I've taken an executive decision and chopped down the artichokes.
I only realised when the sun shone for a few hours yesterday that at 8ft tall they were blocking every last crack of light from the tomatoes - which are having a hard enough time coping after April's drought followed by recent downpours of Biblical proportions.

With the greenhouse in tatters there was no choice but to plant the tomatoes straight outside this spring. In previous years doing it this way has yielded a succulent, if smaller and later crop than neighbours' efforts under glass.
But a heatwave while I was in Berlin left the leaves yellow and drooping from lack of water despite a generous drenching before I left. They had just perked up and begun sprouting fruit after a bit of TLC and a feed in June, when the heavens opened...and haven't closed since (until the last few days - fingers crossed things appear to be looking brighter).

It's something of a minor miracle that despite these daily batterings the tomatoes, which thrive best in steady conditions, have somehow managed to hang on. Admittedly, there are only about ten fruits between as many plants, but some are almost now full size.
So, given our on-going love-hate relationship with the artichokes (they're one of our few successful plants this year despite having sprung up unwanted, in a bed we thought we'd cleared) I decided we could live with losing a few tubers if it meant giving the tomatoes a fighting chance.
Like a woman posessed I started cutting away with my trusty "Swiss army pruner"...until I snapped out of it and realised I'd chopped back all but about five of the tall stems, each to about a metre high - instantly bathing the tomatoes in glorious sunshine.
I'm sure severing artichoke stalks isn't advised in the books, but, fingers crossed, I hope the sacrifice will be worth it. (I have a theory they'll carry on growing underground regardless, as Lynn says, they could survive a Nuclear war - them and the cockroaches - and if I'm wrong, well, there are only so many "fartichokes" a girl can eat...)
The tomatoes already look perkier, and given the Mediterranean-length summers/global warming we're having recently, I reckon there may just be time for them to start again.
I'm hoping the same will be true for our plans to grow courgettes and squashes - which never germinated as the seed pots got flooded last month...bring on the summer!
The next job tomato-wise is to give them a good feed of chopped leaves from the comfrey plant - which is looking very healthy indeed.

TOP TIPS:
With 20:20 hindsight, I'm making a few 'notes to self' for future:
1 - Choose the location of your Jerusalem artichokes carefully - I think we may have to mulch the bed for a year after we harvest this crop - lack of all light and nutrients may be the only way to stop these monsters.
2 - Don't plant tomatoes in the shadow of artichokes or other plants that will reach such giant proportions.
3 - Have materials on hand to build varous sized cold frames (ie: from old window frames - be on the look out when passing skips) over delicate plants in case of heavy rain. I was tempted to pop the cloches back on but the plants, though stunted, are slightly too big for this now.
4 - Have a greenhouse - all the above would have been avoided had we planted the tomatoes in a greenhouse in the first place. Although as the my last post will testify, there are no guarantees when it comes to dealing with Mother Nature...
5 - Sort out your irrigation - an old plastic bottle with the end cut off stuck into the soil next to a stem can help water get straight to the roots of a plant. If filled up after a regular watering it can keep the supply going through a dry spell - but remember to cover up in a downpour...yeah right Martha Stewart...who am I kidding?!

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