Prompt 3
The most severe rainy days are now behind us, YAY! However, the weeds in the garden/yard have become overgrown, seems like it's time to roll up those sleeves, grab some gardening gloves and add some color to liven things up. What new plants do you add to the flower bed or do you have anything but a green thumb where plants just won't thrive?
When Basyl tended to his plants, it was usually just for things he kept in his aquarium. That was sort of his comfort zone: being inside, handling small chores that didn’t really need too much of his time or attention. The small system atop his fish tank was perfect for a handful of strawberries and little sprigs of scattered herbs (and one strange and nameless Space Plant from Almadel). He didn’t have to do much for these plants, as the waste products from the fish provided enough nutrients that Basyl didn’t really need to add anything extra for them.
A true garden was a completely separate, different, and more tedious chore.
When he’d been younger and still living with his parents, none of the outside tasks had really been his duty to handle: he wasn’t automatically relegated to all the hot and sweaty yard work just because he was “the only” boy among his parents’ seven children. And then when he’d gotten his own apartment after that, there was absolutely no landscaping to deal with, period. So it just happened that Basyl came into the whole “house upkeep” thing with a pretty minimal knowledge of how to handle the exterior.
That was mostly fine, since Nataniel could, would, and did take care of things like mowing, gutter cleaning, and even spraying the cracks in their driveway for weeds. All of the most necessary chores were ones that Basyl’s boyfriend took upon himself without complaint. Things that were less necessary often went ignored by both of them.
Which was fine, of course! Basyl couldn’t possibly ask for more! He would never expect Nat to do more than he already was! They both had full-time jobs and enjoyed their relaxation time when it was available.
…But whenever Basyl came in through the back door, up the old, cracking square stones that served as a walkpath from the driveway to the back patio, he felt a certain… sadness. There were raised brick gardenbeds to either side of the door. The brick was old and dull (like just about everything else in the rented house), with cracks splitting the sides. The dirt inside was dry and gray. They weren’t large garden beds, each perhaps three by six, or so? But they were just… there, having been empty and wanting since Basyl and Nataniel had moved in over a year and a half ago.
While they’d been planning on their residence here being temporary, leaving things in a certain state was fine, but… Well, now they’d been here a while, they were comfortable living together, and the discussion of moving hadn’t cropped up in- er, ever. Because nobody liked moving, and they’d put it off forever, if possible.
So, it was just… time, he supposed. Time to take it upon himself to do something that needed doing.
He’d done some preliminary research, since growing things outside was far from his area of expertise, and Basyl had found what he thought constituted a few suitable options for livening up the flower bed. He’d gotten a few large sacks of potting mix and a hearty selection of vegetable sprouts. Most of the tools he’d need were in the dilapidated shed just off to the side. Their old lady landlord was always so pleased whenever they wanted to add or update something for the house that she let them use whatever they needed if she could provide it. Lawncare was no exception.
So Basyl had settled in for the afternoon. He was ready, he was going to do this while the weather was nice and before it got any deeper into the summer.
There was just a little- Um… Bright magenta irises flicked up from the garden bed to stare through the mesh screen that ensconced the outside patio. He hadn’t really been expecting any kind of audience, and Basyl was sure he’d come upon some things that he wasn’t quite doing right or just didn’t know what to do for. So for Nataniel to be standing there, looking back at him-
“Uhum…” Despite the edge of worry, he still only ever had little smiles for his fiance. “So… A-are you really just going to watch? It might go a little f-faster if you felt like you wanted to contribute. Not that you have to! It’s just that you’re here anyway, and I’m here, and we’re both here, and if you had something to add- l-like a suggestion or something, I don’t really know what I’m doing, and I’m not opposed to help, is all.”
Indigo_Plateau
