Progress ...New additions

Planting time is coming closer and we are hoping to soon have our plants ready for the garden. These sweet potatoes are from our crop last year and will hopefully provide at least a dozen plants for this year.  Once the sprouts reach about five inches tall, I snap them off and place them in a glass of water.  I already have three in the glass of water and they should begin to root in a week or so.  Once they root in the water, I plant them in a small pot filled with potting soil.  That gives them a chance to grow healthy roots before being planted in the garden bed.  We are a little behind schedule so we are shooting for a late May planting rather than the normal mid May date.  We like the Beauregard Sweet Potato because they have a good flavor and keep well. We store them in the coolest corner of the basement in milk crates lined with layers of newspaper.  They are still looking good, but if they start to sprout too much, I will cook them, mash them and freeze them for eating throughout summer.

Terry has worked diligently for the past week to make the two new raised garden beds. After buying the lumber and cutting it to length, he coated all of the boards with "Wood Life" to preserve them.  Then he painted the boards for appearance. These two new four foot by sixteen foot beds replace the six four foot square beds that had originally been in this spot. Those beds will now be placed in the area where the green house stood last year.  It was a beautiful day today and Terry (with a little help from me, and I mean little) assembled the beds.  Now we have to add more topsoil and compost before planting time.