure of how many plants they were supposed to do. If he didn't want to join her for that, it was fine, she was simply being polite, and did truly enjoy the company.

sweetpinkpixie · 09-15-2012, 11:38 PM

SPOILER!!: Alyssa!

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireboltAvis88

While Belle was watering the plants that Alyssa had pruned, she turned and told her, "Belle, I'm going to head over to the darkest area of the greenhouse to water the fireseed bushes. I'll be back soon." She went over to the tool shed and took out a watering can.

Alyssa then made her way to the darkest area of the greenhouse, petted the ivy that was helping to keep the fireseed bushes protected from the directed rays of the sun. "Hello Wasima. It is good to see you again." She smiled at the ivy before making her way to the Fireseed bushes that seemed to flourishing very well under these darkened conditions.

She pulled up her dragon hide gloves and reached down to feel the soil of the bushes. They seemed a little dry. "No worries my little ones. Soon you'll have all the water you need."

Unlike the other regular plants, Fireseed bushes needed boiling water in order to keep their bushes burning. So first Alyssa filled up the watering with water by pointing her wand inside it and saying, "AGUAMENTI". Soon water was steadily flowing out of her wand into the bucket. Alyssa continued to let it flow until the bucket was almost full and then ended the spell by saying, "FINITE."

Now it was time to warm up the water. First she took out her goggles and placed them over her face to protect her eyes. Next she pointed her wand inside the watering can. Rotating her wrist and making a circular motion with her wand, she traced a circle inside the watering can and she said "CHAUNDESIS" to heat up the water.

She waited until the water started to bubble and steam was rising from the water, before she holstered her wand again. Picking up the watering can with both hands, she slowly carried it over to the pot, lifted it up and started watering the watering. She poured a small amount of water on the soil taking great care that she only poured enough to moisten the soil because she didn't want to drown the seed. Once she determined that the soil was sufficiently moist, she walked over to the next fireseed bush and poured water on it too.

Once her watering can was empty, Alyssa filled the can up with water again and cast the spell again to boil the water before continuing to water the rest of the Fireseed bushes. She repeated the steps of filling the watering can with water and then heating up the water a few times, and then watering the bushes until all the fireseed bushes had been watered.

Once she was done, Alyssa removed her goggles and went back to join Belle. She could help Belle water the rest of the plants they pruned before returning back here to prune the fireseed bushes if it need to be done.

When she went over to join her friend, she raised up her hand to ask Professor Bentley another question.

"Professor Bentley do we prune the Fireseed bushes the same way as we would the rest of the plants in the greenhouse?"

Wand in hand, Kurumi continued to walk around the greenhouse looking for more herbs that could need attending to when she noticed Alyssa working with....fire seed bushes?! Okay, so...the seeds were used in potions which could be sort of considered one of the aspects of a herb perhaps, but Kurumi was more concerned with the Hufflepuff's safety. Namely...you know...working with a fire producing plant without Professor Bentley's permission.

"Um...Alyssa..." Kurumi called in a low whisper. "I don't think you should be working with those right now...everyone else is working with more, um, mundane herbs over there..."

TeafortheSoul · 09-15-2012, 11:41 PM

While waiting for an answer West went ahead and kept on with his stuff. This was fun! He liked plants. And he was ready to repot. Repotting was awesome!

He found a couple of herbs that looked like they were getting a bit too big for their britches and then went and found some bigger pots. Those would need some soil. Extra soil. Mucky wet soil. To help the plant. And stuff.

He took the bigger pots over to the herbs and set them down. Okay. West went and got a bucket next, and added some potting mix to it, and some tap water (since he wasn't so good at conjuring water on his own). That'd get stirred up into mucky soil slush. Like a dirt batter. Yum for plants. He hefted the bucket over and put it down then looked at the first ickle herb.

