Jerusalem artichoke season

Late summer is when our Jerusalem artichokes bloom. I've forgotten when it was, but many years ago our neighbor across the road had a patch of these pulled out of her garden. I asked if I could have some of the tubers and she said bien sûr (of course). I planted them in a small bed on the west side of the house. They did alright, but not great, I think because the spot is not in full sun all day.

This variety doesn't produce edible tubers, but their close cousins do and we find them in the markets every fall. Yum!

I moved them to the bed around the real fake well. They did fine there, but I soon realized that I didn't like the look of the tall plants around the well. The scale was all wrong. So I moved them again a few years ago to the bed in front of the garden shed, facing south, with full sun all day. They seem to like it, and I like having them there. They kind of dress up the old shed (which needs some major wall patching and shutter replacement -- I'll get "a round tuit" one of these days), and they're low maintenance and drought tolerant.

Moving the plants is easy; they come out of the ground with their tubers intact and then I just plant them in a new place. The following spring they sprout without fail. The hard part is getting rid of them in their original locations. They always leave some little tubers behind and they grow back quickly and aggressively. I pull several of them out from around the well and behind the house every year. Eventually, I'll win. I think.