Wednesday in the VegHeadz Garden

None of these are yams, despite the labels.  

A report from our VegHeadz Garden Coordinator, Carole Hayes:   Beautiful weather and a great turnout today in the garden! Peter brought his incomparable citrus to share. Yen harvested amazing cilantro; the tenderest and most prolific I've ever seen.

Janis did a very informative WOW on how to grow sweet potato slips.  Briefly: The sweet potato of your choice, and there are many at our local grocery stores, is suspended in a glass or jar of water by toothpicks that have been inserted perpendicular to its mid section. Water must be changed out weekly or it goes bad and smelly. Slips grow off the sides of the sweet potato and are just removed by hand. One potato can generate many slips, so harvest them as they grow so that more are generated.  Keep them moist. 

More about growing slips:  https://northfloridavegheadz.blogspot.com/2021/04/growing-your-own-sweet-potato-slips.html or enter sweet potatoes in the search box in the right sidebar and see all our posts about sweet potatoes.  

Steve turned compost in Bin 1 and watered Bin 2 as it was dry. His diligence is our good fortune. He's also interested in container gardening.  If you have any large flower pots or other containers that might be right for a large container garden, please bring them in. Yen is going to plant dragon fruit in the two large terra cotta colored pots by the VegShed.  More about Dragon Fruit, a cactus.   

Kwan has staked out a new strip flower bed along the east side of the garden. He will plant cosmos, marigolds, dianthus, ornamental millet and some of Laurie's sunflowers. What a beautiful flower bed and an awesome trap crop array it will be!

Slips can be planted roughly a foot apart in  mid-March through May for summer harvest. Janis left a few at the VegShed for observation and use. Thanks, Janis! Note: Slips are very different from starts. Starts have a root ball already started. Sweet potatoes are merely expanded roots, so when planted, the roots should be carefully spread out to avoid a concentration of sweet potatoes in one clump.

We’re all definitely looking forward to Spring in the garden.