Jory's jar was squarish and he had decided to spread his sandy soil thickly and as evenly as possible. Standing up, he got to work. Using a trowel, he scooped sand from the bucket and into the jar. After two scoops, he leveled them out, using his gloved hands at intervals to get the sad into the corners.

"Maybe a few more scoops?'' the badger thought. He added two more scoops from the bucket, leveled them out with the trowel and his hands. He looked at the bucket. "So much for binging over three quarters of a bucket.'' But maybe he would need more later? Anyway time to start planting!

Alyssa nodded when Professor Bentley instructed on what to do. "Okay thank you for the advice Professor. I will stick with just using the water lily and lotus seeds for now." Alyssa thanked her before picking up the Salal seeds, placing them back into the package and leaving just the water lily and the lotus seeds on the workstation so as to avoid any confusion.

Looking at her jar she decided to work on the floor. Picking up her engorged jar and scooping up the seed, she placed them on the floor before dragging the bucket of soil over. Alyssa checked her research notes regarding the two seeds and how they should be planted before picking up the trowel and scooping the loam soil into her jar. She poured the soil in slowly, then stopped and using her gloved hands, she leveled it out, before picking up her trowel again and digging it in to the bucket.

Once Alyssa had gauged that she had enough of soil in the jar, she tapped the jar gently on the ground to help the soil settle in before leveling it out at the top. Now it was time to plant the seeds.

Laura looked at her jar all she wanted to do was throw it on the ground and then she wanted to walk out and shout at the Professor for being a meany-pants but she wasn't going to get into a whole lot of trouble for a silly Professor.

Laura decided that she was going to try and get on with her work and then leave as fast as she could, she looked at her jar and then started to fill it with soil, she was hoping that she was doing it right, she didn't want the Professor to tell her off again, she continued to put the soil into the jar until she was sure that she had done it properly and to a standard to hopefully the Professor would like.

Alyssa looked at both seeds and recalled what the Professor had told them, that if their seeds were bulky that they needed to reduce their size. Looking at her seeds and knowing that they needed space to grow, she took out her wand and pointing at the both seeds, she said, "Reducio" and a purple beam of light streamed out of her wand, and enveloped both seeds. She concentrated on the spell while watching the seeds start to shrink and when she decided that the size of each seed was sufficient for her jar, she ended the shrinking spell.

Picking up the Lotus seeds with her finger tips, Alyssa gently embedded each seed into the loam soil making sure that they were evenly spread apart along the right side of the jar. She had successfully planted her two lotus seeds. Now it was time for her to plant her water lily seeds.

Well, that seemed pretty easy. But given her families track record with plants........

Seeing that this part was easy, though, Sky began filling her jar with the soil. First making sure the bottom was completely covered. Then, slowly adding layers and making sure that each one was even.

One inch.



Two inches.


When she got to three inches of soil, she thought it was time to plant. So, she started making several small holes in the soil, readying it for the seeds. She had to wonder, when were they going to add the plant food and water....?

Yes! Time to get dirty! The Gryffindor grabbed his jar and moved to the floor along with the buckets of soil. He rolled up his sleeves and grabbed a a handful of the loam soil to start with. He had a plan, sort of.

The soil wasn't just going to be flat there in the jar, he was going to build it up on one side. As he finished with the loam he pulled the bucket of silty soil closer to him and added a layer of that. He built up the silty soil to one side of the jar and looked at it. Yeah, that looked fine to him

Once she'd made enough holes, Sky ripped open her seed packet and started placing them one by one into the holes. One to a hole, of course. Wouldn't want to crowd the things, after all. When they were all placed, she stared adding soil on top, covering the seeds. Inch by inch was added, until she had six inches total in the jar. Okay, now what?

Kendall hadn’t really needed the confirmation from Professor Bentley when it came to the soil choice she made, but the fact it seemed like the professor agreed that it sounded like the best idea did make her feel better about her choice. All that was left was figuring out if she needed limestone as well. Something told her that somehow her little corner of Ireland could survive without it, and as such, she continued holding back on asking the question. It really wasn’t necessary, and they’d been told to finally start planting anyway. Doing that seemed like a better idea than continuing to pepper the professor with questions, even though she still wasn’t sure if she could grow a butterfly orchid inside her jar. She was going to try, though, and hope that she could manage it even if it meant she ended up with a miniaturized version. It would still be her favorite flower, even if it was little.

