Artichoke garden 2.0 - a lesson in volunteerism

The Father's day gift of artichokes were planted about a month ago.  The idea is that the plants would create a natural hedge on the north side of our front yard.  The plants get as tall as 6' and we thought that the thistle would be a great addition to our edible landscape.  Here is the end result of our initial planting:

After a month in the ground the chokes are starting to get bigger.  As you can see, the one pictured below is over the double the size it was when we planted it.
 
The increase in size got us to thinking.  As we reveled in the success of our planting in June I took a moment to make certain that we properly placed the plants.  According to what we could remember the plants grew out to a three foot radius.  Pretty big.  Stupidly, I planted each choke 3' apart from each other.  Waves of embarrassment and poor geometry skills waved over me.  We planted expecting a 3' diameter plant, not a 3' radius.  Our landscaping days were certainly not over.  We eventually extended the artichoke garden another 20' to move three chokes.  Our front yard now has added over 100square feet of garden that will eventually be edible.

Artichokes aren't all we are expecting out of this bed this year.  Even by the end of the season the chokes won't be the mammoth size we have read about until at least next year.  That means we have a bunch of tiny plants that are spaced out far with a year until we have full foliage.  Fortunately, the compost fairy brought us some presents.

We have so many volunteer potatoes they are earning 'weed' status.  What is exciting is that we are also getting a variety of squash and tomato that will hopefully bulk up to create the edible hedge we have desired.  The surprises are great and we know that they are varieties that we eat because they came from our compost. 

It is a very rewarding surprise.  The above picture shows a tiny artichoke on the top left with a tremendous squash in the center followed by at least three more.  As they continue to get strong sips of duck poo tea it is exciting to watch the artichoke garden and their surprise visitors grow.