Apprentice Gardeners

It’s still early in the morning and pretty chilly when we reach the Herbology shop. Gram is already there, waiting for us with a hug and a big smile ready.

We don’t spend much time waiting outside. The summer is almost over, and Gram needs to harvest the plants that will die soon. She waves away our suggestion of building a greenhouse. She wants to stay close to the natural cycle, she says, and she’s not really looking for efficiency anyway.

She gives us direction and advice, and shares precious knowledge about how to keep a plant alive. It’s not necessarily my cup of tea, but the twins are listening happily, and I’m just happy to be with Gram.

We also get to plant the future autumn crops!

Look at me, getting an apple into the ground.

As I was saying, Cyril finds an unsuspected love and peace into this gardening morning. He rarely ever gets behind holidays and their traditions, since he’s a delicate, teenage loner, but he’s happy to be participating in this one!

He’s also much better than me at this. He’s already harvested ten flowers in the time it takes me to find one lemon.

I just stick to planting more apples.

Some of the crops will survive through fall. These only need a bit of watering today, and Cleo volunteers.

The Gardening Twins.

Gram jokes that her old back is relieved she doesn’t have to do all of that herself, but really we know she would probably be much, much faster on her own… The years have had no effect on her health, it seems, and she’s so experienced it would make up for it anyway.

More flower picking.

Gram explains that this is chamomile, and you can use it in many special decoctions. Some of them, she adds, I may like to bring with me on my belomisian travels…

I’m not really sure what she means by that yet, but I grab a handful anyway.

Apparently, you can give someone a full, five-minute critique on their crop-watering technique.

Around lunchtime, exhausted by the whole exercise, I’m the first to head inside the shop. It’s full of people looking for bio produce or some earthy panacea. Or maybe they just find comfort in this green place that seems entirely removed from the outside world.

In the staff room — aka Gram’s personal space — I unpack the lunch mom made for me.

It’s actually not all too bad, especially with some of the fresh spices I gathered from the garden to accompany it.

The twins gather a little more advice from Grandma before going on their own break.

Cleo, whose hands are full of dirt, comes inside to wash them.

Cyril wants to stay outside for a bit. He’s found Gram’s workbench and is tempted to make her a bouquet.

He’s not quite self-assured and the bouquet involves a lot of trial and error, but…

… in the end, he’s pretty satisfied with the results.