John hauled a few pickup loads of topsoil to the site. For a nongardener he certainly has been a gardening enabler — thankfully. I planted edible pod peas, spinach, broccoli, lettuce, carrots and potatoes. And pansies. Always pansies.

The primal satisfaction of that garden is still with me.

Dave Shroer, a longtime and well-respected Homer gardener, shared the thought with me that people are either “growers” or they are not. I have given that some thought and, as much as I don’t really want to admit it, he is right. That should make him crow.

I have been operating on the assumption that you really do want to garden but you are just intimidated by the getting started part. But then I think back to that gravel pad and the potatoes that came out of that rocky ground and I become even more determined to get you, yes, you, gardening.

Potatoes are a marvel. This summer I tried a new source for the seed. It is certified (no potato blight) from a farm in Palmer and came in a five-pound bag. The tubers were huge and I was forced to cut them into pieces instead of planting the whole potato like I usually do. I followed the very clear directions and crossed my fingers.

The germination was a little sketchy, meaning that not all of the pieces made plants. The resulting plants did not have as many stalks as usual and I was getting more and more curious as to what was going on under there. So I reached in with the hope of coming up with a handful of new potatoes for dinner.

You do not need to wait for the plant to bloom or for the foliage to die back. You could be waiting for a long time with a summer like this one.

What I found, now this was about the second week in August, were five really huge potatoes. Really huge. I was stunned. Expecting to get a handful of tiny potatoes, the kind we look forward to every year, and coming up with behemoths was certainly a surprise.

The kind I planted this year were Yukon Golds. This may seem unimaginative, but I like them and so does John, not much else matters. They were beautiful all the way through, neither hollow nor split. Being heavy feeders they really enjoyed the compost/manure and lots of water.

Everything that I have ever read about a potato stresses that the flavor will improve if you let the foliage die back before you dig them. In the past I have found the patience to wait, or else I was too busy. I found tubers that had split or rotted in the center. May I suggest that you get your potatoes out of the ground sooner rather than later? Hose them off, take them inside, lay them out on newspapers, cover, let dry, and store in a cool, dry, dark place.

If this was your first garden and you planted potatoes, and your crop was anything like mine, methinks you are now a “grower.”

Once you have your potatoes harvested take a good look at what the slugs are doing to the rest of your garden. What about that lettuce? Looks full of holes and slimy? Get rid of it. What is the point of letting heads of once beautiful lettuce sit out in the rain and continue to provide food for slugs? No point. Move on. Find the package of seeds and start four more plants. These will go into the greenhouse or a pot on the deck, safe from marauding mollusks.

I have been hearing from more and more of you that you are growing your salads in containers on your porches. All you need do is reach out the door and pick your evening salad and the greens are usually slug free. But perhaps the crop got ahead of you, the heads are going to seed. What now? Cut them off at the soil surface, leaving the root ball in place. New leaves should soon appear, prolonging your lettuce season. Give this a try.

Back to slugs: Try to keep the garden environment as inhospitable as possible. The beds in the vegetable plot are raised about eight inches. The leaves of many of the plants are touching the ground so the slugs just climb right up and have a feast, at your expense. Trim back any dragging foliage, scatter crushed egg shells over the soil surface, and destroy any slugs that you come across.

Cutting them in half with a scissors certainly has proven effective. Lay boards down among the plants, each morning flip them over and scrape the slugs into a container with a vinegar solution.

But, really, prevention is the key here, you really can kill only so many slugs.

And the potatoes from that first garden? They were misshapen and small, but they were mine.

Note: Be thinking about fall bulbs. It is too soon to plant but not too soon to buy. Store them in your refrigerator. This includes garlic and anything you may want to force for winter blooms.