First, though, she had to get some of her soil inside the jar, and she carefully used her gloved hands to fill the base of her jar until there was an inch or so of soil gathered. Eyeing it, she sprinkled a bit more until she felt like there was a good enough base to start off. She wasn’t going to get anywhere if there wasn’t enough soil for the seeds to root in. In fact, she eyed the jar again. Maybe the different plants would need different amounts of soil, so she reached a hand in to shift it around so there were different levels in different areas of the jar. She could always adjust it again later, but for now she wanted to get an idea of how her miniature biome would be set up. That would help as well, even before she got her seeds planted.

With the left side of the jar ready to plant the water lily seeds, Alyssa checked her research notes again. She first made depressions with her finger tip at least an inch apart, before picking up the first seed with her finger tips and placing it gently into the soil. Then she did the same for three more seeds, placing one seed into their own separate depressions, until all the seeds were safely inserted into the soil.

Then she picked up a handful of loam soil and gently sprinkled it all over the the jar making sure that all the seeds were entirely covered by the soil. Then she gently tapped the soil to make sure that any air that was trapped in the soil was removed. Once that was done, Alyssa sat back up and waited for Professor Bentley to give her next instructions.

Oh boy! It was time to play in the dirt! Lex set aside her seeds for a moment and got straight running her hands through the soil a few times, just to get a feel of the texture and stuff. Once she was done getting all up close and personal with the soil she started scooping some into the jar.

Every time she scooped, she stopped to see if it was enough. In the end the managed to have the whole jar full...

Wait...

That wasn't right.

The seeds still had to go in...

As directed by the professor, Mo settled his jar on the floor beside his bucket of peaty soil and began to transfer some it into the bottom. It was probably just like potting a regular plant, and he wouldn't want to pack the soil in too tightly or else his plants would never grow.

As he transferred soil into his jar and spread it evenly around the bottom, he considered how he wanted to distribute his seeds. Like with like, probably, and he wouldn't want tall things all around the outside of the jar, preventing him from being able to see the shorter plants inside.

Plus, he had seeds for a Great Sundew... and a question about that as he worked. "Professor? I have these seeds from a carnivorous plant, a Great Sundew, and... d'you think we're creating a biome that can support that type of plant? Will there be bugs and things in there for it to eat?"

Alice's jar set her enlarged jar on the ground to the side of her bucket filled with sandy soil. She didn't really have an idea about what way she wanted to pack in the soil, mostly because she had never potted plants before. Was it supposed to go in tightly, or nice and loose? Or was it the best somewhere in between? She glanced around her to be sure, and people seemed to be spreading it around evenly and not pressed down too hard, so she'd attempt to do it like that.

She began transferring the soil into her jar, as instructed by the professor, forming a nice layer on the bottom and building up from it. Alice's gloved hands worked as steadily as she could manage, sprinkling on more and more of the sandy material until her bucket ran out of soil. Was this enough soil for the seeds to root in? When she looked around, though, people seemed to have double or triple her amount of soil in their jars. Had she not collected enough?

WELL. Fine, then. She'd just fetch some more from the piles.

Now that he was done with setting up the soil, Jory took out his first set of seeds from the bag. It was desert poppy seeds- a white flower that usually grows about twelve inches. None of the seeds he had were big so he didn't think he would need to reduce their sizes. Carefully, he stuck four seeds into the sand.

What was a desert without cactus? The Puffer had some Organ Pipe cactus seed. He had never heard of them but as long it were cactus seeds. He secured three of these seeds into the sand, opposite to the poppy seeds.

"Done!'' But lastly, Jory grabbed some sand from the bucket and scattered it over the newly sown seeds.

It was quite bothersome, you know. Having to get up and travel to those huge piles of soil was no fun. Alice dumped another heap of sandy soil into her red pail, dragging the thing back to her enlarged jar once more and not even attempting to lift it this time. she already knew it was too heavy, especially now that she'd gotten double the amount of soil she'd collected for the first time. BUT that meant she wouldn't run out again, which was also swell. So she supposed that she was done with round trips.