West put his hand over the base of the plant, the stem between his fingers, and turned the little pot upside down, carefully trying to work the plant free. He slid the little pot off easily and looked at the rootball. Nawww poor thing! It was all choked up on itself. West worked on loosening the rootball, doing his best to salvage as much of the potting mix from it as he could. It actually kept him pretty entertained, it was satisfyingly dirty.

lazykitty · 09-15-2012, 11:52 PM

And now for the soil. Emmanuelle grabbed a bag of soil and opened it using a cutting charm along the top. Once that was done, she spotted a problem. A potentially big problem. How was she going to add the soil quickly without someone holding the plant up? It wasn't like she could charm the thing. Hmm... charm. That gave her an idea......

Holding the plant upright with one hand, she held her wand in the other and aimed it at the bag soil. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The bag floated up into the air. Still aiming her wand at the bag, Em gently guided the bag over to the pot and flipped it on it's side. Which, in hindsight and given that charms wasn't exactly one of her better subjects, might not have been the best idea. Soil did go into the pot, but a good bit also fell on every thing around it. Including Em. Ugh.

Cassirin · 09-16-2012, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahlooo

"Good answer." Because he didn't particularly want to get in a dung fight. That sounded messy and incredibly disgusting. And unsanitary. But this girl was getting POO on his SHOES. "Watch where you're dropping that," he grumbled and scooted back. Now he would have to wash his shoes after this class.

Seeing another sad-looking plant, Milton drove another stake into the ground. He looked around at the plants and his fellow classmates and it appeared that the staking was almost taken care of. And then Milton was left with a bucket of dung. Hoorah. "Thanks," he muttered.

"Sorry," Vivi shrugged as she tucked her gloves away and went off to search for stakes. She wasn't really a fan of the concept of staking plants, even if there was an herbologically sound reason to do it. It was like tying up dogs or putting babies in playpens... or taking away the broom of a kid who loved to fly.

It seemed kind of cruel.

Still, it was the job at hand, and Vivi dutifully collected the stakes and went looking for plants in need of service. Something with a flimsy stem and heavy flowery tops or leaves.

Bazinga · 09-16-2012, 12:41 AM

Minerva smiled as it seemed like Vickers, Juilet, and Kurumi all were moving together and singing Twinkle, Twinkle. She moved with them still singing and kind of laughing. This was silly and fun at the same time. She really did hope the plants enjoyed their music. Once they seemed to be done with the song and let go of hands Minerva walked over to their pants and rechecked them to make sure that all the pruning was finished as well as all the watering. She would hate to have left any of the plants out. That wouldn't be showing them love at all. "I'll be back guys. I'm going to go put the watering can away since we seem to be done with it.' she smiled at her group and took the watering can back.

Once she got back with her group she smiled, "Thank you so much for letting me work with you. It was really fun and it's always nice to meet and work with different people." she did like to work with new people once in awhile so that it wouldn't be just her regular partners. Plus it was nice to work with people outside of her house.

Kimothy · 09-16-2012, 12:48 AM

Kat was almost done with her task. This was her second-to-the-last pot left to repot. She positioned her hand at the stem part that was near the roots part of the plant (ok?) and slowly pulled it. She watched again as the soil fell on its old home and then put the herb on the new pot and cupped the soil.

Perfect. Last plant!!!!

Anna Banana · 09-16-2012, 12:49 AM

Text Cut: MyPatronusIsaMoose

Sierra narrowed her eyes in a 'you have got to be kidding me' kind of way. "Really, Gunter? You expect me to believe that? When I saw it with my own two eyes?" she remarked. She'd have been a lot harsher had Bentley, or any professor, been around, but even Sierra Greingoth knew when to stop. "What do you have anyway, a new wand?" That was the only explanation for him acting so idiotic with a simple spell...

She eyed her pile of weeds, not sure what to do with them. She heard West's question about compost, though, so she decided to just wait on doing away with the weeds. She'd keep them in a nice, neat pile for now. Seeing as she'd cleared out a whole area of weeds, though, she should probably get starting on repotting.

