relentless

the jerusalem artichoke that i found saturday has been joined by four more of the cohort we planted on the twelfth of the month...there are four more simmering in there and they will be up soon enough and that both pleases us and raises concerns...they are relentlessly invasive natives and the issue isn't getting them to grow, it is getting them under control..the first year's experience with them ( 2010 ) resulted in fourteen plants producing something around a thousand tubers that grew out from the plants in around a five food radius...it is impossible to find them all and every tuber spawns a new parent plant the next season...they will colonize anywhere so we will need to be attentive...you have to find them and uproot them..if you try to hoe them into submission you just have a bigger problem...like mickey hacking up brooms in fantasia only to find himself beset by myriad brooms, every piece of a tuber will spawn a new plant...seriously invasive critters and to be treated cautiously ( they are controllable...i removed them from the pgp last spring...one tuber at a time...took a few weeks )...they will be eight to ten feet tall with bright yellow blooms ( bottom photo...as if it weren't obvious ) and will produce crisp, sweet tubers from late august on...i am partial to them fried but they work well in casseroles or salads and are a fair substitute for potatoes in most dishes...we should have plenty to share.