Yams

the chinese yams arrived during this past week, so i took advantage of a miserably rainy friday morning to plant them. they came from joe hollis in north carolina and i wasn't sure how long they'd been out of the ground...didn't want to hesitate. when i took them out of the plastic bag the newspaper they were wrapped in was still damp so i know they didn't dry out. on top of that they're dormant, i am confident they arrived in fine shape. i planted them about four feet apart...joe tells me i'll have to dig down about three feet if i plan to harvest them, and since i'm going to have to quantify how much this garden produces i will be obligated to dig a hole a yard deep and try to avoid damaging the roots. now all they have to do is survive the winter. we will be mulching the garden to a depth of six inches, that should do the job. all that's left to plant this fall is the jerusalem artichokes and the gama grass. i haven't heard a word about the artichokes. the supplier sent me an order verification and said they'd ship in time to be put in this autumn. i have emailed them asking for a probable shipping date...we'll see. so far things have been coming together...i hope our luck holds...the skill we will continue to aquire. as part of my reading towards this i picked up a copy of Botany for Gardeners by brian capon who is a professor emeritus of botany at california state university in los angeles and from a brief perusal seems to be able to write in a style even i can understand. more as it becomes available