My friend Harini and my other friend Harini

We're beginning to get used to the gardening routine, but we still don't have all the kinks worked out yet.  Fertilizing, new plants, the mural project... all of that is going to be taken care of after we return to school after March Break.  Although we still have a lot of new things to deal with coming soon, I think we're beginning to get a handle on the basics.  Twice a week we've been watering the garden, a debacle that takes about an hour to an hour and a half and requires three or four people.  Right after school the group of us go down to the chem lab to borrow the keys that unlock the greenhouse door.  Before we even think about heading down to the lobby to water the garden, there's a whole routine we've got to take care of back in our greenhouse home base.  First off, we have Harini, named by Adrian in honour of our good friend Harini, who is not in IB and therefore not part of the CAS project, but equally awesome and who sometimes helps us out with our greenhouse duties at lunch.  In any case, Harini the jade plant had been in one of the science labs, and was on the brink of death due to neglect.  As we'd been given access to the greenhouse (as Mallory said, the botany lab is like we're in a video game and we unlocked an achievement that allows us into a new area), we relocated Harini there where we can keep her watered and healthy.  After she has recovered we are going to plant her in the lobby garden.

I wonder which Harini this is?

So, watering her is one of our botany lab duties.  The second is tending to Mallory's cacti.  She bought the seeds at a plant shop a few weeks ago, and now we have a number of pots that may very well sprout cacti sometime in the not-too-distant future.  After we finish all the greenhouse watering, we have to squeegee the floors so that all the excess water goes down the drain, as water just tends to pool everywhere in the greenhouse (it's not helped by the way the ceiling leaks).  After all that is done, we can finally grab the stepladder and make our way down the hall to the lower portion of the lobby garden.  Using the stepladder, we can climb into the bed and pick up any garbage that has been tossed in (which is typically an unfortunately large amount).  We also empty the wishing well that Adrian has instated, putting the change in a container in the botany lab to be donated to charity.  After the garden is cleaned, we get the hose out of the janitor's room and raise it up to the upper level, where we rain down the water on the garden from above.  This takes up the bulk of our time, since the garden needs a considerable amount of water.  After that, we pull the house back down to the lower level and water it from that direction, ending by washing all the dirt spray off the walls.  After that is done, we put the hose away, sweep and mop the floors, and return our supplies to the botany lab.  And that's the watering, done for another half week, save for the lunch hours when we must go into the greenhouse to tend to Harini and the cacti.  Now that we've just gotten into the swing of things, everything is going to get messed up when we return to school next week and start dealing with planting, fertilizing, and fixing up walls, but I'm still looking forward to it.  This gardening project is both a lot of work and a lot of fun, and I don't think there is any place in the school more peaceful and lovely than the botany lab.