Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Tough Guys and Wimps


Over the weekend when the snow began to melt Dennis went out to open the cold frame.


Inside, despite bitter cold days and deep snow cover, all is well with the spinach, lettuce and arugula. These tough guys just need a good drink of water.


Now the covers are down again, free of snow so the sun can shine in.


Inside the house, where we wimps live, a hot weather crop is about to get started. No tough guy when it comes to cold, the sweet potato faints and dies when touched by frost. Starting sweet potato “slips” is as easy as putting a sweet potato in water and setting it in a sunny window. Tiny buds are already forming on the little one, which is a Beauregard. The big ones are a garnet yam on the left and a Japanese yam on the right.


Who says you can’t garden the year around? You just have to know the tough guys from the wimps and treat them accordingly.

To be fair, when hot weather comes the tough guys will become wimps. As the dys grow warmer they will start going to seed to secure their posterity. That's when the wimpy sweet potatoes come into their own, growing vines that criss-cross in a tangled mass and head off in all directions.


Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer

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