I think that the internet is full of advice of how to grow potatoes and the method depends on climate, soil quality and acreage you have available for planting.
My hardiness zone is about 4, but I am so close to the Arctic Circle, that day length during summer is much longer and summers are much cooler than what you have in zone 9 and close to the Tropic of Capricorn, so I have no idea, which methods work for you. I have now discovered that growing under black plastic as mulch works for me, but I think that you would bake your potatoes, if grown that way.
I think that this article has quite good advice how to grow potatoes in home garden with many different ways:
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/hom...grow-potatoes/
Do you get any frost during winter? Could you grow potatoes as winter or early spring crop? We usually plant couple of weeks before our last spring frost, so that there should not be anymore frosts when the leaves have emerged. Sometimes we can have frosts even in late June, but usually potatoes recover, even if some leaves die off due to frost.
Sari