Keeping Cats out of the Garden

I love cats.  I really do.  I have two of my own rescue fuzzits to prove it.

But I do NOT love them in the garden. And as much as I take good care to give my own furry friends their yard time safely away from the veggies, other neighborhood cats (and even skunks) will find their way in. When they started digging this spring, and leaving their little “presents”, I started thinking hard for a safe, friendly, EASY solution.

After a good bit of brainstorming, I think I managed to come up with a safe way to deter the feline diggers that would not impact my food crops ability to grow, or my ability to easily work in the garden. Continue reading Keeping Cats out of the Garden

Overwintering Sweet Potato Vines for Next Season

In my earlier post Growing Sweet Potatoes in the North, I described how to grow short-season sweet potatoes in a northern Zone 3-2b garden. I also mentioned overwintering the vines for the next season.

This is a very easy process and you can bring these slips into the house for the winter, and treat them the same as you would any other pretty houseplant while you wait for warmer weather. If you read my previous post, you will notice the process is almost identical to what I do in spring, except on a smaller scale. Continue reading Overwintering Sweet Potato Vines for Next Season

Growing Sweet Potatoes in the North

Sweet potatoes are one of those crops that taste great, store great and are versatile in cooking from fries to casserole to soups. However, traditionally they are seen as a southern crop, needing longer growing seasons and more heat than can be found in the north.

But it’s not impossible! With the right set of conditions and the right plants, northern growers in zone 3-2b can definitely enjoy their own crops of these delicious tubers, as well as maintain their plants for years of enjoyable growing.

Continue reading Growing Sweet Potatoes in the North