Good, then.

The fourteen year old dropped down on the floor, settling near her work area and crossing her legs like a pretzel. She began shoveling more of the soil into her jar with her gloved hands, spreading it as evenly as she could. Once there seemed to be enough of it inside, Alice carefully sprinkled a couple of cactus seeds into it, and then buried them under another handful of sand. Was that enough? Her jar seemed to be as full as everyone else's, so she supposed it was. No more sand retrieval, then? More perks of being finished.

Mo didn't need the professor's response to continue preparing his jar. He could just leave a spot for the sundew seeds, if the professor thought those were appropriate. In the meantime, he started layering in the heather seeds he'd gathered, creating what would be a dense semicircle of flowering plants once they began to grow. Although the seeds looked similar, he tried to keep them separated by color in his hand, creating striations of darker purple, pale violet, and even white. Once the seeds were in the soil, Mo shored up the sides, creating a bit of a hill in his jar for the heather to climb. It was pretty like that, sort of cascading in the background.

The shorter plants would go in front, including a low cluster of bluebells, dog-violets, and wood-sorrel. Those seeds were carefully tucked into the soil and spaced so they wouldn't crowd each other initially, although Mo was less clear about trying to keep those seeds separate from each other. He wanted it to feel like a meadow off the fell at home, after all. It was all very much in the same color palette - blues and purples and deep greens. Even the nice Sphagnum moss Mo added in the very front added a bright note of pale green in contrast. The moss was especially important in making the soil acidic enough to really support his plants and to help keep it moist in there.

Now then... could he add his pretty sundew?

Sitting back and just taking a moment to eye the soil she had already put in side her jar, Kendall thought once again about if there looked like there was enough there for her plants to grow. Other people had already planted theirs, but then not everyone seemed to have quite as clear of an idea as to what they were recreating. Of course, she still wasn’t entirely sure of the exact arrangement she wanted with her seeds, but at least she knew the basic idea. She wanted a microcosm of Ireland, and that was what she was going to get whatever it took. All she had to do was start. First, though, she added a bit more soil just to be sure there was enough. It altered her little hills and low spots, but that wasn’t as important as getting everything to grow in the first place. Everything was going to end up at different heights no matter what.

Once she decided that her soil issue was taken care of, she slid her container of seeds toward herself and started separating out each kind. In the end, she had a tiny pile of wild asparagus seeds, another of frosted orache, a third pile of brookweed, then the dewberry, bluebells, and lesser butterfly orchid seeds last. At which point she realized that maybe those would need more, but she’d handle that when it came. Either way, she was planning on starting at the outside and working toward the center, and that meant the orache and wild asparagus first. She picked up a few seeds of the orache, and evenly spaced them in a ring near the edges of her jar, but not too close to the sides, and then created a second ring of the wild asparagus inside the first, placing those seeds in the spaces between the orache seeds. Moving on, she loosely alternated brookweed and dewberry seeds inside that ring, ending with bluebells and butterfly orchid seeds near the center. That way there would be space if they wanted to get taller, provided that they grew at all. “Professor Bentley? Is there anything I should add to the soil or anything to help lesser butterfly orchids grow?,” she asked, raising a hand once she’d gotten most of the seeds covered by soil again. She didn’t want to move too far ahead and then have to start over.

Bliss found Herbology strange and slightly difficult, not so much that she disliked it, but enough that she bore a confused face. She listened carefully to the Professors words, and took semi-detailed notes. Time to get to work. Soil, that's what she needed to work out first and for that, she'd probably need to look at her notes. After she'd look around the room, she realised that she had picked up a lotus seed. Nice.



Bliss had many notes and four options of soil. It surely couldn't be THAT hard to just pick one. Though, she wanted to do well in this class, so she'd have to at least try. Her notes said that loam was a good option whatever and ... it looked alright. Retained water, good. Air was able to get to the roots, good. Bliss decided on the loam soil and went to grab one of the red buckets.

