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Sweet potatoes: http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetables/p/Sweet-Potatoes.htm) Sweet potatoes are usually grown from slips; small rooted pieces of tuber. You can create your own slips by slicing a sweet potato in half lengthwise and placing it on a bed of damp potting soil. Cover the pieces with a few inches of soil and keep moist and warm. Small roots should develop within a few days, followed by leaves. They are ready to be lifted and planted once they’re about 4 - 8 inches tall. (About 6 weeks.) Plant sweet potato slips as soon as the ground has warmed and all danger of frost has passed. To give them a head start, sweet potatoes are often planted in raised rows, about 8" high. This helps the soil warm faster and keeps them well drained. Space plants about 12 - 18" apart with 3 - 4' between rows. The vines will spread and fill in, so give them plenty of room. Feeding sweet potatoes tends to produce just foliage. Plant in a soil high in organic matter and then leave them alone. Don't water your sweet potatoes during the final 3-4 weeks prior to harvest, to keep the mature tubers from splitting. Regular watering is the best way to prevent splitting. Potatoes: http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetables/p/Potatoes.htm Grow your potatoes in soil with a pH between 5.0 and 6.0. Potatoes grown in soils with a higher pH seem prone to a disease called ‘scab’, which produces rough spots on the potato. Adding compost or peat will help. Don't plant your potatoes where tomatoes or eggplant were grown the year before. These are in the family as potatoes and can attract similar pests and problems. Container Method: The container method makes hilling easy and takes up less space. Plant your seed potatoes in the bottom of a tall container, like a clean garbage can or whiskey barrel. Put about 6" of soil in the bottom first, then spread out your seed potatoes. Keep adding soil as the plants get taller. Try using just a bale of peat which works quite well. Potatoes don’t like a particularly rich soil. If you have some organic matter and the pH is good, the potatoes should be happy. What they do rely on is a steady water supply. Water them at least an inch a week.

This year I did not order tomato or pepper plant seeds. Decided since I used so few plants it didn't make sense to pay so much for the seeds.
But, I am going to try and save some seeds this year for as many plants as possible.

Last year the corn and beans from Park's had very poor germination. If fact, I took the corn out it was so bad that I took it out.
This year I ordered my "most important" seeds from Burpee but I wanted to try Parks again since they are so much cheaper.

Parks Seed Order

0016_20110206_1227_2011 Burpee Seed Order.jpg

Burpee Seed Order - seeds and shipping are both more expensive.

2010 Garden Plan

Seeds ordered on 12/31/2009. Using Parks this year since they are so much cheaper than Burpee. I also plan to order strawberries and do potatoes.

Well I would say that the 2010 garden was below average. The beans and corn that I got from Parks did not germinate well at all. I don't know if it was the seeds or what but I got virtually no beans or corn. I'm going back to Burpee for my vegetables.

2009 Garden Plan

Did a full box of peppers for roasting. So far I've roasted only four pints but they are quite expensive in the store. Canned a lot of bread and butter pickles. Tried doing dill pickles but they all turned out too soft. Roma tomatoes for salsa - don't think I'll do them again not enough flavor for us. Italian pole beans - too stringy. Bush beans - yummo. Carrots and of course lettuce which so far has produced all summer. Also interplanted onions and leeks to repel pests - seemed to work pretty well. I'd say this has been my most successful garden ever.

2009 Garden Bounty. Cucumbers, zuchinni, roma tomatoes, onions, pepper and leeks were some of the things grown in this years garden. Along with beans and carrots.

Bounty in the pantry. Three different types of salsa, dill, sweet and three different types of bread and butter pickles and roasted peppers have been canned. Several jars of salsa and pickles have already been eaten. There are also frozen beans in the freezer.

2008 Garden Summary

This years garden was good but not as good as I think I can make it. I had too many cucumbers. The peppers did not do very well. And I think you just don't get enough return from peas. I planted them because Kerrie and David requested them but nobody wanted to pick or use them. Not worth my time. The tomatoes were great this year!

Garden Photo Album

Ye New Garden

Here is our new garden. In the spring of 2008 I re-arranged, dug, and fabricated the boxes and fence. I made all the posts and pickets myself. I used 6 inch timbers to fashion 4'x8' boxes. The inner dimensions works out to3'8"x4'8" or 31.8 square feet for each box. So for six boxes the garden is 190 square feet. I used brick pavers for the pathways and the section of new patio in front of the new herb garden adjacent to the pool. In other beds I also do strawberries and sometimes potates and sometimes an extra tomoato or pepper plant or two.

Picture of finished garden from our bedroom window.

The fence is modeled on the John Blair House in Williamsburg VA. I believe the photo was taken in 1948. In the book the "Gardens of Williamsburg" the picture of the house and garden is quite lovely.

View from our bedroom.

Six types of lettuce and spinach

Peas - notice the cup holder.

Zucinni and cucumbers

Corn being guarded by the scare crow made by mom.

New landscaping around the garden.

New rose bushes along the fence.

Now pictures of the mature 2008 garden

Beans on pole tower, peppers and corn. The beans did great but the peppers did not produce well this year. I don't know why. The corn was delicious but there wasn't enough!

There are four marigold planters in the garden. They are supposed to ward off some kinds of insects.

A bumper crop of tomatoes this year. Marigold heirlooms - did great. The netting is to keep the birds from pecking holes into them before they are ripe.

Corn was really tasseling out!

Zuccinni on the left. Cucumbers on the right. They grew like crazy this year. We gave a bunch away, ate a bunch and added them to some salsa and made refrigerator pickles both of which were great.