a couple of beds on october first

the jerusalem artichokes in my bed at the community garden have seen much better days this season so i cut them back...mostly because they are done...

i stuck the spading for on a corner of the bed and popped up a root ball that had a good number of tubers attached...

four square feet of garden bed rendered just over two hundred tubers...

two bags of tubers weighed in at a total of eight pounds thirteen and one quarter ounce...prolific reproduction is why they are such effective colonizers...i am certain i did not retrieve all the tubers from that two foot by two foot area..there will be plants in the spring no matter what...

there is still a season going on...some wanted..and some probably not so much so...first, the asparagus is doing fine still and has thrown up four new fall spears...they may be entirely too late to "fern" and feed the roots but it is a good sign of healthy root systems and a sure sign of autumn...

on the other hand a surface clearing of the beds did little to discourage the carolina horse nettle...it is a deeply rooted perennial nightshade and it has deployed more leaves to feed them...it will be a perennial chore to clear...thorny too.