Unintended growth in an untended garden

Ever wonder what lettuce looks like if you just let it grow?

In June I posted a short item about my accidental garden, the one that started growing with no influence from the gardener whatsoever. Well here are the results after letting it grow untended well into September. A few pygmy sunflowers, outrageous lettuce with flowers and a huge mushroom which I managed to destroy while I was moving a ladder around cleaning gutters.

Pygmy sunflower from seeds
the birds spilled last winter.

And a shroom.

The one planting I did, potatoes, never grew very much, at least above ground. The tallest one was less than a foot tall when they all kind of just stopped growing. In early August I pulled a test plant and it had produced only a tiny spud. I lost interest, the leaves turned yellowish long before the fall colors on the trees and I assumed it was a dismal failure. I have been wondering what the problem is the past couple of years and I think I figured it out. I have been here, gees, 13 years in this temporary lodging and in that time alders have grown huge, so large and spreading they allow very little sunlight  onto the raised gardens I built so lovingly. Even the one out by the road where the potatoes didn't grow only had about half a day of direct sunlight. There also might be a fertilizer problem. Before snowfall I am going to add fertilizer to the beds against next year in case I feel like trying again. There also are about half a dozen trees I could take down without hurting the aesthetics, which should allow more light onto the ground. We shall see about that. All that was to say I pulled 10 pounds of mostly very small potatoes out of that patch.

The accidental garden