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+---- Thread: In the garden of your heart (/showthread.php?tid=11951)
In the garden of your heart - Maea - 08-25-2025
'... and the best time to plant bushes and trees is at the end of the growing season, or indeed just before it begins, for this allows the roots of the plant to become well established before any energy is directed towards development of flowers and fruit...'
Looking up from the pages of the book, Maea cast a doubtful look out the window. A cold wind was bending the branches of trees grown all but barren over the past few days. Certainly it was the end of the growing season, but wasn't it a bit late to plant anything?
[say]"I guess we'll just have to try,"[/say] she sighed, rising from the couch to find her coat and a shovel. And a scarf, and gloves; it really was freezing outside.
The apple tree saplings she had collected from her childhood home looked forlorn where they sat waiting beneath the porch. She had wanted to plant them right away upon returning home, but in an abundance of caution the young woman had decided to read up on the subject first. Where to plant them, when and how best to tend them while they were still establishing their roots. As it turned out, gardening was a science all unto itself, one she grew increasingly fascinated by the more she read. Practices learned from her family while growing up on an orchard was given explanation, backed up by experts or debunked as malpractice until she was ready to throw hands with the various authors. But on this they seemed to be united; the time to plant was now. Or a half season ago, preferably, but definitely still now.
With the shovel in one hand and the saplings cradled against her chest like a very thin, very tall baby, she squinted into the cold wind and assessed the area around the Treehouse. It stood somewhat apart from the main village, with plenty of space around the main structure to allow for a garden. She had plans for some of it, come Flowerbirth, but there was one section where she knew the sun shone most of the day, that would be perfect for fruit to mature.
Measuring out the distances for five saplings and another few where she would plant seeds from fruits brought back from the Hollowed Grounds, she set the young trees aside and began to dig. Sniffling occasionally as the cold made her nose run, she found it oddly satisfying to be out here; surrounded by life, engaged in a task both simple and filled with meaning; not alone, for the village was only a stone's throw away, but left to her own thoughts and the rhythmic ritual of moving soil, planting a tree, packing the earth back down, and staking down a support. Next she would mulch, then water, and then... wait, she supposed. The hardest part; to leave her plant babies alone to grow at their own pace.
[FIN]