Gardening with poultry thread!!!

[Shanty]

Heartsizedfarm -- thanks, but consider the idea "given away" the minute I posted the photos. LOL. Nothing wrong with borrowing something that MIGHT work for you. But keep in mind real tomato folks will rebel at the thought. In any event, once you bend them to lie on their sides, you can bend 'em back to stand tall again. Enjoy.

lazy gardener -- yes, we love the color of the leaves, but don't have a clue what type of "bird house" gourds these are. My neighbor, Marcelo from Argentina, gave them to me as a handful of seeds thrown into an empty plastic cup. I trotted around the beds and stuck three or four seeds into each bed and along the fence line. Not all of them germinated. The ones in the bamboo beds (stock tanks) were the first planted. They are out of control, but keep the Japanese bamboo shaded.



Shannon

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Heartsizedfarm -- thanks, but consider the idea "given away" the minute I posted the photos. LOL. Nothing wrong with borrowing something that MIGHT work for you. But keep in mind real tomato folks will rebel at the thought. In any event, once you bend them to lie on their sides, you can bend 'em back to stand tall again. Enjoy. lazy gardener -- yes, we love the color of the leaves, but don't have a clue what type of "bird house" gourds these are. My neighbor, Marcelo from Argentina, gave them to me as a handful of seeds thrown into an empty plastic cup. I trotted around the beds and stuck three or four seeds into each bed and along the fence line. Not all of them germinated. The ones in the bamboo beds (stock tanks) were the first planted. They are out of control, but keep the Japanese bamboo shaded. Shannon

Oh NOW I know what you mean by bird house gourds. I once planted a number of different winter squash varieties, too many, because they intermarried and devolved back to a very traditional looking squash variety. A perfect little smooth yellow elongated teardrop squash that made for lousy eating, but looked like it would make a great traditional musical instrument. Or birdhouse!

 

[Craftymama]

Craftymama:  is your yard fenced?  It sounds lovely.  I have deer netting around my garden.  Some of the more flighty chicks (10-11 weeks old) are able to fly over the fence and have done some damage... time for the scissors!  They are learning to free range my unfenced rural yard.  Last year's girls free range every day that i am home.  I'm also excited to see what kind of benefit the girls impart to my garden soil and yard.  But keeping ahead of their desire to do damage is a challenge.  It's about like having a yard full of 2 year olds!

I am in the suburbs so we have a 6 foot privacy fence. Then around the bottom perimeter of the fence we have chicken wire. I have no trees in my yard but since this is an older neighborhood most of my neighbors have large mature trees.

 

[Craftymama]

Found my first 'free range' casualty today. The birds are all the flowers off my patio pots! I was wondering what I can do to keep the birds off the patio. Not because of the plants but because if the poop. Scrubbing the patio every day isn't my idea of fun.
Here's a shot of the ladies In one of my beds.

 

[lazy gardener]

Fencing or a hose with jet spray. I do like the deer fencing. It's practically invisible. If you use it, be sure you keep it tight enough that they can't get tangled in it. They don't see it until they bump into it, and because it's practically invisible, they get confused and don't try to fly over it. 100' L x 7' W roll is pretty cheap, and you can cut that in half so you get 200' x 3.5'. You could also use it around your garden beds, and open them up to allow the girls to access them only when you want to!

 

[Craftymama]

I let my ladies out yesterday to free range and they destroyed my herb garden...

dug up and ate all my basil and chives, broke all my dill off at the ground and ate all my asparagus starts. So now I'm keeping them in their pen until I can figure out some fencing or something.
I keep telling myself no one is an expert right out of the gate.

 

[chicken farmer]

I let my ladies out yesterday to free range and they destroyed my herb garden...

dug up and ate all my basil and chives, broke all my dill off at the ground and ate all my asparagus starts. So now I'm keeping them in their pen until I can figure out some fencing or something.
I keep telling myself no one is an expert right out of the gate.

Ducks are good because they don't scratch up soil like chickens,they just use there beaks

 

[heartsizedfarm]

I let my ladies out yesterday to free range and they destroyed my herb garden...

dug up and ate all my basil and chives, broke all my dill off at the ground and ate all my asparagus starts. So now I'm keeping them in their pen until I can figure out some fencing or something.
I keep telling myself no one is an expert right out of the gate.

They ate chives? That seems odd to me. It has such a strong oniony odour. My chooks don't go near it. Course the strawberries are right beside. Lol. This morning Ive taken the same little cedar waxwing fledgling out from under the strawberry bird netting THREE times! Happily chomping away under the netting until he sees me then its all "help me help me I'm stuck you have to let me out of here!" And I do and he's right back in ten minutes later! What cheek.

 

[lazy gardener]

Crafty Mama: you underestimate! Chickens are "experts right out of the gate" when it comes to decimating a garden.

Heart Sized Farm: My girls and my cat chomped down all the tops of my garlic.

 

[NEChickenNoob]

Don't expect strawberries to survive with chickens.

I, on the other hand, am looking forward to my first year with guineas. No ticks, pest free garden!