Marsh Samphire will seed itself if you have it already, or you can buy seeds.

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your potato question.

Never heard of planting seed potatoes in newspaper - some folk do used shredded newspaper as a mulch but prefer to ridge ours up with soil.

I would have thought that the seed potatoe itself was planted too early to be affected by pests. The ones that get attacked, eg by slugs, are the resultant crop.

Thank you all for your comments
(yes moongrowe I do make the dragonflies)
Best regards
Poppie

Dragonflies?