Looks like I'll have more artichokes

Last summer I wrote about my one lone little artichoke, harvested after tending a big pot of plants for two years out on our balcony. I thought that was the end of the story, and I gave up on artichokes. Just not much of an ROI! But... I had Dave clean out the pot, pull out all the dead leaves and such, a couple of months ago. I figured to dig out the dead roots and plant some herbs in there next spring. But, lo and behold, the roots are not dead. I now have five 4" tall artichoke plants growing in there. If they can make it through the winter with little or no attention from me, I guess I'll give it another go. I'm still leery, since I haven't figured out how to deal with the biggest pest problem, thousands of little black flying gnats or something that suck the leaves and kill them. Maybe that just means I need to do a little research.