Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Deck 4 Garden- Sowing Seeds

Posted by Lieutenant Luke Wyatt (Chief of Security) in Deck 4 Garden- Sowing Seeds

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Deck 4 Garden- Sowing Seeds
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Faye chuckled. “Don’t worry newbie, we gotcha covered,” she said, reaching down and unbuttoning one of the large pockets in her cargo pants. When she pulled her hand out, she held little plain paper packets. She wiggled them back and forth, the various size seeds rattling. “But, before you can plant anything, you need to get your bed ready. Why don’t you help me with mine and then you can do the same to yours?” While excited about the idea of teaching someone how to grow stuff, Faye was seemingly at ease, relaxed in a way she rarely was.

~Faye Calloway

He nodded, “Awesome. I’m here to help, teach me your ways oh great green finger one.” Luke rolled up his sleeves to show he was ready to get his hands dirty in whatever she had planned for him. It was nice to be spending some genuine unforced time with someone and of all people Faye. He never believed in auras or anything like that but his daughter did and she would say right now that her aura was at peace, relaxed and happy. Luke knew his own aura was, Abbey had told him as much when he finally spoke to her and told her everything (that he was allowed to). She seemed happy for him and that was enough permission as any, she even seemed happy he was getting out and about and communicating with people beyond work.

• Luke Wyatt

“Okay, I’m going to go grab a shovel,” Faye said as she moved back to her bed. “There’s a shovel sticking up n my bed already. All we’re doing is spreading an even layer of compost on top from the wheelbarrow. Doesn’t have to be perfect- we’ll spread it out evenly after. Back in a jiff.”

He nodded and watched her walk away, his mind drifted in and out of different thoughts and memories of the duty roster he’d have to compose later, his video communication with Abbey and how he was beginning to actually fit in on the ship. He’d started to go out of his way to meet people and get to know them and in part that was thanks to Faye. He also had the Captain to thank for his new look on life and while they weren’t exactly going to go enjoy a few holes in the holodeck Luke could say with certainty he respected Cochrane.

Faye returned with the shovel and a tall square-framed wire obelisk that was quite a bit taller than she was that she held easily from the fingertips of her right right hand. She set the obelisk out of the way and jumped right in wit the shovelling. “So, you never got to muck around with dirt as a kid, huh?”

~Faye Calloway

Luke started to help using his hands to brush the compost evenly over the surface, “Well ofcourse I did except playing in the dirt meant more like throwing it one another and going home to your parents with mud pies, not exactly what a mother wanted walking through thier living room for sure.” He chuckled recalling his childhood memories, “And then rolling around in the dirt became a little different the older I got. Now look at me I’m a farmer” he displayed his muddy palms and wiggled his fingers.

• Lt Luke Wyatt

Faye gave him a lopsided smirk his way. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far. A new gardener for sure,” she said as she dumped the last bit of compost on top while he continued to spread it. “But there are many many studies about the psychological and physiological benefits of gardening and having contact with soil.”

He chuckled, “Well what can I say I’m an optimist” He continued to smooth the soil with his fingers creating rows upon rows with his fingers ready for the seeds he would have to eventually plant. She wasn’t wrong when she said that having contact with the dirt made him feel grounded and secure, he wouldn’t admit that aloud ofcourse, he didn’t want to say she was right.

Surveying the bed now that they had covered it, Faye lifted the metal obelisk, with its vine like open-work structure, and set it in the middle of the bed. Stepping back, careful not to trip backwards into the other bed, she eyed it. It had a lovely shape, and the twisted finial at the top was just right.

He paused his moving of dirt and watched her, he wondered if he had done something wrong but he figured she was just taking a look at the work they already done.

“So, a couple things before you nail down what you’re going to put in a bed,” she said turning to Luke. “You want to keep in mind the final height and width of a plant. While you can pack things into a bed like this more densely than if you were actually farming in a field, if you pack them too tightly, plants will compete for each other for resources. And the things we’re going to be planting today are so tiny that it’s going to feel like you have nothing at all.” Her smile warmed. “But, gardening is all about patience. Yes, there are things you can do to speed things along but at the end of the day, each plant will grow at its own speed, in its own way. And if you give each what they need, they will thrive. Just like people. But without all the complicated social interaction,” she said with a laugh.

~Faye Calloway

“I have patience, I am the king of patience. I waited for this for so long didn’t I?” He moved his dirty hands between him and her and smiled, “Well I think Chilli Plants are a real contender, from the pictures I’d seen they grow upright and dont take much room at all. There are also loads of different varieties, tomatoes and onions are a little harder, only a few can be grown but they make the best chutneys… so ive read.”

“Actually, you can grow any kind of tomato you like, but there are two main different types. Some are indeterminate, that grow as tall as the season will let them and produce fruit their entire lifespan, and there are determinate tomatoes that only grow to a certain height and set all their fruit at the same time. What you see is what you get. They require different supports so decide what you want to try and I can help you with the rest,” Faye said with a smile as she moved around the bed closer to him, starting to visualize what this bed could look like.

“And I wouldn’t call our interaction the overnight complicated” He was teasing but couldn’t help having a cheeky grin on his face.

• Luke Wyatt

Faye tilted her head to gaze over at him and smirked. “It does help that there wasn’t a lot of talking.”

~Faye Calloway

He grinned at the comment the memories just surfacing enough to remind him how he had felt being with her. Shrugging away the memories and going back to her previous statement, he answered. “So what types of Tomatoes do you recommend, for a chutney or even just to put in a salad? I’m definitely going to go for some Chilli’s I just need to decide which ones. Do you like spicy foods? I was thinking maybe a Scotch Bonnet or hell a Romulan Repear” Luke wasn’t exactly a master chef but he had a few tricks up his sleeves.

• Luke Wyatt