New Roots Farm

We decided to grow sweet potatoes as a ground cover last year. The biggest reasoning was to manage the deer if at all possible.

We had tried growing sweet potatoes in the past, and the deer would just mow them down. I mean as soon as that beautiful sea of green was lush bam! They would mow it down! It was a huge frustration. We tried all types of deterrents, and nothing worked in the long term.

Right after starting our food forest, we had major concerns about how to keep the deer from eating our very precious plants. At the same time, we were thinking about what to plant as a ground cover. Well, sweet potatoes popped into our discussions.

No brainer! Let's grow them as a ground cover in the food forest as a sacrificial plant.

The deer never came.

We harvested more sweet potatoes than we could have dreamed of. The plants were stunning. The pollinators loved the flowers, so did I! We have had yummy sweet potatoes to eat for the past 7 months.

We left all of the plant's foliage and vines to die off naturally and left lots of the sweet potatoes in the ground

We were thinking they would feed the soil we have been working so hard to build. We were hopeful and believed we would see some pop back up in the spring.

Spring is here, and we have seas of sweet potato vines spreading all along the food forest floor.
It is a beautiful site to see this type of sustainability.

We hope to share these sweet treats with you in the fall.