Nera Doss opens the bed rotation map and the growers’ sample notes at the Deep Garden terraces beneath the south cistern. Before anyone moves a cart or changes a mark, the crew checks a faint ring on the underside of leaves nearest the shared watering trench. The long light air brings its own pace to the passage.
The latest page holds 53 beds showing the same pale edge on their leaves. Nera Doss reads the previous count (53) before the next mark is made. It is a small pause, long enough for the people at the rail to hear what the number leaves out.
Growers see the pattern spreading along one trench; the garden office says the samples do not yet distinguish rot from mineral stress. The current record does not settle that disagreement. The difference between those accounts is visible here: a rule on the board and a working condition just beyond it.
The responsible office has offered a limited remedy with an end date for review. The entry belongs to the interim finding file at the Deep Garden terraces beneath the south cistern. The next check will be made by another crew, asked to repeat the measure without borrowing the first crew’s conclusion.
When the shift closes, the file remains beside the marked place. The soil readers will take paired samples from both sides of the trench. Until then, the route, schedule or allotment stays as it was at the opening bell.
