fencing off a vegetable plot - what do you do / what will they eat?

[saltdean norm]

Morning all

our vegetable plot is almost done for the year (we tend to stick to summer crops) but i'm thinking about next year already.

we've had 5 birds for a week now and they've been confined to their run so far but by the spring i'd like them to be ranging the garden a few times a week.

We usually grow potatoes, tomatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, beetroot, runner beans, courgettte, pumpkin on a plot measuring 8ft x 20ft or so. I'd rather not fence the whole area so was trying to work what the birds will eat - and what they'll leave.

any advice, help or photo's of your fencing greatfully received.

thanks

norm

 

[LittleMamaBigPapa]

Is this garden FOR the chcikens only? My chickens make a MESS of all the flower beds, etc. If there is dirt in it, they are scratching in it! I personally will not plant a garden for food and allow my chickens access. We did plant cherry tomato plants, cabbage, and bell pepper plants all around our yard in no particular fashion merely for their enjoyment. They LOVE tomatoes, but they make NO attempt to take them from the vines. I pick them off and bite them into small pieces and they come running and fight for pieces

 

[saltdean norm]

thanks for your response, the vegetables are for us. i don't mind them making a mess around the veg or anywhere else in the garden - but i'd rather not lose any crops to them.

 

[woodmort]

I have a 60 by 80' garden that I enclose with a temporary fencing to keep chickens, deer and rabbits out once things are up and growing--veggies are pretty much what you grow. This fence is made of pvc pipe with netting clamped on using pipe clamps and is completely portable--I put some of it around my rhododendrons in the winter to protect them from deer. Once the garden is done for the year, I take down the fence, usually in mid to late October, and let the chickens clean out the garden of old veggies and bugs. They'll eat almost anything that I don't harvest--in fact, I will cover the Brussel sprouts and chard that is still usable with fencing or they'll get that too.

 

[saltdean norm]

thanks woodmort.
anyone else out there with veg plot advice?

 

[drunkdog]

we use raised beds and put a foot tall curtain of chicken wire around them..it keeps the girls out for the most part (there was some trying of me early on but they now know if they go over that little fence I will pick them up and hold them :O)...they run around the beds and will eat what reaches out to them but they stay out of the bed itself...though if I am weeding theyll follow me and wait for cast offs etc

 

[they'reHISchickens]

It doesn't have to be strong, just a visible barrier. We just wrapped plastic fencing around 4 corner posts in the area around our tomatoes. If they wanted to go through the corn patch or sunflowers, they were welcome to them! They seemed to leave the beans and cabbage alone but our chickens have acres to wander so it's not that tempting.
We did have trouble with leghorn roos one year in the red raspberries. No other breed seemed to bother them but those darned leghorn roos

 

[woodmort]

Here's what my garden looked like back in early May--you can see the fence in the background. It is 1-inch pvc pipe, the vertical pieces are 6 feet the horizontal pieces are 10 feet long joined with either 90-degree or t-shaped connectors. Then I clamp deer netting to the outside using C-type pipe clamps designed to hold netting or row cover to the pipe. At the end of the season I simply unclamp the netting, fold and store it, the pipes are cemented together so I just stack them over the winter. ( I do have two sections that I move to cover the rhodendrons for the winter.) Once the fence is down the chickens have full access to the garden and anything left there in. By using this method I don't have the hassle of fencing getting in my way when I rototill, plant and harvest.

You also note that I cover most of the garden with plastic--the area you see there now is where my pumpkin's have run rampant. I don't like to spend my summer pulling weeds. The other pvc in the foreground go over the seeded plants and are cover with row/crop cover until the seeds are up and growing--not only warms the ground but keeps pests away from seedlings.

I've been doing this for a long time.

 

[Dar]

I have a garden and what i have done is ....

got a old trampoline frame off freecycle.... covered it in chicken wire and when i need to access the garden i just lift and roll it out of the way

 

[Suechick]

Good luck with your garden. I'm working on one too. My chickens are confined to a part of the yard, but we let them out for a little extra stroll almost every day. In the short time that they are out they managed to get at every one of my ripe tomatoes. Grrr. I'm working on covering my veggies with fencing/netting that will be temporary so we can protect the veggies when they are growing, then remove the cover and let the chickens have at the left overs.