La di da di daaaaa. Bliss collected enough loam soil for the job and went back to her table.

Well ... time for the dirty bit; not that Bliss minded, of course. She decided to complete the task on the floor, as it would be easier for her tininess. Bliss took her bucket of soil, her jar and the lotus seed and plopped herself down on the floor. She crossed her legs and spread her things out before her. The third year thought for a little moment, deciding on how to arrange the loam soil in her jar.

Once she'd thought and decided, she got to work. She scooped the loam soil in, bit by bit, patting it down and moving it around until she was happy with it. THERE, now on to planting the actual seed.

Was it a cop out to go with loam? Safe, safe loam? West went with loam, noting the professor had too and then feeling better about his choice. He wasn't so sure about doing it on the floor though, like it'd be heavier once stuff was in it and it would need to be back on the table after right? So, it could stay on the table. He hoisted the bucket up and made careful work of getting that loam soil into the bottom of his jar. Did he need to pack it down or leave it loose? He chewed his lip and decided a bit of both? He gently pushed down on some of it, noting the texture as he did so, and then added more until he had a good layer of soil, enough for stuff to grow in anyways. He DID look around to see how much other people had put in to be sure.

Now for his mystery seeds and such.

So, silt it would be. "Thank you, Professor."

Getting a bucket (and making sure his gloves were in place), Dylan went and collected the Silt-type soil that Professor Bentley had suggested. Engorgio!ing the jar had made it similar to a huge lightbulb, Wide and bulbous at the bottom; narrow at the top...So, he was left scooping for a while. Several minutes later, the Slytherin felt confident with the excessive amount and toted it back towards his area...not with ease. Merlin, who knew dirt could be so heavy?!

Also, he was taking her advice. He'd be doing this on the floor. For several reasons, of course....One, he didn't want to get in anyone's way on the table...Two, he was probably just going to dump the soil in there and then arrange it...Three, his arms weren't SHORT...but it was easier this way.

So, being extremely careful, Dylan hefted the giant glass jar up, removing it from the table and slowly placed it on the ground. Checking for cracks JUST IN CASE, he felt satisfied that it was ready for the soil. With an eye on the heavy bucket, the Slytherin sighed, not at all excited about the possibility of throwing his back out of this mini-project.

Then Dylan was lifting it up...and dumping it over into the huge jar. He kept a close eye on the soil as it filled the bottom. Seemed his mind-measurement and calculations were correct. He'd gotten just the right amount...or what he felt was the right amount...Dylan was sure that if anything were wrong with it, the Professor would point it out to him...and that was okay. He didn't so much mind Professor Bentley telling him things....

Beam.

Once the last bit fell into the jar, Dylan set the bucket back down and leaned over the top, sticking his gloved hand down in it to evenly distribute the soil. Moving it all around, he was ready to add organisms and such.

BAM.

Planting seeds was fun enough and he only HAD seeds, an assortment, mixed. Yeah. West hadn't exactly put a lot of thought into choosing his seeds. But he was thinking maybe he would take some of Mo's? Mix it up. Take donations. Random seeds. Random biome!

He sort of did the seeds mindlessly, though he made some effort with a pattern of sorts, based on the differences of the seeds themselves, and their colours and sizes and the like. In seed form it was artistic but it would remain to be seen how it'd look grown. This was sort of like flower arranging... except not knowing what the flowers were, or even if they WERE flowers. Wasn't it more fun not knowing though? West was pretty sure that it was.

Also, were they gonna use some spells for things? Because surely wasn't there a limit to how much could grow in these things, even enlarged? The loam smelled good. Kind of... natural good. Really he'd rather be planting stuff NOT in a jar. And also, something more... flesh-eaty.

But what could you do?

Now who had some seeds he could add to his mix?

Daichi's eyes seemed to twinkle when the Professor told him and Spike they could add little creatures soon. He nodded his head and went back to work. Putting on the gloves and snapping the elastic band accidentally on his wrist when done, Daichi continued to stand. He was tall enough with the height of 1m and 80cm so he could easily work with the jar.

