Roots 'n shoots

The spring flowers are up early this year and brightening the mild and murky weather.



I was at my brother’s in Duncan on the weekend and we enjoyed a meal that featured some of his home grown sweet potatoes which he grew last summer. He bought them from Mapple Farm in NB and said the recommended book was very helpful: Sweet Potatoes for the Home Garden: With Special Techniques for Northern Growers, by Ken Allan.



They send you slips that come wrapped in plastic. His garden is in raised beds with southern exposure, I believe, and he grows lots of heat-loving things including eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, melons etc. For the sweet potatoes he followed the book’s advice and warmed the soil with clear plastic. He got about 35 pounds of potatoes, I think he said.

And in my garden, I'm looking forward to the first of my purple sprouting broccoli...