"Loosen it up, that's exactly right," Sage nodded, a little impressed. "The roots need room to spread out and grow, so it's very important that the soil is loose."

"... and not pulverized," he finished slowly, eyeing Destingy unsurely. "No pulverizing today." PLEASE.

"Yes, it's important that the soil is free of weeds," Sage nodded at this particular answer. "Weeds will get in the way and can disrupt the growing of your vegetables.. Well done!"

"Big stones and rocks also have to be removed, that's correct, Evelyn." These kids knew their stuff! "LIke the weeds, they can disrupt the growing of your veggies and you don't want that!"

"Fertile soil isn't ALWAYS necessary," Sage explained, "but yes, for certain crops it's needed as they require more nutrients during the growing stages. Thank you, Alex."

So now they all knew what was required of their soil..

"Before you can plant anything, you all need to check on your patch of earth.. so go ahead and check for stones and remove any weeds you might find. Once you're sure it's clear, give the soil a dig around and loosen it up."

Alex looked at the Professor as if he was insane before looking at her patch of earth hesisantly, she suddenly was really disliking Herbology but she didn't mind this part of it, she, if she decided against being a Healer would grow her own ingredients for potions so this was needed. She noticed a rock and a few weeds but mostly it was clear. She removed the rock and weeds before naturally putting on some of her gloves and then started to dig around her patch of soil and loosened it up before looking at the Profesor again.

Amy went to her patch of soil and knely down, feeling the mud stick to her knees and began to look around for any obvious stones, picking out the massive ones and putting them into a bucket and began to de-weed the few weeds they had, digging around them and enveloping the soil, digging a small hole

Righto, then!

Abby looked down at her patch in the ground and then at her hands. Well, the professor hadn't said a thing about gloves. There had better not be anything sharp in the dirt! She cautiously poked through the soil and ended up with a small collection of pebbles before turning the dirt a bit to loosen it up with her spade.

Meh.

The Professor acted like she was going to PULVERIZE him! Besides, she would need something bigger than a gardening spade to do that.

Kneeling by her patch of soil, Destiny started to check her soil. Her means of checking differed from everyone else's ways. Sticking a non-gloved hand deep into the soil, she felt around for any types of stones, rocks, sticks or..

"Are there BUGS in this soil?"

Bugs that needed a good pulverizing.

Mina nodded as she listened to what was going on. There were to inspect the soil. She could so do that. It didn't sound all that hard and it wasn't like there was all that much soil to go through.

Glancing down at the ground below her, she knelt down and started to pick through it with her tools. One stone, two stones.....um, an earthworm. Oh she would have to keep that for Chloé. Placing it aside, she continued on digging.

Okayy, yeah, she knew he didn't mean that kind of farm. But Sarah thought she'd be different and point it out. As Professor Dodson answered her, she smiled and nodded, before turning her attention back to the soil in front of them.

They got their own little patch? Sweet! She really didn't mind getting dirty.

Listening to all the answers, and the teachers replies, Sarah chewed her lip and spied her piece of earth. Well it LOOKED alright. Didn't mean it was though. Stones and weeds could be sneaky things. Yush.

When given their cue, Sarah crouched down and started raking through the ground with her fingers, pulling out a few small stones along the way. Tossing them to the side, she scratched her head, leaving a tiny dirty mark above her right eye. Herbology was funzors.

Smiling juuuust the slightest, Evelyn moved to a patch of dirt close to where Destiny was working, and kneeled down.

Wait...what was Destiny doing...

Snickering, Evelyn shook her head at her friend's question before slowly working on her own patch of dirt. "What, did you find a worm or something?" Of course there were bugs in the ground. Just hopefully, no spiders came popping out or something, or everyone was going to be deaf in the next few moments...

But, worrying about that was for later! When she was panicking that she had dirt on her hands, and something could have bit her like she normally was after gardening. Or in this case, 'farming'. Besides, this soil or whatever had too many rocks that needed attention. Hmm, one rock... *toss*.... two rock...*throw*...

Oops. Alright. Too close to hitting people.

Nia was in one of those moods when being dirty wasn only going to be a good thing. No girly-girl 'can't get muddy' or 'I've broken my nail' here. She plopped herself down by her patch of dirt, and started to pick through it.

Hmm. Seemed the creepy crawlies liked it here. Especially under the large rock she'd just uncovered. Good job she wasn't sqeamish, really. She put the rock aside, and let the bugs scatter around to outside her plot. No use disturbing them more than necessary. And anyway, worms were good for the soil, right?

