Frustrations of the flower garden

I was very happy with the way the flower garden was beginning to fill out and despite some colour clashes it was looking pretty good. The night before last I planted out four areas of nicotiana and they were good healthy plants. Mark and I popped in to town last night to have a beer, we were only gone an hour or so, this morning I saw that the bl........y chickens have eaten half the nicotiana and uprooted three nastutiums.
I had put canes around the stachys and I will have to do the same with what is left of the nicotiana.
Here are a couple of photos of the garden yesterday and I will take another in about a months time to see whether the sun has dried it all up. I think the verbena bonariensis is looking great although it is much taller than it grew in the UK. The sweet rocket is finally flowering although I grew the plants last year.



small bed at the top of the steps