Sweet taters are similar but different. You do not hill them as they grow but instead make your hill first before you plant your slips. Sweet taters are also much more tolerant of clay soils being able to push down through as a thin root and wedge it as they expand. Of course this ability differs to varying degrees by cultivar and like all root crops looser is always better over all. Also unlike "Irish" taters you don't plant the potato or cut pieces but instead plant sprouts or slips that form from sweet potatoes that are allowed to sprout either in the classic sweet potato half suspended in water with toothpicks in a mason jar or in a sprouting bed, usually damp sand in a cold frame. Cold in the case of sweet taters is a misnomer as unlike regular taters which come from way up high in the cold Andes mountains, sweet taters hail from the lowland tropical bottomlands and they want heat and lots of it so plant these in May or later as long as there is time in the season for them as most need a long season to size up. They also like it a little wetter than regular spuds especially when first set out as slips. When I was a kid we made our ridges then wet them down to a mud pie state before setting the slips for a very dirty day in the field. Today I do it by making a ditch down the top of the ridge prior to setting the slips and then set my slips about 10-12 inches apart in the row and bury them until only the top leaves are showing and then fill the ditch to the brim with water. The key is to never ever let the slips dry out for the first week or so until they have been able to establish roots. Soaker hoses are a God send compared to the days of toting buckets of water to the field. If you can time your planting for an overcast day, or even better week, so much the better. They, too, like a good side dress once established but do not over do it as like the others you'll get great tops at the expense of roots. I just want good thick foliage for supressing weeds and photosynthesis and no more. Let them stress ever so slightly later in the season to send more good stuff to the roots. Like has been said they do need lots of room compared to the non vining irish kind if you're growing the vining type of sweet potatoes. Some can go over six foot or more but I generally reserve tolerating vines only on my melons and pumpkins so I opt for bunch or semi bunch versions myself. I've almost completely settled on the newer semi bunch Covington cultivar but still alot some space to others. My Covingtons go into two one hundred foot rows as my main sweet potato for year round use. herboil, just a note on letting sweet potato vines grow up instead of out. With some cultivars, centennial comes to mind, you will lose nearly half your crop as many cultivars will root at the nodes and make roots (potatoes) there. Me personally, I despise having to hunt and peck to dig sweet potatoes all over God's creation so those cultivars are very low on my list even though I personally like the taste of centennials. For me and mine I like to find my taters exactly where I planted them.

Here are the first four hits I get from Google that actually name the companion plants. The first two say no (with an exception on No Dig), the second two say yes. Golden Harvest Organics: http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html Cabbage does not get along with strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, rue, grapes and pole beans. Keep potatoes and tomatoes apart as they both can get early and late blight contaminating each other. Keep cabbage and cauliflower away from them. One drawback with tomatoes and carrots: tomato plants can stunt the growth of your carrots but the carrots will still be of good flavor. No Dig: http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/companion-planting.html According to this website, cabbage dislikes tomatoes, but tomatoes don't necessarily dislike cabbage. Organic Gardening: http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s-2-10-108,00.html Tomatoes and cabbage (as companion plants): Tomatoes are repellent to diamondback moth larvae, which are caterpillars that chew large holes in cabbage leaves. Garden Guides: http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/vegetables/vcomp.asp Cabbage Family companions are bush beans, beets, celery, onions, tomato, all strong herbs, marigold, nasturtium Tomato companions are cabbage, carrots, celery, onion, mint Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Bees, yes you leave an open hole. It is important that the hole be 3/4 to 7/8 inch diameter and just under 2 inches deep. You can whittle a stick or use the cut off end of a small broom handle of the appropriate size. There should be a thin layer of soil at the bottom of the hole, just enough for the seed to get started growing. When you drop the seed in the hole, you will be able to see it at the bottom of the hole. Leave it just like that. The hole maintains a humid environment just right for brassica seed to germinate. As the cotyledons expand, the plant will grow upward toward the light until it emerges above the soil. City, if you are having problems with damping off, verify that you are starting with sterilized seed start mix such as Promix BX. Watch carefully that you don't over-water. Phytothora and Rhyzoctonia thrive in very high moisture soils. Tomato and pepper seedlings in particular are susceptible to these soilborne diseases. Overwatering is the usual culprit. It is important with tomatoes and peppers to let the soil dry out until the seedlings start to wilt before watering. This will keep the damping off under control. Please note that this is not needed with brassicas. They are much more tolerant of soil moisture levels.

We grow stonewall which produces all female blossoms so every one is a cucumber. We grow them on a trellis in the high tunnel. We get the clips from Nolts and the trellis from Johnny's. We us bailing twine to hang it from the rat run purling. At the end of the season we just cut it down and burn it. We grow Kale and put in the high tunnel in March and harvest off it until late November. The two types we like best are lacinato and winterbor. I get the seed from Jordan's http://jordanseeds.com We just let it go and when we turn the chickens into the tunnels we tip one over every few days for a green snack. This picture was taken Dec. 26th in Zone 4. You can see in the top part of the picture we have gone in and put extra suspension in for our rat runs, so we can grow everything vertically. We just bought chain link top rail from Menard's to make the suspension.