There were some couple-week-old Yukon gold potatoes with nub-like light green sprouts along their still smooth skin. With a discarded tool, I sliced the potatoes in half width-wise away from the sprouts. With a short rusted shovel, I dug a hole with a depth about the length of two hands. I then expanded and dug a small trench. I placed each half in the ground with the flat side down and replaced the soil.
I had tossed some old potatoes on a makeshift compost heap about a year ago. In the heavy rain, they went under a blanket of mud and grew rapidly in the slightly alkaline, sandy soil. While the soil lacked nutrients for some other plants–roses and lemons grew inconsistently–potatoes took a short time to grow.