She approached a plant that looked like it was growing too big for the pot it was currently in. She headed to the selection of pots and chose one that was a bit bigger, one the plant had grown into. She filled the new pot with a bit of soil and some fertilizer. Now it needed a bit of water before she put the plant inside. "Aguamenti!" she said, aiming her wand toward the pot. Water shot from her wand, and after she'd given the soil and fertilizer enough water, she ended the spell with a quick "Finite."

Hera · 09-16-2012, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

After adding a few more to his notes Vickers pushed himself off the work table he was leaning on and dug into his book bag for his dragon hide gloves. He can see where the sacks are for the hippogriff dung, and started to walk towards it, collecting a bucket and a trowel along the way.

When he's scooped up enough of the fertilizer into his bucket he started to look around the second thing he needed. Not having spotted these he neared the Herbologist and murmured "Professor Bentley, are we supposed to transfigure something to use as stakes or we have a ready supply somewhere?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by xXxPandora

"They ALL deserve and require love and care. Would you apply the same theory to humans, or even to yourself?"

Beezus couldn't help but chuckle as the Herbology Professor answered Oakey. Yeah, funny Gunter. Of course it was necessary. What did he even thought of the term 'general plant care maintenance' if there was no caring involved?

It was true, the list was indeed endless and cyclical. Beezus nodded at this. It's relevance wasn't limited to only the plants to entirely everything.

Then they were teamed according to their house and given their own corresponding task. Ravenclaws were to fertilise and stake the plants that needed those forms of care...obviously. Hearing the Professor's cue, Beezus pulled her dragonhide gloves up to her wrist, flexing her fingers first before approaching the sack of hippogriff dung at one corner of the greenhouse. With a trowel, she scooped a fair amount of the fertilizer into the small pail and carried it off towards the flowerbeds...passing Vickers talking with the Professor as she went. Oh, yeah. The stakes, she was wondering the same thing. She stopped beside the two, "I was wondering about that too Professor."

Because there wasn't any stakes at the corner where the planting tools ought to be.

Transfigure things? Did she look like Professor Magnus?
"No dear... check the stores cupboard."

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireboltAvis88

"Oh wow!! Great thanks. If you don't mind, I can continue pruning. Yeah it is hot in here. Must be the Professor's way of keeping the greenhouse humid."Alyssa smiled at the Prefect. "I'm going to make my way down the next row now." Alyssa told Belle.

So far Alyssa had any use to wear her dragon hide gloves, but as she got closer to the plants that had thorns and had the nasty disposition of taking nips out out of someone when they weren't careful, she took her gloves out of her back pack and slid them on.

Making her way to the next rows of plants. These ones definitely had thorns on them and so Alyssa, even though she was wearing dragon hide gloves, slowly approached the first plant and trying to avoid getting scratched by the thorns, gently pulled off the dead leaves and pruned off the dead stems to make place for new stems and leaves to grow. Placing the dead leaves and cuttings into her bucket walked to the next plant and to her dismay realized that it was a Fanged Geranium.

"Hey do you think the Prof will mind me using the numbing spell on the Fanged Geranium? Let me ask her right now." and immediately raised her hand.

"Uh...Professor. For the Fanged Geraniums, are we allowed to temporarily stun them or numb them to make them drowsy just long enough for us to prune and water them?". Alyssa was thinking of using the Viro Torpeo spell.

Alyssa decided that she would skip that plant for now until Professor Bentley gave her permission and moved onto the next plants. Gently picking out the dead leaves and cutting off the stems off the next row of plants, Alyssa slowed pruned each plant with her pruners until they looked nice and neat.

"There you go. You look all nice and pretty now. I bet you feel good having all that dead stuff off you." Alyssa whispered to the plants hoping that nobody heard her.

"I would hardly say it was necessary, particularly for watering... but if it makes you feel any better... go for it, just go easy on the dears, I'd hate for them to be nauseous for days."

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireboltAvis88

While Belle was watering the plants that Alyssa had pruned, she turned and told her, "Belle, I'm going to head over to the darkest area of the greenhouse to water the fireseed bushes. I'll be back soon." She went over to the tool shed and took out a watering can.

