I guess the garden bug bites early down here in the desert! Last week, I officially gave up on growing houseplants in the camper. Too much moving them around, the cat steps on them, shoot we were even throwing the covers back on top of them! Not enough counter space for them either so I’m just making peace with it. No more houseplants in this house. Not too big of deal when you think about the fact that our living room is really the back porch anyway and we spend most of our time outside.

Okay, so without my houseplants project, I wanted to try something else with plants. I’ve been told for a while that it is easy to grow your own ginger root! I love to cook with ginger so I’m giving this a try! As I did a bit of reading, there were two different methods advised, so I decided to try both. One method has you get the starts going in a damp paper towel, the other has you just go right to the potting soil and be mighty patient (8 weeks they said!) for the sprouts to show up.

I had a nice piece of ginger sitting on my counter for a while now and it had some nice eyes on it, so I cut it into 4 pieces just as I would if I were preparing potatoes for planting.

Next, I prepared my empty houseplant pot for its new tenants. 😂LOL! I also grabbed a paper towel for the other two pieces. I’ll have to let you know which method does better as the weeks go by!

I like to put a few rocks in the bottom of my pots to keep the soil from plugging up the drainage holes. So far it seems to work well for me so I keep doing it! Then I added some potting soil and laid my chunks of ginger on top, trying to position the eye buds so they can grow towards the light.

Then to bury them with about an inch of soil, and soak thoroughly with water. I set this out on the patio by my other containers so I can keep an eye on it and keep it wet. From what I understand, I will be waiting several weeks before I see anything pushing up to the surface.

As for the paper towel method, I simply set a couple chunks of my ginger on the paper towel and wrapped them gently.

Then, I soaked the paper towel in water which helped the folds adhere to each other and remain folded. Then I slipped the wrapped ginger into a plastic ziplock bag to retain moisture, but did not seal it shut. I set this in the window behind my stove figuring the light will be good for it as well as the heat from the stove.

And then my final project for the day was to plant these Sunflower seeds my friend Jill shared with me from her garden. Jill is a 🎻 violin friend from Instagram that I got to visit in person last November at her beautiful home in Hood River, Oregon.

I’ve always found these brick walls rather boring that surround every lot in the Yuma Foothills. When I open my back door, or look out the window, this wall is my view. So, I decided it was the perfect space to attempt growing a cheery wall of sunflowers! I just really hope they grow!! I prepared the space by trying to rake the sand somewhat level and then adding a bit of amend and potting soil to encourage the sand to hold moisture a little better.

As I started to plant my seeds, I noticed more and more birds excitedly gathering around. 🤣 So I decided I best wait until sundown to do my seed planting!!