It’s growing season again! 

Yes, I know. It’s only January 25 as I write this. I’m making my plans then grabbing my moments.

Life is the same and yet it is changing. Nuances here and there have been tweaked to make things better, or to give breathing room, and I find myself in a place where I can give serious thought to writing again. So it’s probably time for a tuneup of the website. 

I was making my plans to check the links, make sure nothing was broken, see if any tweaks were needed before I moved forward, and then – bam! 

. . . Here I am, writing. 

. . . Grabbing my moment. 

That technical stuff can wait until next weekend! 

. . . Where were we? . . . 

Oh – “It’s growing season again!” 

Ginger Root

🫚Some ginger sprouted on the counter that I couldn’t waste by eating it. 😅

We’ve been dehydrating ginger over the winter and using it in teas. But this ginger had a little more life in it than the rest! Perhaps because this was rinsed and waiting in a ziploc bag (note for next time), but that meant it was time to get it ready for the garden. I had to grab my moment!

This will save us a special trip for “sproutable” organic ginger, and we won’t have to wonder how much will actually sprout once it’s planted! 

🫚I’ve learned that ginger is not a one-year crop. I’ll need to be patient this time and give it two years before I dig it back up, grab some root, and replant. It’s a longer work in progress than I originally thought, but now I know we can keep repeating with any ginger that sprouts on the counter! And if you’ve been following us on Rumble you know that we have a new greenhouse still in progress – so I’ll be able to overwinter the ginger and follow the two-year process. 

🫚This was a week ago: 

When the weather warms we’ll transplant it into a larger pot that I have already designated for ginger. As noted above, we’ll keep adding as we go.

Sweet Potatoes

🍠Toward the end of last year’s growing season, I watched a YouTuber talk about saving sweet potato vines from your healthiest plants and overwintering them for the following season. That seemed reasonable, so I tried it! This is a Texas gardener – I’ve been trying to gather tips from experts in my local area, or as close as possible! 

I trimmed them in November and it’s been fun watching the vines grow in the house. But over the last few weeks, they’ve been fading in color and turning a little yellow. They’re still sending out new leaves so they just need a little rescue mission. Placing them in some dirt should help, which, if I recall correctly, was the recommendation of the YouTuber (I found the video! Never Buy Sweet Potato Slips Again! Do This! by North Texas Vegetable Gardening and Cooking).  

🍠We bought a sweet potato in March of 2024 to grow slips. We used many slips in the garden but it kept sending up more and more vines! So it’s been growing in the house and we occasionally trimmed the vines when they got too long. The sweet potato finally began decomposing (not rotting – I never realized before that there was a difference between the two terms!). And the health of the vines was fading. 

🍠It was also super early to start growing sweet potatoes, but this dilemma arose. If I left them in their current state, none would make it to spring planting. If we wanted to use any vines and slips for this year’s growing season, they needed to go into some dirt. Done. I had made plans earlier, but it was time to grab my moment now! Potted those right up last night! 

So. 

🍠Going into our 3rd full growing season in the microclimates of our backyard in North Texas, we now know the best location for growing sweet potatoes, the best pots, and generally how much water they need. What’s new is growing 2nd Generation sweet potatoes! We have: 

• Vines trimmed off of last year’s plants
• Slips from last year’s mother potato
• One decomposed sweet potato with lots of roots hanging on.

Let the 2025 games begin! Experiments and all.

 

Insights

Sometimes you just have to jump back in it. We can sit on the couch and think about all the tweaks that need to happen, or we can jump in with the flow of what’s happening and take more considerable action! Some things can be done “out of order.” 

If I made the tweaks first, 1) the inspiration to write this blog would have been long gone. 2) The ginger and sweet potatoes may not have made it to March, or, possibly, April. 

Don’t you sometimes wish you had seized the moment to do “X” instead of being a good little (insert title here) and doing the hum-drum thing that was next on your planned list? It’s okay to take action based on your inspiration. Jesus said “. . . deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself!” Matthew 6:34, TPT

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of other passages that talk about being a good steward, planning for the future, and so on. But if you’re like me, (maybe you’re not 😅) you plan too much, can lose some of the spontaneous moments in life, can neglect to grab precious moments with friends, and can miss out on unexpected opportunities that can be so rewarding. We can probably all do better with grabbing our moments as we move through the different seasons and challenges in our lives.

Wrapping it up

It’s quiet this morning. Everyone is still asleep. The coffee is still in the pot and I haven’t even poured my first cup. I am seizing on a spontaneous moment and my day is not ruined over it. I put some home-crops in pots earlier than expected and we’ll see what comes of it! But I suspect that they too, will be fine, and may exceed expectations. 

Make your plans, then grab your moments. Let’s see what the day brings, and what the outcome of the harvest will be! 

Life is worship, and worship is life. ❤️

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