Just Little Old Me

I love seeing the flowers bloom.

It takes hard work to get good flowers. To get big, healthy flowers, with all the buds blooming.

Seeing the flowers bloom is the reward I get for all the work I put in; the right amount of sunlight, the right amount of water, finding the right location, with the kind of loose soil that’s easy to dig in.

The right fertilizer.

Not just anybody can grow good flowers. They need to have good habits. No smoking, no alcohol, unless it’s fruit based. Not too much fat.

Though I’ve found that a little extra fat gives more colour.

Get rid of the clothes, fabric restricts the composting process.

Some say just scoring the flesh is enough, but I like to cut mine into pieces. Not too small, rough chunks will do, and arrange them in a circle.

I find if you leave it whole, the whole plant wilts before decomposition can even begin, but if you mince it too finely, all the nutrients will seep out before the flowers have time to sprout.

Bury it deep, give the roots room to grow, but not too deep, or the little things won’t be able to reach.

I like to mix fertilizers, see their different effects on the same type of flower.

Finding the right fertilizer is difficult; it’s hard to know if it’s good until you’ve opened it, and I’m getting too old to be dragging those heavy bags around.

But it’s worth it.

After all the hard work, long nights finding the perfect place with just the right kind of soil, breaking my back moving and planting the perfect fertilizer, and long days spent watering and weeding and shading the delicate new sprouts from too much sun, it’s worth it to see those big, healthy flowers.

“Extreme thirst has a lot of causes.  Let’s check your blood sugar, and let’s take a skin sample to see if you’re developing scales.”

“Joint pain is pretty common when someone’s pushing themself that way with training, and I’d definitely recommend some rest, but it sounds like it’s been coming on with the moon so we might want to do a blood test to check for lycanthropy.”

“I’m going to give you this journal.  Keep track of how often you’re near bodies of water and copses of trees – not single trees, there needs to be a cluster.”