The Memorial Garden
Apr. 22nd, 2013 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_nevilleProfessor Sprout and I and a few other volunteers have been getting our boots mucky, walking through the area planned for the Memorial Garden, and using charms and transfiguration spells to lay the walkways and set up the beds. We were a bit anxious at first that the soil was too alkaline for many of the plants we had planned to put in, so we've been working in peat moss, down to a depth of six inches. The soil quality is very good otherwise: excellent drainage, nice and rich--lots of additional compost helped. We turn up worms every time we turn a spade. I always get so happy whenever I see them; they're perfect for aeration.
So now we're ready to start planting, and the plants are beginning to arrive! The ones I've ordered, I mean, aside from the ones that Professor Sprout has to spare from the Greenhouses. It's really exciting to see the plans I've sketched out begin to take shape. One of the commercial greenhouses we'd ordered from had a shipping delay, so some of the trees won't be coming in when we expect them, but we should have most of the shrubs put in on schedule. Of course, there won't be as much colour this first year, since the bulbs that really liven up the palette won't get planted until next autumn. Still, I think there will be enough in the ground by the time the students go home that everyone will have a pretty good idea of what it's supposed to look like.
So now we're ready to start planting, and the plants are beginning to arrive! The ones I've ordered, I mean, aside from the ones that Professor Sprout has to spare from the Greenhouses. It's really exciting to see the plans I've sketched out begin to take shape. One of the commercial greenhouses we'd ordered from had a shipping delay, so some of the trees won't be coming in when we expect them, but we should have most of the shrubs put in on schedule. Of course, there won't be as much colour this first year, since the bulbs that really liven up the palette won't get planted until next autumn. Still, I think there will be enough in the ground by the time the students go home that everyone will have a pretty good idea of what it's supposed to look like.
I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good
Date: 2013-04-23 02:17 am (UTC)(I'm surprised she didn't insist each one include an etching of a kitten or something. Urgh.)
Like I said, not all the trees are here yet, but the ones for Amycus and Alecto Carrow have arrived.
I'm gonna sow salt under the roots and gird the bark all the way around before I plant them, just under the surface of the soil.
Those suckers won't put out a single bloody leaf. Ha!
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good
Date: 2013-04-23 02:51 am (UTC)I say, that seems a frightfully cruel thing to do to an innocent tree, what? I thought you had a jolly great affinity for growing things.
Does Professor Sprout know what you intend? I shouldn't think it would appeal to her sensibilities, even for someone like Carrow.
I suppose, if it were my design, I should rather choose the most florid and fragrant tree possible--a cherry blossom, perhaps, or a lilac--that could never be mistaken as a representation of them, what, but that would contribute as much beauty and peace into the world as ever they bally well took away from it.
-Justin
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good
Date: 2013-04-23 03:20 am (UTC)He doesn't get a tree. Hannah's the one who deserves one.
And yes. Professor Sprout knows.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good
Date: 2013-04-23 04:10 am (UTC)But what you're doing makes no sense. It's dashed bad form and to what end? I say, you'll be destroying a patch of earth, ruining it for years to come. And you're killing a tree. Is that tree actually a representation of Carrow? Of course it isn't--it has nothing to do with Carrow except for her claim that it's his memorial, what?
I say, if that's truly what you wish to do, old chap, there's nothing to stop you. Perhaps I've been thinking too much of Harry's dilemma, what, but it's bally well the same sort of thing, isn't it? The choice to build or the choice to kill. The choice to resolve our problems by lethal force or to change minds and hearts by example and through kindness.
Let me put it another way: Years from now, you'll come back to Hogwarts and you'll see a blasted, stunted tree, that never had a chance to flower and grow. Would that make you happy to see? Would you look on it with pride, to realise that you've done to that tree what he did to your Hannah? Or would you rather look at something alive and blooming, flourishing in a way that reminds you of her goodness?
It's your choice, of course. And it's not always going to be possible, what. But wherever one can avoid ugliness, one should do.
-Justin
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good
Date: 2013-04-23 11:16 am (UTC)As for the Carrows....as I see it, I'm giving them the most fitting, appropriate memorial I can think of, one that reflects the lives they lived. It's not something that I'm doing lightly, especially considering how much I really do love making things grow.
