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Add Rich Color To Your Garden With Blue Perennial Flowers
Blue flowers are some of the most striking plants around and can add a rich splash of color to any garden. Plant them in a cluster of all blue or mix them in with other flowers for a rainbow of color. When planting flowers, it is important to...
Container Gardening
Container gardening is quick becoming a favorite with a lot of gardeners. Generally you will find people living in apartments and condos without any lawn area are container gardeners. You will see flowers, tomatoes, lettuce and herbs spilling over...
Decorative Garden Accents
Think of your garden like you would a room in your home. After planning the shape, tilling the soil, choosing the right plants the last step is to add those personal touches. And just like indoors this is accomplished with accessories. What type of...
Features of Landscape Design Software
Using Software Programs for Landscape
Design
An interesting new way that many homeowners have found to
simplify the process of designing your landscape is with the use
of landscape design software.
Landscape design software...
The Many Dimensions of the World of Candles
Candles have been around for many, many years, but it was not too long ago that candles were just a means of getting some light in a room when the power went out, and they were a necessity for such emergencies. Nowadays, the role of candles has...
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How to Grow Ginger
Asian and Mid-Eastern dishes often have a subtle and distinctive flavor that comes from spicing the dish at the end of cooking with fresh ginger root. As these dishes grow in popularity, many grocery produce departments stock this pleasingly pungent root for use in homemade dishes. Your favorite grocer’s produce department is also the best place to find ginger root for growing.
What we call fresh ginger root is actually the rhizome of the ginger (Zingiber officinale) plant. Choose a smooth, shiny root that has some buds beginning. These will look similar to the eyes of a potato.
•A fun way to start a ginger plant is to suspend a two-inch piece of the rhizome over a glass of water. Do this by poking a toothpick on either side of the root. Fill the glass, submerging about one-third of the ginger. When roots grow to about an inch long, plant the rhizome just below the surface of a rich, moist potting mixture in a pot that has good drainage.
•Plant ginger in a pot for growing indoors or out! Using a rich potting mixture, choose a pot at least four times the size of your ginger rhizome or plant it in the large pot that will be its permanent home on your patio, deck, or other outdoor garden area. Fill the pot three-quarters full of potting mixture; lay your rhizome flat on top and cover it with about an inch of soil. Keep the pot in a sunny location until sprouts appear, then move it to an area with good indirect light. Ginger won’t tolerate bright,
direct light.
•Start a small plant for transplanting into your garden. Plant your ginger root directly into a pot filled with rich potting mixture. Cover the pot with a plastic bag and place it on a sunny windowsill. When the first shoots appear, remove the plastic bag. If all danger of frost is past, move your young ginger plant directly into your garden. Alternatively put the pot in a location where it will get indirect sunlight. Water it regularly, but be sure not to let the soil become saturated.
Your ginger plant will grow two to four feet tall. Slender stems and narrow, glossy leaves may reach up to a foot long and resemble the foliage of a lily. Occasionally, your ginger may produce a yellow green flower, but flowers are both rare and unnecessary for the health of the plant.
Ginger is not frost hardy so in temperate areas bring plants indoors for the winter and ignore it! Foliage will yellow and die back, but the plant will return to growth in the spring.
Harvest ginger after the rhizome has grown three to four months. Since the best time to plant ginger is in the spring, this usually means a fall harvest. Harvested ginger root is usually sun-dried for longer preservation. It can either be stored in a dry cupboard or refrigerated.
About the Author
Linda is the main editor of Gardening Guides and the Lawn mower and care guide
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