Sweet Potatoes

This year I really wanted to grow sweet potatoes! They aren't grown from seed potatoes, but from "slips". Little sprouts with roots that grow off the potato. It seemed difficult to do that myself, so I ordered a 12 pack from Steele Plant Company.  They have a great website with lots of varieties to choose from,  growing tips, and even recipes! They ended up sending 15 plants instead. Nice little bonus. They came in that little box with the roots wrapped in wet moss. So crafty! It said to get them planted ASAP, so I set to work.

I put the plants in a area where I was going to grow pumpkins. I dug out the sprouts because I decided to order an organic seed pack so I could harvest the seeds for next year. So I re-tilled up the area, added some chicken manure and extra dirt! 

I needed the extra dirt for building the little mounds. I think they should be a few inches higher, we'll see how this works. I did mine in two rows of 7 plants each. One little guy had a pretty poor root system so he went into the compost bin. But hey, I still had 2 extra plants!

 I dug an area in between the mounds I could fill up with water. Days get up to 110 degrees yikes! in Sacramento and I wanted to be able to water without scorching them.

I cut a bamboo stick to measure the spacing between plants, and then to dig out the side of the mound. I laughed at myself after trying to dig a hold with the bamboo. I couldn't make it deep enough, and just kept ruining the mound. 

It made it MUCH easier to just slide the plant in and reform the mound around it. Oh I am such rookie gardener! =) haha

They are a little weepy =( I think it's from the shipping, and it's also been 90+ these last few days.  Hopefully in about 3 months we'll have sweet potatoes!

I also saw my first honey bee in the squash patch! So exciting to see bees and flowers popping up on plants I started from tiny seeds =)