The curcuma gingers are about to be liberated from the sun. I spent the weekend clearing the vines from around them. Tomorrow and Thursday I will trim them back and dig the rhizomes and store them in a light wrapper in a dark place for transport to their new shadier homes. Some of them are going to my school for Beautification Day this weekend and some are going to my colleague who is a master gardener.
The process of clearing the vines has been different this time. Last summer and the summer before, I was clearing the other side of the yard, where the vines were wild grapevine, Virginia creeper, and Carolina jessamine. On the side where the gingers have been growing in the shade of the lost linden oak are the Singapore skunk vine, Virginia creeper, wild clematis, and a pea-like vine. First I mowed around the gingers with the lawn mower on its lowest setting. Then I used the Lawn Shark tool to cut a section around each clump of ginger. With a three pronged cultivator, I pulled off the surface growth of vines left by the lawn mower, and then the root pulling began in earnest. As each root junction came up, I felt I really could take back my little piece of garden from the jungle.
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