Keeping the girls from eating my veggie plants!!!

[Lovemesomechicks]

I am getting so frustrated, my girls are free rangers, but I have a container garden, all veggies, that I have to move around twice a day to catch the appropriate amount of sun, and they have just about stripped the leaves off of my pepper and tomato plants.


( can't cage the plants due to the moving of the containers)

Can I make a hot pepper spray to spray on the leaves, and keep them away? Will this hurt them? Will it work? Please help!

 

[Ese_N_Gracie]

Wow...mine love tomatoes but not the leaves....do they see you giving them the attention. When mine gaarden with me they tend to go for what I'm working on..... Do they have enough weeds and other greens to keep them busy. Mine also like to go for things higher up...the grass is greener the higher they have to jump

 

[Beekissed]

Take some chicken wire and form a hoop or arc over your container, making sure it is high enough off the plants to keep them from reaching through. I have too large a garden to protect the garden, so my free rangers had to go in a run until the plants get large enough to survive the occasional nip and scratch.

You can also use a tent with bridal netting..it lets the sun and moisture in but keeps the beaks out! Good Luck!

 

[chickenwoods]

I dont know if you would call my garden big or not,but i got 30 hills of potatoes and 64 corn plants, I went down and bought 2 rolls of 150 foot chicken wire to put around it.and it keeps em out.

 

[bigzio]

I agree that the simple chicken wire barrior will be able to keep the gentle fowl out. They aren't like dogs, and just a simple deterrent will keep them from causing trouble.

bigzio

 

[Henrietta23]

I just saw in Gardner's Supply that they are selling pop up covers for plants that work like those mesh pop laundry baskets. Totally movable and light weight. May be a way you could make your own? Fencing is the only I've ever found to work.

 

[Lovemesomechicks]

Thank you for all the suggestions, Guess I'll have to make cages around everything.


They will be out there eating when I'm inside, and they will sit on the rim of the pot where the tomato plant is, and they have basically cleaned the bottom leaves, they haven't touched the tomatoes, probably because they are still green and blend in.

But yeah, they have a pretty big backyard to feast in, we live in a wooded area.