Nature Play with Erin

Summer Camps — Launch Learning Preschool

I am so excited for the Summer Sensory Season of classes I will be leading at Launch Learning Preschool this June! I hope you can join me, it will be filled with sensory-rich activities and most of all JOYFUL and FUN!

Hi! I am very excited to share that I will be leading the Tinkergarten classes at Luanch learning this summer! I hope you can join in the Summer Sensory season of classes. We will be making mud, exploring sound, water, and other very sensory rich activities! Check out the info and if you have any questions, please let me know!

Summer Camps — Launch Learning Preschool

Today we were invited to play like the bees so we used colored water as "nectar" and moved it from flowers to a "hive," just like bees do!

A piece of fresh ginger from the grocery store is also a seed. If it has visible buds — the small greenish nubs on the surface — it's ready to plant. 🌿

Six steps to homegrown ginger:

Cut the rhizome into sections, one or two buds per piece. The bud is where the shoot emerges, so make sure each piece has at least one.

Soak the pieces in room-temperature water for 24 hours. This softens the outer skin and wakes up dormant buds, especially on store-bought rhizomes that may have been treated to slow sprouting.

Plant bud-side up in a pot of rich, moisture-retentive potting mix. Barely cover the rhizome — about an inch of soil on top is enough.

Place in bright indirect light. Ginger is a tropical understory plant and scorches in direct afternoon sun. A north or east-facing window works well indoors, or dappled shade outside in summer.

Mist or water lightly to keep soil consistently moist but not waterlogged. Ginger rots in soggy soil — good drainage matters as much as moisture.

Harvest when the leaves yellow and the stems begin to fall over. That's the plant signaling it has finished its cycle. Dig up the rhizome, keep a piece with a bud attached, and replant to start the next round. 🌱

In most of the US, ginger grows as a container plant or warm-season annual. In zones 8 and warmer it can overwinter in the ground with mulch. 🪴