The new program will be strictly brokens. Most likely chocolate and dilute will be part of it since most of the does carry one or the other. I have a handle on broken pattern, now I'll concentrate on type and for that, I'll need some seriously nice solid bucks. Which I am getting. I won't be going to very many shows while I work on this.
And now a short intermission to show off the current stars of the gardens.
Crape Myrtle and Althea (aka Rose of Sharon). This is the view from my computer desk and I also see it from the window over the kitchen sink. The pink thing in the foreground is a dwarf Joe Pye Weed. The native species grows wild all along the road but it has never transplanted successfully. So I bought this smaller domesticated version several years ago. Butterflies love it. I'm going to dig up some splits to add to the Porch View Garden.
This is the Porch View Garden that I've been revamping all summer. Everything came from somewhere else in the yard. You might remember when I posted it in progress in the spring, there were a couple more overgrown miscanthus (the large dark green grass behind the pink althea on the right). They were removed (not easily!) to make room for more diversity and butterfly flowers. I still want to transplant some groundcovers, but mostly it's finished for now. I say for now because perennial gardens are never really finished.
This scene was so tranquil and pretty. That's the Summer House on the right. The yellow in the middle is an enormous perennial sunflower but I can't remember just which one it is except that its cultivar name is "Lemon Queen". I have to move it (I want that box it's in for something else) but have no idea where to put it. I'll think of something. Everything else in that box needs to go elsewhere, too.
In chicken news: Sadly, too many more losses. Poochy, my favorite mottled roo disappeared. It was very mysterious. He was there in the morning at least until noon. In the late afternoon he was gone. I found a few mottled feathers over beside the fence where they often root around, but not enough to be evidence of foul play. In fact, he and the other older roos are molting which could explain the few feathers I found. I think I may have solved the mystery.
About a week ago, I caught my littlest red hen outside the back gate. A very dangerous place for a small critter to be (resident fox!). She was just poking around back there in the undergrowth as though it was perfectly normal. I realized she could fit through the gap at the bottom of the gate, and must have been doing it for a while. I used to have a piece of wire there but it had got bent back by the mower. So I put it back and then she got out again! So I watched all day to see what she was doing and finally caught her at it. She was squeezing through the even smaller gap on the hinge side. So I added wire there as well and that seems to have stopped it. I now think Poochy followed her out there before I discovered what they were doing. He was small enough to fit through the first gap. It never occurred to me at the time he went missing to look back there. She knew how to get back in quickly but maybe he didn't and was out there all night, and then he was gone.
I also lost the mottled blue cockerel that I was excited about and all 3 of the partridges. They just up and died of unknown causes. I was pretty heartbroken by all of these losses. All that's left of Poochy and Buffy's last hatch is 2 pullets (white and black).
It's been really beautiful for weeks. Almost too nice, it hasn't rained in over 2 weeks. A bit too hot in the high afternoon but mornings and late afternoons are just right.
tnt