Now to pick out the stones. She considered dropping them out of the way over her shoulder, but thought better of it on account of the fact there was someone working there. They might not be too pleased if more stones appeared.

Carter used a garden spade to help him shift through the dirt. Every time he found a stone he put it off to the side of the plot. Soon he had a small pile of rocks. He continued sorting through and found a small weed. He pulled it out and placed it on his rock pile.

He looked down at his little stone pile with the weed. It looked like a little stone fort.

With spade in hand, Patroclus kneeled down by his patch of soil, and began to airate it. He plunged the spade in and out, lifting the soil, so to allow air to fill the cavaties he was creating.
Ting! A metallic noise told the boy he had hit a rock, so he brushed some of the soil, to the side and using his gardening tool, plunked the rock from the ground. However as he did, a few bettles that had called the rock home scampered up his spade, the shock causing him to drop it.
"Oh!" the boy grimaced as he waited for the bettles to climb back into the soil.
With them gown had his patch ready for planted Patroclus rolled from his nice and sat on his behind.

Zane smiled and happily grabbed his garden trowel and began to dig around. "Professor, what are we planting today?" he asked, almost falling from pulling up a tough clump of weeds. He grabbed two or three small stones from the earth to and then made a mental note to show Professor Dodson that he wasn't a mean Slytherin, just kind of...different in his ways of thinking.

Selena looked at the soil in front of her. She sighed and shifted amongst the soil. She pulled out a few stones... ooh... this one was all pearly white.... hehehe. She moved it to the side and pulled out a few more stones and a couple of weeds. When she finished, she sighed then she saw a worm... worm... worm... Selena took her gardening trowel and lifted the worm out of the soil before aiming the point of the trowel at the worm. That would probably scare the professor a bit... but Selena really, really, really, really hated worms. Glare... Then thinking again she picked up the worm with the trowel and flung the worm somewhere. Oops.

GROSS!

Marie did not want to dig around in the dirt and get her hands dirty. It's not like she was ever going to plant a garden of her own so why did she need to know this stuff? Because she wanted the points that's why.

Taking one of the few spades that were left she sat down at a patch of ground to work on near Carter, Destiny and Evelyn. Hopefully she wouldn't have to touch any bugs or worms, those were just disgusting. She started to dig and pull rocks out of the ground. Seeing the little pile Carter had going she started to place hers around his. Now it was starting to look llike there was a stone fence around a castle.

She looked over when Evelyn asked Destiny if she found a worm. "If you found a worm you better keep it over there." If one of those nasty things even touched her someone was getting punched.

Gold had listened to everyone's answers, and she realized that something hadn't been said. So she raised a small, white hand. "Professor, I wanted to add that pH is important," she said, cheerfully. "We should know, at least roughly, the acidity or alkalinity of the soil we have on our hands, before we grow anything on it."

FUN.

Gold remembered all those times Sachie had told her she didn't get why Gold gardened - and Gold, in turn, had told her she was a 'sock' for knowing how to knit, and even practicing that knowledge.

Those had been amazing times.

Of course, these were too.

She slipped on her dragonhide gloves, as she got to work. She had to check for stones and weeds, before anything else, and that was exactly what Gold intended to do. Gloves snug and fit, hair pinned back the way it was in every Herbology class - or in any other class where she knew not pinning it back could cause a problem - and eyes bright, Gold sifted through her patch of earth, carefully but cheerfully carrying out the task.

Why was she so hungry?

Oh yeah, because she had skipped breakfast.

Jayce walked over to an empty patch of ground. There wasn't anyone around him, so he hoped that Trixie and Vashti would come over and work the ground with him. Grinning, he took the little hand spade that he had received, put on his worn, old gloves and knelt down on the ground.

Ooh! A weed! He placed down the hand spade and wrapped his hands around the weed. He then proceeded to pull out the rather large weed. He pulled and he pulled but the dang weed wouldn't come out. He sighed, and let go.

Ideeea! He quickly picked up the spade, which he had conveniently placed next to his foot. He then proceeded to dig into the ground with the tiny tool. Jayce worked it all around the weed until he got deep enough to see the roots.

Walla!

He eased the weed back and forth, until it just came out. YUS. It had worked! Mission: Accomplished. He grinned, quite proud of what he had done. He felt special and awesome.

