timing III

the jerusalem artichokes in my yard are blooming...but not nearly to the extent that the ones in the community garden are..not really even close...i can look at this a few different ways...1) the climate in my yard is lacking something the blooms want...the beds in my yard and the community garden are both oriented on an east/west axis that allows maximum sunlight over the course of a day...the are , i think, receiving nearly identical amounts of water...the watering schedules are on alternate days and rainfall can disrupt that...but the amounts of irrigation and natural rainfall are fairly close...temperature doesn't vary that much over a matter of six miles...and i fortified both beds with ample compost before planting...then again, 2) i could say the plants in my yard are putting more energy into setting tubers than the ones in the community garden that are blooming to beat the band...or, 3) the stand in my yard has had some fresh tubers planted in it but it is a much older stand than the first year growth in the garden...the bed's population is somewhat more dense in my yard and that may be the reason that fits best...a bit more competition in a mature colony that is reaching an equilibrium brought on by size constraints...the tale will be told at harvest when data is compared...the grape tree is developing apace and hasn't had to be irrigated this week...i am curious to see what sort of harvest this year brings here as well...since its accidental discovery last fall the grape tree has been the focus of some research and i find that grapes were, when first domesticated, allowed to vine in olive trees and that the idea of growing them on stakes in a vineyard was a much later development in their domestication..a connection to , if not neolithic then classical, agriculturalists..the last photo is of the ubiquitous pairing of jerusalem artichokes and lamb's quarters...where i grow sunchokes i inevitably find the other...both edible..both native...both welcome in my back yard despite farmers calling them "weeds"