I was wondering if you were still doing your raised garden. I'd plant the potatoes further from the house......I don't think that the birds would hurt it.
We used to plant potatoes under straw. You just work the ground......cut your potatoes like you usually do and let them dry for a day or two.......then place on TOP of the ground and cover with lots of hay.....make sure you keep them watered. Then when you're ready to get your potatoes just pull the hay back and they'll mostly be on top of the ground. I don't think that they get quite as big but it's so easy to do. You could try just a small area and try it.......we always ended up doing some of both.
Squash is easy to grow but you really need to watch for squash bugs. They can be horrible. I don't know if you use any spray or gardening powder but you'll want to start treating for them fairly quickly. You may want to ask some other gardeners down there to see if they're a problem.
I know that there are companion gardening techniques. Planting two different things together to help each other out......and I want to say that you plant marigolds with squash plants to keep away the squash bugs. Here's a list that I found of companion gardening. If you look wayyyy down the list you'll find marigolds but there are many, many others too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants