mulching teosinte

one autumn job that makes me uneasy is the annual mulching of the perennial teosinte in the pgp...mostly because i am not sure if it will return in the spring...it is a long way from home and in a climate that is not hospitable to its needs either in day length or climate...it is a resilient plant however and indicative, and this is supposition on my part since i am no expert and my only credentials are empirical, of the genetic traits inherited by its descendant maize that have allowed that plant to expand its range well beyond its native range...i have had the good fortune of having the older stand of teosinte return for three seasons now and, along with the two plants in the stand i planted this past spring, i am hoping for a robust return again in 2014...it will be dropping well below freezing here in the next week and the plants were obviously dying back for the season so i waded in with lops and created a hole in the garden...i mulched the roots heavily with compost and straw, covering them with the traditional black landscaping fabric...i will be going back to campus in a few hours here to do the asparagus and wrap up the 2013 season in the pgp...after a season devoted to wheat grass from kansas ( some of which will remain...some of which will not ) i foresee some changes in the spring...the stand of wheat grass in the background of the fourth photo has spread wll beyond its original bed and its days are numbered i think...research tells me that limited stands of wheat grass are not really viable beyond six years and that stand has just finished its fourth...i have collected yield data from it and there will be wheat grass elsewhere to study so i think there will be some spuds there in 2014...it has been three years now since there was a potato patch out there and the time is ripe...the plan is yukon golds grown form locally produced seed tubers...no such thing as too many potatoes...more on the asparagus mulch later today.