Home And Garden

Your garden is full of healthy sweet potato vines and you’re starting to daydream about baked sweet potatoes with lots of butter and sage (or perhaps sweet potato pie?). But how do you know if it’s time to pull up those vines and harvest your sweet potato bounty?

One way is to check the individual variety’s days to maturity, often found through your sweet potato slip provider or online. If you keep track of when you planted them, you’ll know when they should be ready. Variations in weather and soil may throw this number off by a week or more. Also, watch the foliage on your vines. Once the leaves begin to turn yellow, sweet potato roots will continue to grow until frost kills the vines, so it is crucial to get them out before a hard frost (below 29 degrees).

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You don’t have to be an expert to enjoy growing and using herbs. I started my loved affair with herbs with a visit to a small local herb nursery which sold beautiful varieties of lavender, rosemary and thyme as well as herbs I have never heard of. The old lady who owned the nursery was not only knowledgeable but fascinating, with her tales of herb folklore passed down to her from her mother and interesting facts about where each herb came from and its uses. I was soon hooked! I started growing herbs amongst my flower borders until I decided to make a small garden dedicated to just growing these humble but endlessly useful plants. Here are just a few of my favourite herbs for culinary and remedy uses.

Culinary herbs

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