He then proceeded to drag the spade across the ground. Yesh! Workin' the ground, just a workin' the dirt. He began to hum, getting rather into this whole planting buisness. But then- "MERLIN'S BEARD NOT ANOTHER ONE!" yes, he had found yet another weed. He grumbled to himself as he repeated the process once again.

Emmy knelt down by her patch of earth, and started removing pebbles, and pulling up weeds, some of which were more difficult than others...
Having double-checked several times that there was nothing else in her patch that shouldn't be there, she stood up, and moaned softly at the cramp in her knees.
Picking up the spade she had been given, she dug it fiercely into the ground, channelling her grief from the ball into her work. It would take a while to loosen up her whole patch...

Rae had decided to go and join Evelyn and Destiny. She knelt down next to them just in time to hear Evelyn ask something about Destiny finding a worm... "A worm? Think Chicken!Destiny would try and eat it?" Wow that was a random comment. "Errr, thought I'd join you guys if you don't mind?" Way to go Rae, totally inviting yourself.. Though she didn't think they would mind she still thought it was rude of her.

Carin looked doubtfully at the earth she would now have to sift through, and was about to get her hands dirty when she spotted the two Slytherin girls she had talked to in the Flower Garden.

Picking a spot near them, she decided to try and make amends for the awkward way they had met previously.

"Hi guys," she said to both of them - Alex and Selena, if she remembered correctly - as she made a face at the earth that was getting under her fingernails. And... was that a WORM?

"Oh, Merlin this is horrible," she observed aloud, not even realizing that she was voicing her thoughts. Such a lesson would require a serious manicure once it was over.

Dianna went over a patch and crouched beside it.
She then removed three rocks from her patch and gave it a dig around the corners.

Merlin.

That had to be a worm.

Gold hadn't seen one of those properly, since December. Since the move to England, she could only tend to her garden when on vacation, and that meant she had gotten unused to the sight.

Perhaps it was time for Evanesco.

Shaking her head, she continued to hunt out killer-weeds and stones. By the time she was done, her gloves were muddy, and she could feel the familiar scent of disturbed mud in the air. If only she could sprinkle it with a little water, right now. The familiar but completely enchanting perfume of drenched mud was overwhelming, even in her imagination.

Gosh, she wanted to water this patch of earth!

REALLY wanted to water this patch of earth.

Resisting the urge, she grabbed a short-stemmed spade. Settling for a single dig, she started to dig at the far side of the patch, shaking up the soil, loosening it at the edges as she worked. She squeezed an amount of earth together, in a little, gloved fistful and, when it did not crumble, decided the spot was probably wet, though slightly.

ZOMG! Gold was having fun, the kind she hadn't had properly, since the previous summer. Great class.

GREAT. Class!

Patroclus had been tiling the soil for quite a few moments now, and was steadily finding it quite a relaxing undertaking!

Enjoying it so, he decided to shake up the way he was working! He placed both hands on his spade handle and began to stir the soil the way he had seen 'witches' stir cauldrons in so many muggle films! He began to quicken his pace and started to create a soil whirl-pool of sorts...well one that looked like a whirl-pool but did not whirl!

The soil was now becoming light, and dividing into individual clumps, like the mixed dry ingredients of a cake batter.....yummmm cake batter......
Patroclus had to bring himself too, for in his minds eye he saw himself eating the dirt. Gah!

"Sir can we eat what we are planting?" Patroclus prayed Professor Dodson had not tricked them into talking about fruit and vegatalbes only for them to plant inedible herbs!

Alex glanced at the Ravenclaw from the Garden, "Hello, Carin.. you should start with weeding your portion of ground." Alex whispered to her, the girl seemed to rarely come to class because normally and.. she hadn't even removed any weeds or rocks that were there.. "And you can wear gloves.. you know that right?" Alex added glancing at her own patch of earth that was now nice and loosened for planting, what was next Alex wondered glancing at Zane, he was going to no doubt shine for this lesson.

She looked up and saw that girl from the Flower Garden. Karrie? Oh, wait... Carin. "Hi," she said simply, more of a statement than anything though. She looked at her dirt. "Alex, want a worm?" she asked as she glared at the second worm wriggling in the dirt.... grrrrr...

Alex glanced at Selena blinking, and then looked down, yeah there was a reason she wore gloves.. "No Sel, I don't want a worm, why don't you levitate it to Zane. Everyone knows guys like worms." Alex stated casually knowing that her boyfriend had heard that comment. She would make it up to him later because it was true.. guys generally loved worms.. and to stick them in girl's hair. On second thought maybe Selena could keep the worm.