05 Dec 2010 2 Comments
Sweet Potato Confessions
Now that the Thanksgiving holiday has passed, the turkey consumed, the sweets devoured, I have a confession to make. Remember those nice round sweet potatoes I unearthed on Thanksgiving Day? Yes, you remember, my harvest, and that of Mother Nature’s? Well, all is not as it seemed.
At the time, I was only out for a brief visit. So busy cooking and preparing my feast, I didn’t have time for a full harvest session, though had I, I would have discovered this issue earlier. Yes, my sweets have issues. But don’t we all? I mean, really, are any of us perfect?
Me — I’m uninterested in perfection. I’m interested in production. But my sweet potatoes are delivering neither. In cultivating my beautiful, perfectly aligned rows, I neglected to give my sweets enough space to spread out and set their roots. Roots that need to reach into the soil in order to produce potatoes (potatoes grow under the ground).
And they can’t reach into the soil when my walking rows are so cleverly lined with weed-protection paper! It seems while solving one problem, I created another. Sure, I have a minimum of weeds, but I have a minimum of sweets, too. And just when I found a recipe for sweet potato gnocchi I wanted to try. Hmph.
Tip from Captain Obvious: When preparing your beds for sweet potatoes, be sure to give them LOTS of space to spread their vines and delve their roots. While they don’t require a lot of attention, they DO require plenty of area.
A fact I’m well aware, but somehow overlooked. Oh, well. There’s always next season. (Thank God I’m not dependent on my garden for my survival!) But since one never knows what the future holds, I’m grateful for the fact my learning curve is occurring now rather than later — when I might actually need these skills.
Beats the alternative, right?
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