Surprise in the Garden

It takes a year of living at a new place to discover what the previous occupant has done in the way of landscaping. In my case, I am renting and do not have to worry about watering or mowing the lawn, but apparently upkeep of the only garden space along one side of the building is up to the renter. There are bushes of various kinds that everyone in this development has, obviously put in by the management company when the townhouses were first built, but from garden plot to garden plot you can see customization by tenants - on one side of me there were tulips this spring. On the other side, they have planted a bed of pansies. As for my little strip, it looks like nothing was ever added, and I am not that crazy about what is there. In fact, the mystery plant above had what I referred to as anemic-looking white blooms on it this spring that barely showed. But look at what it is doing now. I love those fiery-red pods.

As I took a closer look, I discovered something has been chewing on the leaves, exposing an underlying structure that surprised me. Based on other leaves I've seen reduced to their vein structure, I would not have expected this rigid symmetrical grid, would have expected something that looked more organic. Must be a lesson in there somewhere, don't you think?