Monday, December 1, 2014

The beginning of the 2014 Sweet Potato Harvest

Shriveled up leaves are evidence of the first slight frost
To reassure those of you who think I may be done with this blog, I am continuing to garden as time permits. Near the beginning of November, Tucson received its first light frost. I did my very best to harvest as much as possible, but I am so busy with the needs of everything else that I have had very little time to harvest. This is one of the main concerns I have with growing sweet potatoes. The harvest needs to be done all at once, but I have very little time to do so.


What could be making the ground to crack?
The Gardener found a surprise!
The other main concern I have with growing sweet potatoes is how dirty I get. The sap that comes from the vines of this relative of the Morning Glory family is incredibly difficult to remove. Often, I will go to work with people looking at my hands wondering why I did not wash them after multiple times of nearly scrubbing my skin off with soap.

Several Hours of Hard work outside the garden.



Sweet Potato Sap is VERY difficult to get off. I wear grubby clothes.



A look at one of the many Purple Sweet Potatoes after being washed.


Other than the two concerns I have mentioned above, I really love to grow sweet potatoes and still generally enjoy gardening. I just need more time to do it. So far I have managed to harvest quite a bit of sweet potatoes outside of my garden. Now, if I can only make time to harvest the other 4/5 of the crop!


A view of Several Hours of harvesting Purple Sweet Potatoes