One crop that Mum and Dad always planted was sweet potatoes. Mum and Dad always planted a big garden every year; we were a family of nine including Mum and Dad. Feeding seven children required a lot of food and the garden was an important source to help stock the pantry. Mum told me a story about digging sweet potatoes in the corn rows one year. The family was digging the sweet potatoes and my oldest brother saw cracks in the corn rows beside the sweet potatoes. He mentioned the cracks to Mum and told her he thought there were sweet potatoes out in the corn row. Mum was sceptical but dug anyway. As it turned out, the sweet potatoes had sent runners out into the first couple of corn rows and there were some very large potatoes on those runners.

Soon after we moved to our present location and got the little valley cleared, Mum and I tried planting sweet potatoes since the little valley soil contains more red clay. Sweet potatoes love the iron found in red clay soil. However, we found the little valley tended to stay too wet from the rain coming off of the slopes. If sweet potatoes get too much water, they will produce small stringy tubers instead of the nice rounded ones. Mum and I never tried planting sweet potatoes in the little valley again. However, this year I decided I would try planting sweet potatoes since I noticed the lower end of the little valley tended to stay drier than the upper end.

Three 7 meters (22 feet) rows of sweet potatoes (Click image for a larger view)

During a recent visit to a local farm centre I noticed a bin of sweet potatoes outside the entrance. There was no indication of the variety or the price so I went inside to enquire about the potatoes. They were Beauregard and were $3.95 a bundle plus sales tax. At one time here in the Kangaroo state plants and seeds were tax exempt. However, the powers that be decided to change that a few years ago. I would have liked to have found the ones that Dad use to grow. I am unsure of the variety, but if I was to see the leaf I would recognise it in an instant as the leaf was distinctive from the other varieties. Dad grew his own potato slips each year, growing them in a bed of rotted sawdust. The farm centre had placed the slips in a plastic crate and added water to help keep the plants healthy. Sweet potato slips are pulled and shipped dry rooted and I have seen farm centres just put the crates out. It is not a requirement; however, it does make the slips stay in better condition before they are sold.

The hardest part of planting sweet potatoes is creating the raised bed. The local commercial growers of strawberries use raised beds that are 91-122 cm wide (3-4 ft), with a double row planting of strawberries on each raised bed. There will be acres of these raised beds and I know they are not made by hand. I would love to find an implement for my 8N tractor that would help me to create these raised beds. If any of my readers know of an implement or hoes for my 8N that would help to create these beds, please let me know. I spaced my raised beds 122 cm (4 ft) apart; I did not measure the height of the beds but the recommendation is around 20 cm (8 in). I just worked until I thought I had the bed high enough based on how Mum showed me to plant sweet potatoes. The length of the rows were approximately 7 meters (22 feet).

Once the raised beds are created, the actual planting of the sweet potato slips is easy. Somewhere around here is a dibble that my grandfather made for my Mum to use in the gardens. It is made of oak or hickory and has lasted all these years. Since I did not have grandfather's dibble at hand, I quickly made one from a dead branch of a tulip popular that I found beside the garden. Tulip popular is soft wood and I quickly had it to a point. I left the dibble long to use as a guide on spacing of the plants. The recommendation for spacing is 30-46 cm (12-18 in); however, I just guess my spacing estimating around 46 cm (18 in) on my dibble. When we use to plant a large sweet potato garden, we used a hand operated planter that came to a point. The planter held water in one section and you would stick the planter into the soil, add a plant to the plant section and pull the trigger and pull the planter out of the soil. The planter would push the soil to the side, add some water, and the plant would drop into the hole. If the soil was lose, it would fall back around the plant. Sometimes we would have to push the soil back around the plant. To plant the sweet potato slips, I used my dibble, making a hole and placing the slip into the hole. I then pushed the soil back around the slip. The garden in the valley was actually a bit too wet; however, I needed to get the slips planted as soon as possible. I did not add water but we got a torrential downpour of a storm this evening. I will need to check for any damage to the beds. I planted three rows; however, I had enough plants left to do a fourth row. The roots were not as established on the left overs, so I temporary hilled them in to allow them to put out more roots. Plus, I will wait to see if any of the ones I planted don't survive and use the left overs for replacing any that don't make it. The rest I will put into a fourth raised bed when they are a bit more established.

