There is an empty lot next to our house that I'm trying to beautify. My Native Landscape contractor solarized the 75'x10' strip (left it covered with black tarp for about 8 weeks) on the south edge of the property, then took out the dead grass, lined the area with coquina rock, and filled it with about 5 inches of pine bark mulch.
Because the soil test came back showing the area was quite alkaline, I had him add some elemental sulfur as well.
In May 2025, I planted some trees along the edge of the empty lot next to our house. I wanted to have a ground cover to protect the mulch and soil while the trees got established.
The first photo (taken on May 11, 2025) below shows how it looked soon after I planted most of the trees in the ground. (I often forget to take "before" photos; the location previously had Bahia grass and St. Augustine grass up to the hedge you can see on the right side of the strip.)
I was concerned about leaving the small trees in the ground with just mulch around them, so I decided to plant some sweet potatoes to use as a ground cover. The Indian River Lagoon is in the background - and we receive a LOT of wind on a regular basis across this property.
Here is a photo take n six weeks later after I planted one or two sweet potatoes in the center. I used supermarket sweet potatoes. I just bought some regular sweet potatoes from Publix, and laid them in the ground - mostly buried. Once they started sprouting, I divided the slips and planted them in about 5 or 6 places around the garden. (Photo taken June 27, 2025)
By October, they had spread quite a ways. Although the vines were a bit aggressive, my neighbor redirected some stray vines from her driveway back toward the garden. (Photo taken 10-17-25):
I had also planted some decorative sweet potato vine - the purple leaves show up in this photo below, with the green edible sweet potato vine leaves in the background (upper right of photo):
Here is a nice overview of the garden on November 1, 2025 - you can see that the sweet potato vine has taken over and covered almost the entire strip:
Almost all of the ground cover that you can see is the edible sweet potato, along with the ornamental (purple foliage) sweet potato toward the rear. In the front of the photo, near the power box, I have some blue mistflower that has disappeared into the sweet potato. (Once the sweet potato was removed, I was able to see that the mistflower has flourished.)
I harvested several sweet potatoes this past week - November 7-14, 2025. Here is what they look like as you pull the vines out of the ground:
Here they are after I brought several inside the house:
A few days later, I was digging in the same area to plant something different, and found two huge sweet potatoes that were bigger than my fist. I immediately took those inside and peeled them and roasted them for a pot luck lunch later that day:
After I shared several with friends and neighbors, and after I had eaten them roasted or in a casserole, someone mentioned that it was recommended to store the sweet potatoes for at least a week or more before eating. (Oops, too late!) I googled this and sure enough, I found that storing them for a week or more is supposed to improve their flavor.
They tasted just fine to me (and my neighbor as well!), and I have not gotten sick from eating them too soon. I'll update once I cook some after waiting a week or more . . .
Blue Mistflower (on the left) after removing most of the sweet potato vine from around it. (Another great Native ground cover for Florida once established.)
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