Growing artichokes

[Gardenarian]

They take up a lot of space, but I have a few beds at my cabin where nothing grows but thistles so I thought that would be a great place to plant some artichokes. (There are lots of artichoke farms nearby)
Anyone have experience growing them?
The seedlings are pretty pricey - I don't want to lose any. I will be planting in the spring, but want to start preparing the beds.

[RosieTR]

We had two artichoke plants in Phoenix. Not much yield but the plants did well. We tended to have problems with aphids on them, especially in early summer/late spring when it started to get pretty hot. By "problems" I mean, the aphids sucked so much liquid off them that the leaves started to droop. I think I applied some sort of insecticide soap which helped but didn't cure the problem. If I did it over, I would plant ladybug attracting plants such as dill, carrots or Queen Anne's Lace, etc. nearby. We eventually bought some ladybug larvae and that did seem to help, though I don't think our yard was terribly suitable to the bugs.
As for prepping the site-I don't remember artichokes being too finicky and the soil in our yard was terrible (basically it was ready to become adobe and required a pick-axe to dig). I probably put a little cotton burr compost or something mixed in when we planted, but I don't remember preparing anything in autumn. I'd guess prepping with some sort of compost would be great, and/or tilling or digging out the thistles that were there already. Fresh artichokes are great, and expensive in the store so I hope your experiment works!

[Gardenarian]

Thanks for the feedback RosieTR! I will look into good companion plants for artichokes.
I've got good old adobe here too - just going to turn it over and throw in some compost when it softens up with the rain.
A lot of people here let their artichokes flower and go to seed - they are not too expensive here and the plants are beautiful. We'll see if I can bear to make the cut.