Twiggybet1's Blog

Sweet Potatoes finally arrived...
Jun 12, 2008 | 2:30 PM PST
Tags: sweet potatoes , rain garden

...and this is the condition they arrived in:

Any bets that they will live????  And check out the moss the company uses to "keep the shoots from drying out":

I am SO dissapointed and upset. 

The first thing I did was grab a small vase and RUN to the sink to put them in water.  The next thing I did was examine them closely for any residual signs of life.  It doesn't look promising, folks.  So then I got on the horn and notified the company.  They are sending me a refund, but I would have preferred a replacement.  Unfortunately, they are done shipping sweet potatoes for the season.  So that means NO SWEETPOTATOES this year.  It just figures they would send me my order so late.  I get so irritated.  They sent my shoots late last year also, but at least they weren't dry as dust and they grew.  I could have planted them any time after May 10th. I am fortunate enough to live in one of the warmest areas of the state, and most of the state is 1 or even 2 zones behind my area.  But the growers refuse to send the sweetpotatoes here until June, after they filled orders for every other area of the country. And then they quit shipping them.  *SIGH*  Now what shall I plant here: 

Maybe I could try putting in some watermelon or cantaloupe or honeydew, but they may not have time to mature before frost. *sigh, again*

Update on the rest of the garden...

 

the pumpkin and corn are growing nicely.  And my broccoli is developing heads:

 

Sorry the photo is sideways.  My daughter took these for me.  Both her and my husband like doing the fancy sideways camera thing, and I uploaded it without checking it first.  So tilt your head to the right to view...

 The salad greens are doing good, and the beans are getting big.  This picture was taken yesterday, and I did some weeding in this area this morning, so it looks a little better now...

I sure could use some advice on my rain garden.  Here is a picture of what it looked like in the fall when I first put it in:

and here is a picture that was taken yesterday:

The garbage can lid is still there because I am still looking for my made-in-the-USA solar-powered bird bath/ fountain. 

I had planted it last fall mostly with assorted bulbs and some bare-roots.  Somehow, it doesn't look as lush and full as I envisioned it.  I filled in a bare spot in the ring with petunias a couple weeks back.  The outermost ring is comprised of lavender mountain lillies (lxiolirion tataricum) and pink alpine rosy bells (allium oreophilum) and yellow alpine bells.  I think it would look better if I dug up all those in the outer ring, and grouped them in spots by color, rather than leave them mixed.  I color coded the plants with twist ties so I could tell them apart later.  My question is (anybody out there?) must I wait until fall or at least until they are done blooming, or would they survive if I rearranged them now?