What a good read. Thank you for the effort.

You mentioned that the plants needed lots of water. I'm almost sure you know this, but have you thought about covering the soil, perhaps with bark mulch (don't know if this is good, but have seen it done more often) or even planting the potatoes inside other plants?

I made an interesting discovery this year. I took two bought pots of basil outside and planted one pot in the soil in the middle of the flower bed we had established, where I thought it had little chance of survival (ignorant as I am) and the other in a pot outside the front door, along with some mini roses. The basil plant I put in the soil with the others in the bed already looked very battered and was getting yellow leaves.

To my great astonishment, however, the plant recovered and even got very tight and firm stems. Embedded and almost overgrown by the other flowers, it sprouted beautifully and the leaves became firm and large again. The other one in the pot in front of the door didn't fare very well, although I watered it, it didn't really want to grow and since it wasn't surrounded by very many other plants, it ran out of water very quickly.

I thought I'd share this experience, it seems to be properly housed here. I remember the big potato field in our garden when I was a child. We never needed to buy any.

Bye from Germany