• Solo • Gardening for Beginners

[Tei'serin Nji'ryn]

27th Ymiden, 717



Seeing all of the different crafts that were available at the market this trial was a fascinating experience for Tei'serin. Some of them had even given her ideas of things that she wanted to learn how to do herself. It also helped to inspire her to start doing more to learn how to make soaps and candles because she and an idea of making herb scented ones for her family. The only thing marring the experience was the fact that Thorin had sent her to Ne'haer in order to buy him a pouch of herbs that he had said a merchant was holding for him. She was to give the merchant the nels he had given her for the pouch, and not look in it, or try to identify the herbs that the pouch contained. That alone was suspicious to her. It seemed as if he was sending her to get something that would cause trouble for the person who got caught with it.

But that was the least of her worries. Tei'serin had gone to the merchant as she'd been ordered to...only to learn that the man had already sold the pouch of herbs that she had been sent to buy. That the merchant himself was going to suffer for his "mistake" was a given. But Tei'serin knew that she would be punished for her "failure" to get the pouch of herbs, too. And she dreaded whatever Thorin decided would be a fitting punishment for her failure to obey him. It didn't matter that the merchant didn't have what she had been sent to buy anymore. He would be punished for his failure, too. But it didn't matter if her failure was caused by something she could control or not. She was going to be punished for it anyway.

In an attempt to put off the inevitable punishment that awaited her when she got back home, Tei'serin decided to see if she could get into one of the gardening classes that were available at Valfield Farms. She had truly enjoyed the one she took last season, and she hoped to learn some more about gardening this trial. Anything she could learn from another class could only help her own attempts to grow herbs at home. And if it delayed her departure from the city for a break or two, so much the better. She had carefully saved up the thirty gold nels she would need as payment for the class a copper nel at a time in the hopes that she would get the chance to attend a class.

The farmer who taught the class was a good teacher as well as a gardener, and a farmer. Tei'serin remembered that his students had responded well to his teaching methods. Using humor in the form of his daughter had kept the class engaged and interested in the lesson, and his use of demonstrations to show the class the right way to weed a garden had been very useful to her. It wasn't quite the same in the classroom where most of the lessons she taught were book and study based. But whenever possible, she tried to use demonstrations for her students as well. And it was all thanks to the farmer running these classes.

As Tei'serin approached the front gate of the farm, she saw a young girl playing with a kitten. It was the farmer's daughter. The little girl smiled at her when she looked up and saw her, but she had a puzzled frown on her face.

"I know you from somewhere." she declared.

"Have I seen you in Daddy's classes before?"

Tei'serin nodded.

"You have a good memory. I attended one of his classes last season. You were the one who told me about them, in fact."

The child grinned at her.

"Did you come to att...atten...take one now, then?"

Tei'serin nodded again.

"I was hoping to, yes. My name is Tei'serin, by the way. It's been a while, so I don't know if you remember it."

"I thought it was Tei...something. But I couldn't remember what it was. I'm Kaise, by the way."

Now that she told me, that name sounds familiar to me. But I couldn't remember it until she told me. Tei'serin mused ruefully.

"It's nice to meet you again, Kaise."

Kaise beamed at her, making Tei'serin grin back.

"Daddy's having one of his beginner classes in a few bits, if you want to go to that? There should be some spaces left." Kaise offered.

Tei'serin thanked the child, and let her lead her over to where the class was being held.

Off Topic

***Beginner's Gardening Class - 30gn - Bonus 3 skill points for Gardening/Agriculture skills only once thread is completed per individual. For Novice level skills only. From here***

The points will be used for Gardening, and the money for this has been deducted from my ledger.

[Tei'serin Nji'ryn]

The farmer greeted her politely as she, and a couple of other late comers approached him with their payment for the class. As Tei'serin looked for a place near the front, Kaise grabbed her, and pulled her over to where she had been standing.

"In the past, we've talked about the three basic necessities that all plants need. Can anyone tell me what they are?"

When no one raised their hand to answer the question, Tei'serin surprised herself by raising her hand shyly. She hated drawing attention to herself, but the teacher in her knew what it felt like for any teacher when their class didn't cooperate with a lesson.

"Water, sunlight, and soil." she offered softly when the man called on her.

He nodded in approval.

"Yes, that's it exactly. In this lesson, I would like to get into that a little bit more. It is very important to know how much water and sunlight the plants that you want to grow need, because too much, or too little of both will kill them. Too much water will drown the plant's roots, and cause them to rot. The plant's leaves will start to wilt even though you're giving it plenty of water. Too little, and they will wilt as well, but the dirt around the plant will be bone dry.. Either way, they are just as dead. Sunlight is a little more complicated. I'm not one of those fancy types who go to universities and learn fancy, complicated stuff, so I don't really know how it works exactly. But sunlight is food for plants. Too little, and they starve. Too much is just as bad in a different way."