Alyssa then made her way to the darkest area of the greenhouse, petted the ivy that was helping to keep the fireseed bushes protected from the directed rays of the sun. "Hello Wasima. It is good to see you again." She smiled at the ivy before making her way to the Fireseed bushes that seemed to flourishing very well under these darkened conditions.

She pulled up her dragon hide gloves and reached down to feel the soil of the bushes. They seemed a little dry. "No worries my little ones. Soon you'll have all the water you need."

Unlike the other regular plants, Fireseed bushes needed boiling water in order to keep their bushes burning. So first Alyssa filled up the watering with water by pointing her wand inside it and saying, "AGUAMENTI". Soon water was steadily flowing out of her wand into the bucket. Alyssa continued to let it flow until the bucket was almost full and then ended the spell by saying, "FINITE."

Now it was time to warm up the water. First she took out her goggles and placed them over her face to protect her eyes. Next she pointed her wand inside the watering can. Rotating her wrist and making a circular motion with her wand, she traced a circle inside the watering can and she said "CHAUNDESIS" to heat up the water.

She waited until the water started to bubble and steam was rising from the water, before she holstered her wand again. Picking up the watering can with both hands, she slowly carried it over to the pot, lifted it up and started watering the watering. She poured a small amount of water on the soil taking great care that she only poured enough to moisten the soil because she didn't want to drown the seed. Once she determined that the soil was sufficiently moist, she walked over to the next fireseed bush and poured water on it too.

Once her watering can was empty, Alyssa filled the can up with water again and cast the spell again to boil the water before continuing to water the rest of the Fireseed bushes. She repeated the steps of filling the watering can with water and then heating up the water a few times, and then watering the bushes until all the fireseed bushes had been watered.

Once she was done, Alyssa removed her goggles and went back to join Belle. She could help Belle water the rest of the plants they pruned before returning back here to prune the fireseed bushes if it need to be done.

When she went over to join her friend, she raised up her hand to ask Professor Bentley another question.

"Professor Bentley do we prune the Fireseed bushes the same way as we would the rest of the plants in the greenhouse?"

... What in the name of Merlin was this girl on about. Was her mind elsewhere? Perhaps in the OTHER greenhouse. This one certainly wasn't the dark one. The light in her could make them positively combustible.

"..... No."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

Having cleaned a pretty big patch now, West checked over and continued pulling out the teeny little weeds that had escaped his notice, again looking at each one and having a bit of a wonder about it. He would ask a bit later, yes? For now though the mess of weeds needed to be composted or something. Heck might as well ask about stuff now.

He put his hand up.

"Professor do we compost the weeds and stuff instead of chucking them out? Where do you want us to put them? Oh and, do any of these weeds have other uses?" He tried to put his thinking into words. "Like, if weeds grow around a magical plant, or around a herb that has a certain property, and its stealing all the nutrients and good stuff, does it pick up any like.... good properties for itself? And what about in potions or something?"

Just stuff to know. Stuff about weeds. Since he was busy weeding and all. And then, what was next?

Oh would you lookit that.
"Yes the compost please... there's no point in wasting perfectly good organic matter."

Now that was out-of-the-box thinking. The boy really ought to have been a Ravenclaw.
"There are few weeds that may be used for purposes such as potions... and I highly doubt you'll find any of those in here. Weeds are mostly pests."

Right. Things seemed to be progressing nicely.

"I'll give you all another five minutes to wrap up. If you've finished your area, please ensure it's tidy and that tools have been returned to the stores cupboard and that any weeds or organic matter..." aside from the actual plants themselves..."have been placed in the compost bin out back. Then you may be dismissed."

OOC: Thanks everyone! The lesson is/has concluded. I'll be closing the thread in approximately 9 hours from the time of this post.