Placing the bucket of loam soil on the table as well, Daichi opened his jar and dug his gloved hands in the earth. It felt exactly like the Professor had said. A combination of, a balance of silt, sand and clay. He played with the soil for a moment. Picking it up and letting it slip inbetween his fingers. He might be almost seventeen but he was still a little kid at heart!

Oh right...he should continue. Daichi stopped playing and placed some of the soil in the jar and smoothed it out until the bottom was perfectly filled with soil.

Ummm ... seeds. She had enough, right? Or did she have too many. Oh well, how wrong could it possibly go? Bliss took the seeds off the table, before sitting back down on the floor and making herself comfortable once again. So ... was there a specific way to put them in? Curiously, she looked around the room and watched everyone her else.

Not very helpful.

She'd just have to .. wing it.

Carefully, she scooped all of the seeds into her palm and with her other hand make a circle in the soil, just next to the edge. It looked like a trench or a moat, or something similar to that. After that, she strategically placed the seeds in the circle, spreading them out so that they were the same distance apart. That seemed right, at least. Finally, she spread out the soil, collapsing the sides of the moats so that the seeds were covered effectively.

PERFECT.

Laura really wanted to get out of the Greenhouse and away from the Professor, so she quickly planted both sets of seeds without even bothering to sort them out, she just put them anywhere in the soil, surely they would just grow as long as they were in the soil, it was simple right, now could she go before she lost her temper?

Asher grabbed all of his stuff for the lesson and found a quiet corner in the greenhouse. He went back for his bucket of soil. It was that he couldn't reach his jar, he just needed to extra room.

Sticking a hand down in the bucket, he grabbed a hand full of soil. Tossing the soil into the enlarged jar he smoothed the first layer out in the bottom of the jar. Again he dug out a hand full of soil and tossed it into the jar smoothing it out. He done this two more times until he was happy with the amount of soil in his jar.

With his soil arranged and prepped, Dylan was ready to start adding the living aspects. Carefully lining all the different mini-jars and containers up on the table for easy access, the Slytherin put on his concentration face. It was TIME to create an ECOSYSTEM!

First things, first...The Host plant that his gillyweed was going to feed off of. This was in one of the bigger containment jars, a basic shrub he'd gotten for the purpose of his plant's food. Twisting the cap off, Dylan lifted it up, loosening up its roots so that he could allow it to thrive for a period of time in the jar. After doing so, he reached a hand down into the jar and dug a hole. Then the Slytherin was settling it down into it's new home. Making sure the roots would be able to breath and get nutrients, he patted the soil around it...ensuring that they were covered.

Next...he'd grabbed the tiny jar that housed his flower seeds. Dylan figured they could grow and be food in the future...if this all worked out. Meh, he was hoping to be on the right track here...Really, he'd never done anything like this...SO, yea. Digging out some random holes scattered around the bottom, he littered them with the seeds...and then quickly covered them with dirt. So, there would be BEAUTIFUL flowers; lilies, daisies, other randoms he'd gotten sent to him. His mother had helped him out there...

Then it was time for bugs...Yes, yes. Bugs. Everyone knew that bugs added their own unique fertilizer to soil...So, he'd gotten some worms and caterpillars. If he seen butterflies about to happen, he could remove cocoons. Hmmm, on second though...he'd ask Professor Bentley about that in a minute...She'd know if they were a good idea or not...Perhaps it could be helpful? He didn't know...

The wild guesses didn't end there! He'd also brought along some toadstools and spores...but Dylan wanted to check before added those things in. He didn't want to ruin what he already had done...SO, those would go in after question time.

Picking up another bigger container, it was time to add the main aspect of this whole ecosystem...The precious gillyweed. It was fresh and unhavested...So, slowly opening up the container, he carefully plucked it up and lowered it into the jar. He held it close to the shrub, hoping it'd do something like....latch on? Maybe? He wasn't sure how this part worked...Maybe it wouldn't do it while he was looking?...

Eyeing the finished work, the Slytherin suddenly had another idea. "Professor, what if I wanted to add a small body of water into my ecosystem? Like...a mini pond?" There was that one side that didn't have seeds of anything in or on it. "Also...with what I have going on, do you think toadstools would be a bad idea?"