Topic: To Cross That Line (Namari x Missylooni)

[Namari]

Izanagi looks over at her with a frown, " If she does what Arakan hopes she will, life might improve for all of us..."

Arakan walks ahead, heading to one of the few areas with soil. He stops when they reach the small patch of barren land. " this is what we have, though i recall Takana mentioning we could grow things on rooftops? our soil is... not very good."

[MissyLooni]

Isabelle looks at the land, walking onto it and kneeling down, "I see..." she runs her fingers across the soil, letting the dry and cracked sand escape through her fingers, "yes... this ground has no nutrition in it, its clearly dry to the bone and has gravel mixed it in. It probably used to be a spot where people parked a car many years ago. You'd need a machine to come through and dig six feet down to get rid of this poor soil and replace it with better dirt. That's pretty expensive for such a small area though." She stands up and frowns, turning to look at arakan, "plus getting a machine out here to do the job is another problem since the gates are smaller than the machine and someone would have to drive it with experience, so a human more than likely. And there aren't too many who would do the job." She walks back over to arakan, "the cheaper alternative is the roof tops. You could always have this area turn into a garden once things get better for your district but for now a rooftop is best. Something flat and won't collapse. And we can always have standing gardens too. They are off the ground, sometime the legs have wheels to roll around so you could have them out in the streets, sidewalks, indoors, alleyways, anything you could think of. The downside is that you would be limited depending on how deep the garden bed is. Tomatoes are great in those with some marigolds, and you could plant so many spices and mints! If you show me some good roofs I can sketch out a few layout plans for you to pick from."

[Namari]

Arakan frowns, " how are we going to get the soil for the plants? we can't take this and use it."

[MissyLooni]

Isabelle nods, "I can get some. It will take a few days to even get garden beds going so everyday I can obtain a few bags of soil and bring it over. "

Takana blinks and frowns, "I wish I could go with you and help you carry all of that... it sounds heavy."

Isabelle shrugs, "I just need to get it to my vehicle and up to the gate. After it's pass through if you guys don't mind doing a little heavy work I should be fine. My greenhouse is also overflowing so i think for some plants and herbs that I already have I might bring some over to replant instead of the seeds. Seeds take a while since they may need to germinate and the seedlings could die if the weather isn't right but a fully grown plant that's just donating a part of it should show faster results. " She looks at arakan, "if some demons are interested I can show them how to collect and store seeds from your harvests so that you can keep producing plenty of plants. Having a few people here whose job it is to keep the gardens going would be very beneficial."

[Namari]

Arakan nods, running a hand through his hair, " alright. yeah, heavy lifting once it's through the gates is no problem." he looks at the gravel soil they'd been looking at thoughtfully, " pity we couldn;t get enough dirt to replace this here, digging it out is possible without human aid. Regardless, i will see if i can gather some people willing to learn how to take care of the gardens. Anyway, we have a building nearby with a fairly stable roof that will suffice to start." he starts walking that way. " it's an apartment complex, so plenty of space up there." He unlocks the door and heads up the stairs to the rooftop.

[MissyLooni]

Isabelle follows arakan with takana behind her, "I'm not sure how much soil you need for replacing that spot, it would depend on the contanimets in the soil so getting someone out to test the dirt is a good start. If it's just overly dry and lacks nutrients then we can have it tilled about a foot deep and have fertilizer and fresh dirt mixed in. If it has something dangerous like lead or arsenic then we'd need to go much deeper so the roots don't absorb that and make you guys sick."

[Namari]

Arakan hums softly as he ponders this, " i'll put feelers out to see if there are any demons that can detect such things, or possibly even help purify it. if it were simply a case of just removing what is there i could do that easily myself with some time and effort." they reach the roof and he glances around, checking to see if there were any weak spots before deeming it stable. " alright, we have this to start with."

[MissyLooni]

Isabelle nods and looks around briefly before pulling a tape measurer out and holding it to takana, "Hold this."

Takana blinks and hesitantly holds the tape measurer and watches as Isabelle takes the end piece of it and runs over to the other side.

She stops and calls out to Takana, "WHAT DOES IT SAY!"

Takana looks at the tape measure, "55 FEET."

She nods and starts running to another side of the roof, "HOW ABOUT NOW?"

"UHHHHHH LIKE 73 FEET AND 3 INCHES."

She nods again and heads back over, taking the tape from him, "Perfect thank you." she pulls out her sketchbook and pencil and notes those measurements down, "Another thing to ask is if you intend to bee keep as well. Bees will show up to pollinate your plants and with it being so high up they'd have a bit more safety from predators than if they were down below. It certainly doesnt have to happen this year if you want to wait to make sure you have the time to tend to them but having healthy bees to make honey is never a bad thing. I only ask because if you wish to bee keep then I can keep an open area marked off to ensure you have the space for it."

[Namari]

Arakan blinks, " ah, i suppose that is probably something we could do. i can't say we have any idea how to however."

[MissyLooni]

isabelle nods, "I have a few locations away from my city where i have my own bees. they are a lot of work but extremely worth it. high quality local honey could be a great addition to your cafe as well. Again, a few volunteer demons to handle the bees would be necessary and I can provide the knowledge, equipment, and even some bees to start. My bees are very sweet and kind. We may have to get a queen separately so we'll have to make sure to introduce her carefully. ah but this is all for the future if you wish to go that route." 

[Namari]

Arakan lets a breath out his nose, " well i don;t know how high of quality it'll be with them having this trashy area to work with, but if nothing else it'll be nice for my people. honey is expensive as hell, at least anything with any actual honey in it and not just flavored sugar. it might not be good enough for the humans but it'll be a step up for us anyway. mark the spaces, we'll worry about actually putting them in later. we need to make sure we can actually grow some crops for them to survive off first."

[MissyLooni]

isabelle nods and continues sketching out a rough draft of what the garden should look like, "i'll try to get this over with quickly."

[Namari]

Arakan waves a hand, " no rush." he paces the rooftop, testing for any weak spots that should be reinforced before building on top of it. This was going to be more complicated than he thought, but it was important too. they'd figure it out, hopefully.

[MissyLooni]

Isabelle finishes a design and stands up, "okay, so this is a first rough draft to see what you think." She goes over to arakan and holds our her sketchpad to look at, "around the perimeter a 4 foot tall wired fence should be installed for one, safety, and two, plants that like to vine are able to use the fence to grow upwards. That extra layer will help keep the plants safe from windy days. The taller, heavier plots we can have follow the edging as well since they'll need the extra support. The bee hives we can put over on that other side, and I think in the center a pathway with some arches would be great for more vines and in the colder season we can put some green house tarps over them and bring the plants inside, that way you can keep getting produce year round. They will probably not taste as great versus them being in season, but it's better than nothing." She nervously rubs her hands, "um, if you have any preference ls or ideas of how you would rather the layout go then please let me know and I can sketch something else."

[Namari]

Arakan gently takes the sketchpad and looks it over, following the parts she describes and explains. " your knowledge is far greater than mine in this field, i'll check to make sure the supports with hold the arches in the center, but otherwise i don;t see anything that would be problematic. we'll probably want to make the arches a bit larger than what humans would, to ensure citizens with larger height needs can be accommodated. most of them anyway, there are some like spidrens that are just too big for most places." he hands the sketchbook back. " i'll see who i can find with some construction skill to see about putting the planter boxes together."