ghosts of otto

a trip to the community garden on campus after work brought a mixed bag of results...on the plus side the asparagus ( first photo ) is doing well and patience over a few years has ended in the reward of "berries" for the first time in several season ( second and third )...there will be an expansion of the n w indiana asparagus population...down the row in my bed the onion flower ( fourth ) has produced mature and, hopefully, viable seed ( fifth ) as well as a contrast in allium morphology with the ramps seeds in my yard...the uprooted teosinte ( sixth ) is still trying to show some resilience though this late in the season the prospects seem dim...at fist glance at the stand of jerusalem artichokes ( seventh )you may detect a difference from previous photos...the reason lies in the fact that someone has deliberately hacked off the blooms and , more importantly for me, the maturing seed heads i was planning on collecting...i was and still am prepared that the teosinte incident was accidental or an act of "weeding" by a well-meaning soul..this however seems more like deliberate vandalism driven by someone's ( or some institution's ) sense of aesthetics...intrusive leaps to mind as an adjective...part of what i had planned to gain from this bed has been destroyed and i find it lamentable...so much for the marketplace of ideas...otto's efforts to limit the garden seem alive and well after his departure.