This has been the Year of the Potato – and the Sunflower.

This doesn’t make sense because both plants seem to require entirely different temperatures, sunshine and rainfall. But they are the two things in my backyard garden that have performed spectacularly this year.

Constant rain throughout much of June and July, together with cool temperatures were terrible for most vegetables. When I planted 48 tomato plants of six or seven varieties, most people thought I was nuts.

Turns out, that is the only reason I have some jars lining my pantry. As the tomatoes sat on the plants, they rotted. Those that didn’t rot from the outside had black, rotten spots inside. So, my 48 tomato plants have produced as many good enough for eating and canning as about 18 would have in a normal year.

Most of my squash, both summer patty pan and yellow neck, and winter buttercup and acorn, also rotted. As soon as the tiny fruit set, they dropped off because of the wetness. I won’t have to be concerned about finding lots of space for storing what did grow, because I have so few winter squash. And we never had a chance to get tired of eating sautéed summer squash for the same reason. Friends and neighbors never had to run away when they saw me coming. My arms weren’t loaded with excess squash.

But the potatoes – oh my, the potatoes!

Each year I plant four varieties. The usuals are Yukon Gold, Red Norland and the good, old dependable Kennebec. The fourth is an experiment. One year it was Red Pontiac; another time I planted Katahdin, and one year, it was Green Mountain.

This year, it was fingerlings. And what a joy they are! Each plant produced at least a dozen 2- to 4-inch-long potatoes.

They are yellow inside, similar to Yukon Gold, and look elegant sitting on a dinner plate.

I think potatoes are my favorite vegetable to grow. It’s almost like treasure hunting when it’s time to harvest them. Will there be just a few, or a mother load of earthy round or oblong spuds? It’s always a surprise.

This year, besides planting them traditionally in hills, then hilling them up a couple of times throughout the season, I tried something entirely new that I may very well do again. But this time, I will plant more this new way.

That’s by planting them under several inches of straw. I loosened the soil, laid the seed potato on top of it, then piled on the straw or mulch hay. Every now and then I’d add more so the sun wouldn’t penetrate and turn the skins green.

When it was time to harvest, I just rolled up the straw like a carpet and amazingly, there were dozens and dozens of red- and brown-skinned potatoes with only a fraction of the work.

The sun-loving sunflowers have produced so many varying colors of some of the tallest plants I’ve ever grown. Several of the Mammoth Russians are more than 12 feet tall, crowned by a single flower per plant of 12 inches or more wide.

The autumnal shades of maroon and deep gold cluster plants sprang from every corner of the garden, and the teddy bear almost solid yellow sunflowers – my favorites – sprouted dozens of multi-blossom plants.

Even the pale, delicate lemon-petaled tiny sunflowers and potted brown-centered dwarf sunflowers did well. And as an extra bonus, some of the sunflower seeds from my bird feeder hanging on the porch produced a series of variously colored and sized blossoms.

So why have they done so well? Potatoes are known for growing almost anywhere and are the most popular vegetable in the world. They generally can survive almost anything, so all this rain and cool weather didn’t hurt them.

But sunflowers love sun and heat.

This mystery, and so many more that come up during each gardening season, is one of the reasons I receive such joy from each and every garden, whether it’s bounteous or sparse.

Plants grow when they want to. Yes, we can try to help them out by adding compost and other nutrients, and trying to save them from being eaten by insect pests by removing them or using an environmentally friendly pesticide. But in the end, it’s nature that determines what will grow, where it will grow, and how much it will grow. We’re just the caregivers and occasionally, the weeders.

And regardless of the weather, if a plant wants to grow, it will.

So although this year’s garden was not one of the top producing, it provided some vegetables and lots and lots of potatoes to feed the stomach, and many, many sunflowers to feed the soul.