The Memorial Garden

[alt_neville]

Professor 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.

Comments

[alt_pomona]

I certainly appreciate your diligence and attention to each and every step of the process, Mr Longbottom. And I am extremely pleased with the overall plan you designed, given the specifications and functional limitations you had to work with.

(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

[alt_pomona]

Frank, Alice -

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

[alt_alice]

Thank you, Pomona. You know how much good it does my heart to know that he's got you as a mentor.

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

[alt_frank]

hear hear.

Re: Order Only : Private message to Frank and Alice Longbottom

[alt_pomona]

I did manage to have a word when we were finishing class this morning, and you - ah, well. You know yourself what he looks like, when he's lit up and delighted.

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

[alt_alice]

I'm planning on setting everything up as soon as possible. With the students' every move watched, it'd be difficult to meet up with them as a larger group until Hogsmeade weekend, when some were already planning to have lessons with Frank. So I'm hoping we can give them a chance to talk amongst themselves beforehand and swear them in then, but we'll see what their thoughts are on the matter.

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.

[alt_neville]

Thank you, Professor Sprout. I really appreciate the compliment. It's a great honour to create something like this for the glory of the Protectorate.

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!