[Pallas]

My heart sank on Tuesday when the 'click' of the pump in the well and an unexpected large puddle/small pond were incontrovertible proof that there was a slow leak somewhere in the underground irrigation hoses. How far would I have to dig to find it? Not far, it turned out! At the corner of the terracotta paving, there it was: a slow trickle. The culprit? An enormous sweet potato which had got so it fat that it exploded, pressing the hose against the corner of sharp cement under the terracotta and thusly loosening the hose joint. Giddy light relief: a problem promptly and easily fixed.

One of my cats, Omar, is keeping an eye (and a paw) on the interloper!

[Fleur Pavlidis]

Another reason for John J to keep growing his sweet potatoes in pots as ornamentals! Can you give us a bit of cultivation information, though?

[Pallas]

Ha! I'd feel like a fraud if I claimed any credit because it was nothing I did, certainly not deliberately     

In January, I put in several very small plants (about 30cm-long, 2 or 3 stems each) of both the lime-green-leaved and purple-leaved varieties, to shade the soil in a new bed quickly over the summer while I decided what to do with it. While I was pondering (I do tend to take a long time pondering), the sweet potato decided it was happy and went on the rampage. Next thing I know, there are giant tubers and they're exploding 

They get full sun all day as the garden is south-facing which they love; the soil is clayey but it's good, rich local garden soil newly brought (no rubble or plastic bits) so it wasn't additionally mulched or composted or fertilised. I do water regularly in summer (drip irrigation: hence the sweet-potato-related leak) while I slowly plant ground cover, shade from trees and shrubs etc and removing most of the aspirational English lawn from the south-facing, completely unshaded garden (!) which I inherited when we bought the house three years ago. I am not sure the sweet potato *needs* weekly summer water, but I don't think it could be called drought resistant. Oh yes: snails and slugs love it, although they don't strip it down to the ground, and I don't mind the lacy look too much. The big leaves close to the ground do seem to shelter small moths/flies; not sure what they are but I don't tend to worry too much about insects in the garden unless they wrestle a plant to its knees.

It grows readily from cuttings: no need for anything fancy, just cut off the ends of a vine, trim off the bottom leaves to leave, say, 4 or 5 of the newest leaves at the top, and stick in the soil. It's briefly taken aback for about a week and looks a bit limp, and then gets on with it. A very small number don't 'take', but I have enough so I can just cut some more and plant. The lime-green ones are significantly more vigourous than the purple.

Does this help? I am tempted to say that in our climate it's almost foolproof.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

Many thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try between the artichokes which are the only vegetables I've succeeded with ever.