Uncle Moose · 09-16-2012, 01:15 AM

SPOILER!!: Sierra

Oakey raised an eyebrow at Sierra's comment about his wand. "yeah, it is." he said as he moved over some and water some more herbs along the way keeping up with Sierra as she moved along potting some plants.

If she was gonna ask he was gonna brag. "She's an Alder Just a bit over 12 inches." he turned his head and saw that Sierra wasn't really paying attention but he didn't care. He turned and watered the plants again continuing to show off his wand taking it from it's holster and twirling it in his fingers. "The lady at Ollivander's said it had a Graphorn tooth core. Pretty cool considering I heard those are really difficult to take down."His wand was truly one to behold, even Oakey had some trouble controlling it, but that would prove to be one more challenge for him.

Oh yeeeaaah Sierra, he was sure you were jealous of his new wand, bet you wish you had it. NO WAIT NO, SIERRA NO TOUCHY HIS WAND! She took his last one from him a few terms ago, that wasn't cool at all. Oakey finished off the water in his watering can and set it down. Now all he needed to do was prune some herbs and he can be out of this death trap.

TeafortheSoul · 09-16-2012, 01:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hera

Oh would you lookit that.
"Yes the compost please... there's no point in wasting perfectly good organic matter."

Now that was out-of-the-box thinking. The boy really ought to have been a Ravenclaw.
"There are few weeds that may be used for purposes such as potions... and I highly doubt you'll find any of those in here. Weeds are mostly pests."

Right. Things seemed to be progressing nicely.

"I'll give you all another five minutes to wrap up. If you've finished your area, please ensure it's tidy and that tools have been returned to the stores cupboard and that any weeds or organic matter..." aside from the actual plants themselves..."have been placed in the compost bin out back. Then you may be dismissed."

OOC: Thanks everyone! The lesson is/has concluded. I'll be closing the thread in approximately 9 hours from the time of this post.

That was what West thought, composting. He nodded. "I'll put those in the compost after I finish repotting these, professor!" Enthusiastic!Odessa. Favourite class AND favourite professor? Clearly win-win. Plants were even better than rockets, almost.

Even if the herbs and the weeds wouldn't eat his flesh.

"Could you tell me about those weeds later? Or a book?" West was interested now. Absorby-weeds? And plants really WERE like people. Some people were like weeds, West was pretty sure, like they would be more useful as compost than left growing and taking all the good stuff out from underfoot. He beamed at the professor and then went back to the serious business of repotting. He could manage one in five minutes, if he wanted to do a proper job. Which he did.

The twelve year old massaged the root ball a bit, freeing it up before putting it in the bigger pot and figuring out how much soil it needed in there to get it the right height. He scooped the soil in, and then carefully arranged the herb so that the roots had room. Next up, the mucky potting mix, with the water in it already. He started adding that, alternating with more solid soil as needed, until it was nicely packed, plant supported, and with plenty of water in there so it wouldn't get all shocked and could right away start drinking up all that liquid and spreading its roots.

Kimothy · 09-16-2012, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hera

Right. Things seemed to be progressing nicely.

"I'll give you all another five minutes to wrap up. If you've finished your area, please ensure it's tidy and that tools have been returned to the stores cupboard and that any weeds or organic matter..." aside from the actual plants themselves..."have been placed in the compost bin out back. Then you may be dismissed."

OOC: Thanks everyone! The lesson is/has concluded. I'll be closing the thread in approximately 9 hours from the time of this post.

Five minutes. Ok. Kat hurriedly pulled out a herb. Luckily it didn't break or something hohohoho. Then she dug a small hole on its new pot and placed the herb there. Finally, she cupped the soil so that the herb stands put. Wiiiiiw!

After Kat fixed her things and patted the dirt...ew... out of her gloves, hands, and her uniform (Nooooooo!), she slung her bag on her shoulder. Kat took a last turn to the Herbology ~~expert~~ professor. "Goodbye, Professor Bentley," she gave a smile. "Thanks for the lesson, and hope you have a nice day ahead!"

What? They were dismissed, right?

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