I was in a local grocery store last week and I happened to spot some ginger roots that were already sprouting... in their basket...right in the store.
So, being the opportunistic gardener that I am, I foraged through the basket and selected 2 of the best sprouts that I could find. I'm not sure that this actually counts as foraging because I paid for the pieces which cost me a whopping $0.33 cents, in total.
They looked like health sprouts to me and I thought if they've done that much in the store by themselves, then maybe they haven't been too badly irradiated and I can grow my very own ginger root, in perpetuity.
I did a little research and what I read, suggested that this, in deed, was possible.
I also found out that ginger likes some nutrients from well composted soil.
It turns out, that just this week, we (my husband and I) were able to take our first harvested soil out of our composter.
This is a major win for us as we have been composting everyday for the last 18 months at our "new to us" house. This is the first soil that we have produced in this new location. I am so excited about the richness of this soil, I can hardly contain myself...(Yeah, it doesn't take much these days.)
I half filled a container with this soil.
Then, I did a little more research and found out that ginger also likes sandy soil and it does better when it's well-drained.
It's November and I live in Canada. Tomorrow it's supposed to snow, so today was my last window of opportunity to get this little project completed. "Where was I going to find sand to keep my ginger happy?", I thought.
Then I remembered that we had just laid a bed of sand down on our front yard because it was horribly uneven and we had a dangerous 2 foot drop off the edge of our driveway.
It's clean, red sand. So I pinched some from this project for my ginger project.
Now, as a side note, I got so excited after reading @papa-pepper's wild asparagus post a month ago that I am seriously considering not planting grass and planting the whole front yard in asparagus. If you haven't seen papa-pepper's post about foraging for wild asparagus seeds, please check it out. I think it's brilliant.
In the spring I bought and planted 20 asparagus roots. I'd never grown asparagus before because I let people convince me that asparagus was hard to grow and you needed to give it 3 years before you could take your first harvest.
This may or may not be true, time will be the judge.
I can tell you that I don't think I was lucky enough to get any "female roots" in the lot of 20 that I originally planted. None of them have produced any berries. It seems my roots have only produced small flowers which I think means I only have "male" plants.
The other thing that seemed to do really well in this sandy, rock infested soil was lemon thyme.
A friend gave me a little chunk this spring. I planted it in a little protected corner and it did quite well.
I think thyme would be beautiful as a front yard.
Who needs grass anyway? The challenge is that the front yard is north facing and whatever we do, we want it to show that we care. If you have suggestions, I would be open to learning about what you think.
Back to the ginger roots, I mixed sand in with my composted soil and I planted the sprouted ginger bits.
Two chunks of sprouted ginger root, miraculously found in the grocery store, are now planted just before our first big snow of the winter season. With luck, they will grow and I will post a follow-up.
Gingerly growing, one sprout at a time. ;)
I welcome your comments and invite you to follow me on my journey.
~Rebecca Ryan