Tei'serin found herself nodding. She had seen some of the problems that could arise from eating too much. In fact, she had treated some of them in the past. It wasn't much of a stretch to believe that eating too much food would be as much of a problem for a plant than it would be for an animal, or a person.

"When you decide on which plants you want to grow, sometimes you can look up how much water and sunlight in a book. Or you can ask someone who has experience growing them. But a lot of it is also just trial and error. In general, not enough sunlight will cause new leaves, and the leaves on the lower part of the plant to turn yellow. Other symptoms include pale color, small leaves, long, thin stems, poor growth, and failure to flower. If you catch it in time, you can save the plant that shows these symptoms if you transplant it to a spot that gets more sun."

Tei'serin made a mental note of this.

"Too much sun will cause a plant's leaves to turn brown. If you catch it early enough, you can save the plant by transplanting it to a spot that gets less sunlight."

Tei'serin made a mental note of this information as well as the farmer led them to the edge of one of the gardens. She saw three pots that were full of dirt, but had no plants growing in them. There was a watering can next to the pot that was furthest from her. As they watched, the farmer poured a very small amount of water into one of the pots.

"Feel the soil there. Do you see the way that it is just a little bit damp?"

He waited while each of his students took turns feeling the soil.

"That is what it means to give a plant a little bit of water."

He poured some more water into the second pot. This time, Tei'serin could see that the soil looked wet.

"That would be considered a moderate amount of water. The soil should look and feel wet."

Finally, he poured water into the third pot. This time, Tei'serin could see puddles of water forming on top of the dirt because it couldn't absorb all of the water.

"This is what giving a plant a lot of water looks like."

As they watched, the water began to disappear into the soil, but it took several bits to do so.

"You have to be really careful if a plant needs a lot of water to thrive because there is a very fine line between a lot of water, and too much water. And too much water kills."

[Tei'serin Nji'ryn]

Tei'serin nodded. Once again, she found herself appreciating the demonstrations that the farmer used in his lessons. Having a visual demonstration to go along with the information she was getting really helped her a lot.

"Does anyone have any questions?"

Tei'serin didn't, but she looked around the group to see if anyone else would raise their hand. After a few trills, a woman who looked to be a few arcs older than Tei'serin raised her hand hesitantly.

"Yes?" the farmer asked, encouraging her to continue.

"I work in a flower shop, and one of the things I do is buy fertilizer for the shop's owner. I don't really do anything with it except for buy it, and carry the bags back to the shop, but my boss told me once that fertilizer is food for the flowers that we grow. But you're telling us that sunlight is food for a plant. So what is fertilizer, then?"

The farmer paused before responding to the question, and Tei'serin could almost see him trying to figure out a way to explain it.

"Your boss isn't wrong, exactly. Fertilizer is food for plants. But it is a special kind of food. Sunlight is the main source of food for a plant, but using fertilizer is like...like giving it healthy food." he said at last.

"It's like when you make me eat my vegetables at dinner, right? You always tell me that they're good for me." Kaise chimed in.

The farmer smiled at his daughter, and nodded. Tei'serin and several of the other students grinned at the comparision.

"She is right, though. Eating any kind of food will keep a person from starving. But some foods are healthier than others, and are better for a person to eat. Fertilizer is that healthier food for plants. That is something that we can go into more in another lesson, though."

The farmer asked if anyone else had any more questions. When no one did, he dismissed the class for the trial. As Tei'serin left the farm, she found herself thinking about how much she enjoyed these lessons, and how much she learned from them. She hoped that she would get a chance to attend more of them in the future.

[Aegis]

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Thread Review

This was a nice, educational thread. I particularly enjoyed how you flowed the dialogue here. I will say, as someone who has read a decent little bit of Tei'serin, it is nice to see a pleasant scenario for her. Well done. I'll slap the tag on your review request.

Tei'serin Nji'ryn

• Skill Points - 10 (+3 in Gardening only)
• Renown - 0
• Skill Knowledges
  1. Gardening: watering too much will kill a plant just as easily as not watering it enough, so it's important to know how much water the plants you want to grow need
  2. Gardening: too much sunlight or too little can kill, so it's important to know how much sunlight the plants you want to grow need
  3. Gardening: fertilizer is special plant food
  4. Gardening: the signs that a plant is getting too much sunlight
  5. Gardening: the signs that a plant is getting too little sunlight
  6. Teaching: using demonstrations is a useful teaching technique
• Non-Skill Knowledges
• Items and Other Rewards

Player 2

• Skill Points -
• Renown -
• Skill Knowledges
• Non-Skill Knowledges
• Items and Other Rewards

Final Notes

If you have any questions, please PM me. Also please add the provided stamp to your review request found here and please update your CS with all of this information.

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