What chore is Friar Laurence doing when Romeo arrives?

The friar's
chore is gardening whencomes to him in the early morning after meetingto ask the friar if he
will marry them.

As act 2, scene 3, opens, the stage direction reads
thatenters with a basket. He offers a , in which he says he has to get out in the early hours of
the morning, before the dew has dried, and before it gets too hot, to gather poisonous and
medicinal herbs. He says:

I must upfill this osier cage
of ours

With baleful weeds and precious-juic¨d flowers.

The "osier cage" he mentions
is the wicker basket he is holding. "Baleful weeds" are harmful or threatening weedsin
other words, poisonous weedsand precious juiced flowers are those that can be used for medicinal
or healing purposes. We don't know why he would pick harmful weeds, unless to get rid of them,
but his activity in the garden foreshadows the role poisons and potions will play later in the
story.