This week in Stephanie's kitchen garden, we will be harvesting the sweet potatoes.
This is one of our favourite crops in the garden as it always puts on such an impressive display. We always grow them in a raised bed, filled with lashings of rich compost and manure enriched soil, and trained up a pyramid obelisk as a focal point.
This year the crop was slow to get going, as early summer temperatures were low and sweet potatoes love hot weather. Later in the summer, it suddenly took off putting on loads of growth and we enjoyed the first flowers on our sweet potato plants that we've ever had!
Normally we would harvest our sweet potatoes in early to mid October, when cold night time temperatures cause the leaves to turn yellow. This year, we are nearly into November and the leaves are only just beginning to show a golden hue.
We've always managed a good crop of tubers in previous years, so it will be interesting to see how they have fared from their late start. It's always a task that we undertake with some trepidation as we have no idea what is waiting for us buried in the soil. Hopefully it will be plump, pink treasure as a reward for all our hard work!
Happy Gardening!