I've thought this through very carefully, and I've made my decision.
Let it be.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good: private message to Neville Longbottom
Date: 2013-04-23 11:26 am (UTC)Hannah's tree is flourishing. It's starting to bud out leaves now. When summer's come, and it's safe for you to get owls again, Colin will send you a sketch.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good: private message to Neville Longbottom
Date: 2013-04-23 11:27 am (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good
Date: 2013-04-23 04:26 pm (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good
Date: 2013-04-23 04:54 pm (UTC)Before I learned about magic, I might have agreed with you, what? But I think it's clear that plants do feel and in some cases think and behave. Mandrakes, for example. Perhaps it's necessary to butcher them but I don't think one takes glee in the act or finds it to be a tremendously clever thing to do.
Look, I don't want to sound like a bally old girl's blouse about it. I just.... Neville's too good a chap to do something like this. But his mind's obviously made up.
-Justin
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good: Private message to Justin
Date: 2013-04-23 04:33 pm (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good: Private message to Justin
Date: 2013-04-23 04:49 pm (UTC)I rather thought she might object to my popping up to Ravenclaw Tower Sunday and it's not that I wasn't willing to accept whatever she decided to dish out, if you follow me, but that hardly means I'd like a permanent scar reading 'I will stay where I belong' either!
-Justin
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good: Private message to Justin
Date: 2013-04-23 05:45 pm (UTC)Anyway I'll give you murtlap when I see you.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-23 02:25 am (UTC)(Do consider writing up the process, would you? It'd be quite helpful to others later, or we could work it into a journal article for you.)
I do ask everyone seeing it to recall that the grandest garden plans take years, sometimes decades, to become fully apparent. They are built, slowly and consistently, over time, just as the education of our students should be,
Order Only : Private message to Frank and Alice Longbottom
Date: 2013-04-23 02:32 am (UTC)It really is a very good plan: aesthetically, practically, and taking the needs of the various plants and seasons into account. And as distasteful as the reason is, he's been exceedingly diligent and conscientious about the whole thing. (Even around the ever changing measures a certain person keeps inserting.)
He's intimated to me that he certainly intends to make sure some plants never flourish: the trees for Amycus and Alecto, in particular. He and I made sure we chose plants where that would be neither over-suspicious, nor expensive, and saved our budget for more general items. Normally, I'd feel obliged to talk him out of that, but in this particular case, better a few dead trees than false honour, I think.
Do you have a message you'd like me to pass on to him? The one good thing about this project is that Dolores assumes we need time together to work on it. Some of that's come from our class hours, of course, but we've found a fair bit of time when there's no one else around.
Re: Order Only : Private message to Frank and Alice Longbottom
Date: 2013-04-23 04:04 am (UTC)I'd just want to tell him that we're proud of him. Every day. And we're proud of the way he's handled this, and the work he's put in. And that there's something to be said for taking on a job you don't particularly like, and doing it to the best of your ability anyways.
And good on him for the Carrow's trees.
Re: Order Only : Private message to Frank and Alice Longbottom
Date: 2013-04-23 04:05 am (UTC)Re: Order Only : Private message to Frank and Alice Longbottom
Date: 2013-04-23 05:00 pm (UTC)I must say, it is such a tremendous relief to be able to talk to him more freely than I had been. Though I hope, very much, that we will be able to arrange for you to talk more freely yourselves soon, and not need a go-between. (Alice, have you heard from Minerva on that at all?)
Re: Order Only : Private message to Frank and Alice Longbottom
Date: 2013-04-23 05:53 pm (UTC)Oh, Pomona. I know it's the mum in me coming out, but I can barely stand to wait even that long.
And I'm planning to visit with Minerva in person in the next few days to make sure that she's on board, and see whether she's prepared and ready for a possible return to her former position. I very much hope that she is.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-23 02:36 am (UTC)Of course I'd be happy to write it up. All the planning specs I've done (and you know there have been a number of drafts) give me a good start. And whoa, a journal article, really?! That would be wonderful!