turnings

it's an odd day when there isn't something interesting out in the yard...they do happen..but rarely..then there are days when you stumble onto any number of things if you just look around...it's getting onto the end of july and things are starting to move a bit quicker...the first photo is of a late ramp flower getting ready to bloom...other ramps looked like this about twenty-nine days ago...those earlier bloomers have been fertilized and have gone to seed...and those fertilized seeds are turning from a bright green to a much darker shade ( second and third ) on their way to black and maturity...i am looking forward to an abundant harvest of seed...on the other side of the house, the concord grapes in the catalpa tree are beginning the process of softening and turning purple ( fourth and fifth )...many are still stubbornly green ( sixth ) but they will get the message soon enough...the spuds i planted in a bed towards the back in april are moving in a different direction and finishing up ( seventh ) and another i planted in may ( eighth ) is signaling an end which seems premature to me...we will dig the spuds this weekend and we will see...finally, the relentless jerusalem artichokes that are in the bed on the south side of the house are just beginning to bloom..large yellow flowers will produce multitudes of seeds ( they are a sunflower relative after all ) that i have found pretty much impossible to germinate so far...this seems like an evolutionary dead end to me...a waste of energy on an infertile reproductive effort...unless, of course, my technique is at fault..always a possibility...did i hear someone say "research!"?