Sweet Potato Slips

We have tried starting sweet potatoes before with no luck but this year it worked like a charm. This potato has seven nice slips growing and quite a few eyes that look as if they are going to grow too. We like sweet potatoes but don't really have a long enough or warm enough growing season most years. This year we are going to try planting them in old tires to see if that helps. I was going to try it last year but heard that cadmium leached out of the tires.After doing some research I think that it leaches out while the tire is still on your car and that it no longer is a problem on old used tires. Ann spent part of today in the garden and had several bits of news. Our garlic is starting to come up which is a good sign. The rhubarb is starting too as well as chives. Time to get all the perennial beds cleaned up and re-mulched. We bought a lot of big round bales of old hay for mulch last fall so we are ready to go.We put down a layer of corrugated cardboard first. I really like the way that mulch improves the tilth of the soil.As long as the hay is well rotted before you put in on there are not many problems with it. The one thing I have to watch for is slugs. They like the moist bottom layer of the mulch. They can be trapped in partially empty beer cans with the tops set flush in the soil. Guess I better get busy and make some more slug traps!