losses

i've lost plants before...it's part of gardening...it's also always a disappointment...so i'm not surprised i am unhappy about the losses i discovered today but i am wondering why i am so bloody irritated about it...last week i had a robust patch of new zealand white clover ( top photo ) in my bed at the community garden...today there are only mangled stragglers ( second photo ) and the broken stem in the third photo was a mashua plant that was coming along well...if something ate the mashua then so be it but i'm damned if i can figure out why, with all the clover in the lawn behind the jerusalem artichokes in the sixth photo, something would home in on the clover in the bed...flummoxed...chance perhaps..i suppose i should not feel so proprietary about these things...critter or over-zealous human intervention...either way it is a public space and there is no real way to control it...still...i made the investment in the mashua tubers to plant and the clover , while easily replaced, was part of an experiment in nitrogen fixation that will be compromised at best..the mashua, on the other hand , is pretty much a dead loss...no it isn't all doom and gloom...the early blue continue to flower ( fourth photo ) and the geranium i planted in the bed last saturday is blooming now ( fifth photo ) the aforementioned jerusalem artichokes are doing just fine ( how not? ) and the asparagus continues to send up strong, new spears...sill..irritation is the predominant factor today.