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[sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>]

Robert Walton wrote:
> I outlined the herb plot with Jerusalem Artichokes. I'm sure I'll regret
> that some day!
>   
A friend here has her JAs in a grid, 16 X 16, a foot apart each way.  
Every year she pulls anything that comes up off an intersection.  After 
20 years she still has 16 plants.....works for her.

Mine are in a patch (2 patches, actually, each different variety), and I 
just pull anything that comes up outside what I consider the perimeter, 
plus I thin the rest to each be about a foot from its neighbor.

They can certainly get out of control, even in this climate--a few miles 
from here there's a place that has completely given over it's front yard 
to them, beautiful when they bloom but not much use of the front 
yard....don't know what the back yard looks like.

On the other hand, I've twice had voles completely decimate them and so 
had to replant.  Now I let the dog in there and they have so far not 
been so bad; the current plantings are 8 years old.  I still have voles 
but they pretty much don't bother the gardens so much; I also throw dog 
hair in there when I get it (neighbor clips 4 dogs and I clip one).

SJ