Sweet potatoes need to be dug before frost can bite the plants. According to Mum, if the plants die back from frost, it will make the sweet potato bitter. I don't know if this is true or not since we always pulled the plants off of the beds before any frost. Sweet potatoes need to be cured before storing. After we harvested the sweet potatoes, we would wash any dirt from the potatoes. You have to be careful when washing sweet potatoes and handling them before they have cured as the skin is very tender and will bruise easily. Once the dirt was removed from the sweet potatoes, we would place them in the sun to cure. It is important to not let sweet potatoes get below 10°C (50°F) as it will make the potato bitter. If the weather forecast called for low temperatures, we made sure to bring the potatoes inside. After the initial curing outside in the sun, you need to bring them inside and allow the sweet potatoes to continue curing at 30°C (85°F) and if possible with the humidity around 85%; although we never worried about the humidity level since it was out of our control. Once the potatoes have cured, store them in a dry location where the temperature will not drop below 10°C (50°F).

I worked in the veggie garden today, adding some more plants. I have already planted my tomatoes, sowed beets, squash, okra, green beans, and pumpkins. Today I planted my cucumbers; both pickling and long slicing, green (bell) peppers, pimento peppers, cayenne peppers, jalapeño peppers, and some egg plant. I wanted to plant some red (bell) peppers, but the plants were a bit on the small size and I think it is better for the nursery to take care of them while they gain a bit of growth.

I was asked about how I handle my cucumbers and so I am going to share my method with my readers. Since cucumbers are climbing vines, you can save space in the garden by having some means for them to climb up instead of spreading out. My method is very simple, I build a little fence in the garden for them to climb on. I drive five fence posts into the ground and hang one of the lightweight square fencing on the posts. The cucumbers can climb up one side of the fence and down the other. If need be, I can then train them back up the fence again. Having your cucumbers to grow up off the ground also keeps them cleaner and air can flow around the vines helping to reduce diseases such as powdery mildew. Below is a photograph of my cucumber fence.

My Cucumber Fence

The little side garden beside the shed has started to come together rather nicely. If my readers recall, I had manage to get some more work done on it last year. The bed still needs some work done to it. When I first started the flower bed, I had not done any real planning and some areas of the bed needs work. The little patch of Rudbeckias in that bed have never done well and I will dig them up and rework the soil in that area. Next to the wall of the shed are two or three different varieties of hostas planted in the ground; there is also a large container that has some plantain lilies (hostas). I redid the plantain lilies and meant to do an article on them; I may wait until they bloom. In front of the holly bushes to the right are some daylilies.

The Little Side Garden

Above is a photograph I took today of the current state of the little side garden. In the far back is the grill area I built last year. You can revisit that blog to see that project at this link: a-place-for-the-barbecue. In the foreground to the right you can see the bog I built for the irises sent to be by a very dear friend. They are doing very well this year as well as the spider lilies he sent me and I am hoping I will see them bloom. You can revisit the bog project at this link: building-a-bog-for-irises-and-spider-lilies. Also, at the tree beside the barbecue is the stone seat that I struggled to move by myself last year. You can revisit that project at this link: moving-the-small-boulder-in-the-side-garden. As you can see in the photo, I have not installed the table that I plan on adding to the side garden; however, I hope to have that up before the summer arrives. I still need to decide exactly where I want to put the table since it will be installed on a steel post buried into the ground.

Note: If you click on the photograph above, a larger image will open in a light box. The image is 1024 px wide (scaled to fit your monitor resolution) so it may take a bit to load.