1 Jul 2019, 04:29
Planted For The Summer
Eliza had been ecstatic to stay at Hogwarts this summer. She had read so much about the Wizarding World and then she learned she could attend Hogwarts early was fantastic. Added bonus was she could avoid spoiling her family's summer by mentioning Hogwarts to much. The only problem is that even with all the reading she barely knew anything about the Wizarding World and the students would probably assume she was a first year.
All that aside she was going to be in magical paradise this summer learning about who knows what. Probably not much considering they wouldn't want to handicap the students who didn't attend the summer camps but still. Would she learn how to read the stars, palms, runes? Or would she learn the most practical thing in the world, how not to bump into the corners of your furniture?
One of the first jobs she had gotten at the start of the summertime was doing some garden work. She didn't think she was going to do "Muggle work" this summer since Eliza assumed they had a spell for everything. It was a nice way to earn some Wizard money which she didn't have a lot of so it was a good win.
Eliza was assigned to tidy up the plants around the greenhouse. Professor Jensen told her to collect the fruits and vegetables, plant flowers around the greenhouse, and water the plants.
Walking over to the greenhouse she saw basic gardening equipment. There were watering cans, gardening gloves, some shovels, and stuff like that. There were also baskets for collecting fruits and vegetables, and flowers to be planted around the greenhouse. 'Huh pretty standard stuff for a Wizarding school' Eliza thought. She threw away that thought though, she realized she was idolizing their world too much. They probably don't have a magic version for everything. She also realized that they were giving this job to a girl who knew almost nothing about magic so Muggle tools were probably more efficient for her.
She picked up one of the watering cans and went over to a hose attached to the greenhouse. Filling it up she started walking over to the plants that seemed to need to be watered. She started watering the plants knowing the basic rule of watering plants. Water until six inches of soil is wet. She maybe be an urban girl but she wasn't an idiot.
This meant that watering itself wouldn't take that long but making sure she watered long enough would. She didn't care though, she wanted to do a clean cut job. She was a McNair and a McNair doesn't do a half-assed job. Well I mean they do but not when they're trying to impress the school they'll be spending the next seven year with.
Eliza would water a plant and then stick her finger down about six inches. If the soil got dry she would water some more and check the soil again. She would do this until it was six inches wet. She did this process for every group of plants. Eliza realized about halfway along this process that she may be doing this wrong but she was raised a Muggle. If they chose a Muggle raised girl to do the job they were getting the Muggle way.
After a while Eliza was done watering all the plants. She was glad she was able to give the nurturing substance that allowed these plants to live to them. Now on to the gathering. Grabbing one of the baskets she looked around the greenhouse. She saw there were a few trees but they each had a step ladder up to the fruit so she would be fine getting up there.
Holding the basket in one hand she used the other to start climbing. Since it was a step ladder she mostly just needed the one hand to steady herself, not really heave herself up so she easily got to the leaves of the tree where apples were dangling from their stems.
Using the rung above her she placed the basket there so she would have a free hand. She plucked an apple from its stem. God they looked so delicious as if crafted by the palms of a great Wizard...which they were. It was a good thing she had good impulse controls otherwise this entire tree would be devoured.
She collected all the apples she could reach, went up a couple more rungs and then collected all the reachable apples there too. After all the apples she could reach had been picked she climbed back down having room for a couple more trees worth of fruits. She hadn't been able to pick all the apples but it was enough for now.
She did this for the other trees. There were some fruits she couldn't identify probably since they were exclusive to Wizards, but there were also trees bearing pears, oranges, etc. There were also coconuts for some reason which to be fair was reasonable for a Wizarding school.
After she was done with all the fruit bearing trees she had filled up only two baskets. She knew she would have to make multiple trips to and from the greenhouse but she didn't really mind. The mess hall wasn't that far away.
She then went on to collect the fruits and vegetables hanging from vines, sprouting from stalks and stems, or stuck in the soil. Everything was labelled so it was easy to tell what she was collecting. There were also some herbs but she didn't know what the important part was for those so she just left those alone.
In total she had collect after a while about four baskets worth of produce. 'Cool only two trips to the mess hall.' Eliza thought. She grabbed the tray full of flowers in tiny patches of dirt and a spade. Walking out of the greenhouse she was greeted with the smell of normal air. It was always so stuffy in greenhouses, she never liked it.
She noticed the staff had marked where the flowers needed to be planted which was very helpful. Eliza set down her flower tray and using her spade cut into the dirt. The dirt was understandably soft since Hogwarts was surrounded by temperate forests. It took her only a minute to dig a small hole, put a flower in and patch it back up.
She did this over and over again which started to get tedious. She was in the hot sun and she didn't really like planting all that much so she started to get bored. She didn't slip up on her work though. Like mentioned before no half-assed jobs here.
After she was done with that she looked at her handy work. She thought she did a great job with her work and that the flowers were rowed beautifully. She walked back into the greenhouse to pick up her collected goodies. Opening the door the humidity hit her as she walked in.
Picking up a full basket with each of her arms Eliza walked out of the greenhouse. She made sure to keep the door open when she walked in because her two brain cells actually worked today. She was able to easily walk out and close the door with her foot.
