With the weather cooling down and fall setting in, I decided it was time to change out my planters and put in some mums.  In anticipation of this transition, I was letting my sweet potato vines die back.  I was very curious to see what was left for me underneath the surface of the soil.

I don’t really know what I was expecting to find, but I guess I was thinking it would be something different than exactly the same potato that I had planted months earlier.  Boy was I wrong.

It hadn’t aged a bit.

As I cleared out the roots of my larger vine, I discovered that the sweet potato that grew from my “plant a chopped up potato” technique (as opposed to my “plant the whole potato” technique), did yield a very spindly sweet potato spawn.  I planted the sweet potatoes for their vines so I wasn’t counting on having a bumper crop of sweet potatoes, though I did hope I would have some sort of surprise to dig up.

Underwhelming to say the least.  I suppose all of the energy went to the vines, which managed to take over approximately 2/3 of my porch.

I have to say my fall plants make for a much tidier porch.  I can’t believe how unruly my summer container garden had gotten.  It took me almost an hour to hack them down, dig them up, sweep the porch, and dispose of the two large bags worth of tangled vines and root balls.

Though I’m going for a much more manicured looking fall garden, I’m keeping my thyme, which is much more free-form than its new companions.  That’s just how it rolls.

I will try to winter my hydrangea in the planter.  As it gets colder, I will probably pull the container to the inner corner of my porch to keep it away from the wind. Perhaps I’ll wrap it in a blanket and bring it hot chocolate on particularly chilly days.

Just kidding.

I’m really enjoying my mums already.  I can see them from my kitchen sink and my living area.  They’re so bright and cheery and the perfect symbol of fall.  Now that I have more room after today’s potato vine massacre and now that the temperature is consistently 80 or below, I may actually get that rocking chair down here from Burkesville and set on the porch a while.

Y’all take it easy,

Sugarlump