By Ruth Padgett

Retiring in Montgomery, AL, and purchasing our first house in 15 years presented a number of interesting adventures. Perhaps the most amusing adventure was my attempt to stabilize the soil at the point where the neighborhood water drain exited through the end of our back yard, under the fence, and into the large cement drain. Rain was an unwelcome event since it heralded the development of deep mud and standing water at the back fence from our sloped yard and our neighbor’s water flow. The water level would often climb a foot to a foot and a half up the fence as it flowed to the far end of the fence and finally into the cement drain.

With the substantial slope of our yard towards the back fence and the frequent flooding, grass, shrubs, and flowers would not grow. Perhaps cat tails and other swamp shrubs would have done well. I’d take anything that would interrupt the constant washing of the soil towards the edge of our yard where it was washed under the fence and into the drain, leaving a barren, muddy section of yard.

Being a full-time working mom and Air Force apartment dweller my entire marriage, I had little experience or knowledge of gardening. In fact, the only experience with gardening that I had was from my uncle’s farm in Vermont, experiences well dated. But, I am a problem solver. I could Google with the best, and like coming up with solutions, trying them out, and improving on them. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

So, I figured I had two basic issues: rain with water accumulation and depletion of soil with water runoff.

Now off to problem solving. I knew I wasn’t going to change the rainfall in Montgomery. I also couldn’t change the landscaping slope so that the yard was level because we were the water escape for our neighborhood.

We considered a French drain to tackle the water accumulation but hadn’t yet made a commitment to the expense. Could I find plants thirsty enough to gobble up the water and have sufficient root power to stabilize my soil, too? I liked wandering through the aisles of Home Depot, (but now I know I was really wandering through the aisles of a big box store.) So, during the course of wandering, I happened upon shelves of plants in little black plastic trays. Hmmmm. I wondered. Could I stabilize the soil by planting a whole tray of thirsty little plants? And there they were, sweet potatoes. They were charming plants with pretty leaves, and I knew they had good roots and would spread as vines. Perfect. In the next moment I was there at the register with my precious cargo, on the way to valiantly rescuing my yard! By afternoon, they were all planted, scattered all around the area where the water flowed under the fence and out to the cement drain.

Fast forward! The plan worked. There I was patting myself on the back. The plants settled in and began their avid growth spurts. Within weeks I had a robust area of sweet potato plants and vines holding my soil in place. How’s that for Yankee ingenuity?

You, who are much more plant savvy, may have gotten ahead of me at this point. You probably have already figured out what happened next, but I had no idea those wonderful vines were intent on providing me a little drama and a lot of humor. Miss Trixie Doodle and her fairly new sister, Dixie Mae, had discovered a treasure. Our clever little Montgomery Humane Society adoptees enthusiastically brought me my first orange orb. Now, you have to understand, it was fairly chewed, so I was a little uncertain about what this lovely gift was. I tossed it neatly away and didn’t give it another thought. But not so fast. The next day, I was presented with two more. This went on for about 2 weeks as my suspicions grew, and those pups were exuberantly spending time among the vines. Yes. I’m a little slow when it comes to agriculture, but it finally dawned on me. Sweet potato vines …Sweet potatoes! My clever plan to stabilize my soil resulted in a hardy growth of young sweet potatoes and muddy paws.

In order to save myself many more hours of washing paws, I harvested my first batch of home-grown sweet potatoes. And once again, the soil that I had so carefully stabilized was now a muddy pond leaking under the fence on its way to the cement drain. And our clever pups had discovered the beauty of mud baths and well-rewarded digging. Yankee ingenuity? Foiled by the pups and the potatoes!

Epilogue: The French drain has been installed along with garden fabric wrapped around fencing and installed at the fence with rocks and pebbles reinforcing the area. The author has attended 2 gardening series with OLLI at Auburn University Montgomery and is currently enrolled in the Master Gardening Class, and our pups, curiously, are on sweet potato dog food.

Ruth Padgett, a Master Gardener in the Capital City Master Gardener Association since 2016, lives in Montgomery. For more information on becoming a master gardener, visit our web site, www.capcitymga.org or email capcitymga@gmail.com.