Eliza trudged down to the mess hall, dropped off the produce and came back up. Grabbing the last two baskets she began to walk out the greenhouse. She realized she had closed the door this time. 'Guess my brain cells aren't working today.' Eliza thought setting down the produce, opening the door and walking out. She closed the door on the greenhouse and walked down to the mess hall again. She was content she did her chore pretty well.
All that aside she was going to be in magical paradise this summer learning about who knows what. Probably not much considering they wouldn't want to handicap the students who didn't attend the summer camps but still. Would she learn how to read the stars, palms, runes? Or would she learn the most practical thing in the world, how not to bump into the corners of your furniture?
One of the first jobs she had gotten at the start of the summertime was doing some garden work. She didn't think she was going to do "Muggle work" this summer since Eliza assumed they had a spell for everything. It was a nice way to earn some Wizard money which she didn't have a lot of so it was a good win.
Eliza was assigned to tidy up the plants around the greenhouse. Professor Jensen told her to collect the fruits and vegetables, plant flowers around the greenhouse, and water the plants.
Walking over to the greenhouse she saw basic gardening equipment. There were watering cans, gardening gloves, some shovels, and stuff like that. There were also baskets for collecting fruits and vegetables, and flowers to be planted around the greenhouse. 'Huh pretty standard stuff for a Wizarding school' Eliza thought. She threw away that thought though, she realized she was idolizing their world too much. They probably don't have a magic version for everything. She also realized that they were giving this job to a girl who knew almost nothing about magic so Muggle tools were probably more efficient for her.
She picked up one of the watering cans and went over to a hose attached to the greenhouse. Filling it up she started walking over to the plants that seemed to need to be watered. She started watering the plants knowing the basic rule of watering plants. Water until six inches of soil is wet. She maybe be an urban girl but she wasn't an idiot.
This meant that watering itself wouldn't take that long but making sure she watered long enough would. She didn't care though, she wanted to do a clean cut job. She was a McNair and a McNair doesn't do a half-assed job. Well I mean they do but not when they're trying to impress the school they'll be spending the next seven year with.
Eliza would water a plant and then stick her finger down about six inches. If the soil got dry she would water some more and check the soil again. She would do this until it was six inches wet. She did this process for every group of plants. Eliza realized about halfway along this process that she may be doing this wrong but she was raised a Muggle. If they chose a Muggle raised girl to do the job they were getting the Muggle way.
After a while Eliza was done watering all the plants. She was glad she was able to give the nurturing substance that allowed these plants to live to them. Now on to the gathering. Grabbing one of the baskets she looked around the greenhouse. She saw there were a few trees but they each had a step ladder up to the fruit so she would be fine getting up there.
Holding the basket in one hand she used the other to start climbing. Since it was a step ladder she mostly just needed the one hand to steady herself, not really heave herself up so she easily got to the leaves of the tree where apples were dangling from their stems.
Using the rung above her she placed the basket there so she would have a free hand. She plucked an apple from its stem. God they looked so delicious as if crafted by the palms of a great Wizard...which they were. It was a good thing she had good impulse controls otherwise this entire tree would be devoured.
She collected all the apples she could reach, went up a couple more rungs and then collected all the reachable apples there too. After all the apples she could reach had been picked she climbed back down having room for a couple more trees worth of fruits. She hadn't been able to pick all the apples but it was enough for now.
She did this for the other trees. There were some fruits she couldn't identify probably since they were exclusive to Wizards, but there were also trees bearing pears, oranges, etc. There were also coconuts for some reason which to be fair was reasonable for a Wizarding school.
After she was done with all the fruit bearing trees she had filled up only two baskets. She knew she would have to make multiple trips to and from the greenhouse but she didn't really mind. The mess hall wasn't that far away.
She then went on to collect the fruits and vegetables hanging from vines, sprouting from stalks and stems, or stuck in the soil. Everything was labelled so it was easy to tell what she was collecting. There were also some herbs but she didn't know what the important part was for those so she just left those alone.
In total she had collect after a while about four baskets worth of produce. 'Cool only two trips to the mess hall.' Eliza thought. She grabbed the tray full of flowers in tiny patches of dirt and a spade. Walking out of the greenhouse she was greeted with the smell of normal air. It was always so stuffy in greenhouses, she never liked it.
She noticed the staff had marked where the flowers needed to be planted which was very helpful. Eliza set down her flower tray and using her spade cut into the dirt. The dirt was understandably soft since Hogwarts was surrounded by temperate forests. It took her only a minute to dig a small hole, put a flower in and patch it back up.
She did this over and over again which started to get tedious. She was in the hot sun and she didn't really like planting all that much so she started to get bored. She didn't slip up on her work though. Like mentioned before no half-assed jobs here.
After she was done with that she looked at her handy work. She thought she did a great job with her work and that the flowers were rowed beautifully. She walked back into the greenhouse to pick up her collected goodies. Opening the door the humidity hit her as she walked in.
Picking up a full basket with each of her arms Eliza walked out of the greenhouse. She made sure to keep the door open when she walked in because her two brain cells actually worked today. She was able to easily walk out and close the door with her foot.
Eliza trudged down to the mess hall, dropped off the produce and came back up. Grabbing the last two baskets she began to walk out the greenhouse. She realized she had closed the door this time. 'Guess my brain cells aren't working today.' Eliza thought setting down the produce, opening the door and walking out. She closed the door on the greenhouse and walked down to the mess hall again. She was content she did her chore pretty well.
Total Word Count: 1294