buds, blooms, and july growth

i went to campus this evening after work and visited the i u northwest community garden to do a bit of data gathering...things there are moving along well...the green peppers in the second photo are budding and preparing to flower...the eggplants have flowered and the potatoes in the third photo are budding or blooming ( 44 days into a three or four month season still seems a bit early but i am uncertain of the variety planted there...if it's a 90 day strain then they're really on time )...seems like the annuals there are on time and doing well...nothing anomalous yet...after i finished measuring and photographing there i walked over to the perennial garden project ( still its official title ) to do some watering and look in on things...the jerusalem artichokes seem to have had a growth spurt and have reached four and a half feet and continue to produce more buds...the hopi blue maize has reached two feet and the larger of the two is thickening at the base in what i hope will be another branch which would be another step towards replicating the maize pictured in " corn among the indians of the upper missouri" and would be a highlight of the season for me, if no-one else...the larger of the two squash plants in the pgp has begun to flower as well ( fourth photo ) and the bottom photo is a note form my back yard that makes the presence of lamb's quarters in every stand of jerusalem articholes out there official...i still can't find any academic research that links the two plants in any sort of symbiotic ( or any other ) way but my experience shows me the two turn up together frequently ( but not on campus this year...yet anyway..another oddity )...things are progressing everywhere but not in a fashion i am accustomed to...still questions to try to answer and more work to do