I’ve had enough.  The potatoes, which I planted dead center in the garden overshaddowed everything.  The few things that were growing, were growing straight up in an attempt to get sunlight.  The radishes?  18″ leaves with a root the size of a pencil. The lettuce and swiss chard were sickly, and the carrots basically quit growing.

So I didn’t just trim the potatoes - I massacred them.  Trimmed every one of them off completely, right to the ground.  Now the sun can get to the rest of the plants and hopefully we’ll get some harvest.

Next year, potatoes are going in their own garden, seperate from everything else.

Actually, I was discussing this with our local bookstore owner and she mentioned the tire method of growing potatoes.  You plant the potatoes inside soil filling an old tire.  Then as the plant grows, you add more soil and more tires.  The potatoes grow new potatoes along their stem, so this continued burial of the stem apparently leads to more and more potatoes.  She claimed 20-30 potatoes per plant.  I may try that next year, but I think I’ll build boxes if I do, not tires.  A stack of old tires in the back yard won’t fly with the spouse.