Vegetable Gardening (sage ability)

Vegetable gardening is an amateur-status sage ability in the study of Grasses & Grains, encompasses an intensive cultivation approach that demands fertile soil and significant manual effort, essential for combating weed growth and disease while yielding a valuable harvest of vegetables or tubers.

To achieve effective vegetable cultivation, a minimum patch size of 16½ feet on each side, equivalent to 1 square rod or 272 square feet, is required. This garden necessitates 29 hours of labour, evenly distributed over a 90-day growing season, with no more than 6 days passing between each attention session. If the gap between sessions extends to 7 days or more, the garden suffers enough damage from pests and weeds to cause a 10% reduction in overall yield with each occurrence.

Commonly grown crop varieties in such gardens include beets, turnips, and cabbage. Notably, carrots are not included among these crops, as they were not cultivated as a vegetable until after the 18th century, despite their presence in the illustrated image.

Yields

In a square rod-sized patch tended by unskilled farmers, the potential food yield ranges from 250 to 370 pounds (250+20-120). If a harvest of 340 pounds of vegetables is achieved, it indicates that the character has learned important things in vegetable farming, earning them an additional knowledge point in this ability.

For characters with this skill, the yield of a square yard will range from 560 to 640 (560+20-80) pounds of produce.

Vegetables can be sold to a local garner for between 50 and 80% of their market price, adjusted by bargaining or bartering skills when sold in a town market.

See also,
Farming (sage ability)
Land Suitability (sage ability)