Landscaping around the coop area

[llnmaw]

Quote:
I love it...Thank you!

Lots of great ideas have been given and many will even grow in our climate.

It seems as though what I'm reading is that if you can keep something protected enough for it to be established AND provide enough room for digging/dust-bathing things should be fine.

I'm encouraged!

~L.

 

[Carols Clucks]

I forgot, they also do not like nasturtiums and rosemary (guess they know they taste better with some rubbed on them.....

)

 

[flowergirl60]

Mine do not like chives. Or my rosebush. (wich is good b/c DH would freak out.

 

[dkvart1]

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nice to see so many of my favorites on that list! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Cosmopolis Chick]

hi, as it happens - I spent several hours at the chicken run yesterday doing a little gardening.
My run has 2" square welded wire walls so my girls can reach right through and eat anything within about 6".
(although I swear that silky can get her neck to extend about 10", ok, not really but it sure looks like it!)


Well, I wanted little rows of flowers along three sides of the run, right up against the wire walls, but knew they would eat any seeds they could reach and MOW all of the sprouts as they came up. So, I cut 15" strips of 4' chicken wire off of the roll (abt 1" holes), and from the inside of the run I fastened them along the bottom edge of the wall. I used the cut sides to fasten by bending the cut parts with my fingers out/up/down. My fingers got poked and ache today but that passes (how we suffer for our girls!).

Then I cultivated 12" wide beds along the run and planted: white malva (a hollyhock relative), mixed yellow/orange marigolds, carrots, and 2 kinds of sunflowers.
I'm not planning to EAT carrots that grew so close to chicken poo - but I love their feathery foliage and later this summer I will give them to the flock.

Some very nice person had a post on here about their chicken salad bar - with amazing photos - and I plan to make a small one for them real soon.

Happy gardening!

 

[new chick 203]

Quote:
Awesome list! Looks like my ideas were dead on with whats on that page... great job!

Thanks. I'll be updating it as the season goes on. I think I'll add a section on composting chicken manure and more garden photos too.

 

[Celtic Chick]

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Really? What kind of dysfunctional chickens did I wind up with? Mine ate my chive plants down to nubs, and then tore up the nubs with their scratching. Same thing happened with my spring onions.

 

[new chick 203]

Quote:
Really? What kind of dysfunctional chickens did I wind up with? Mine ate my chive plants down to nubs, and then tore up the nubs with their scratching. Same thing happened with my spring onions.

That's unusual because chives are on the toxic to chickens list too.

 

[Celtic Chick]

Quote:
Really? What kind of dysfunctional chickens did I wind up with? Mine ate my chive plants down to nubs, and then tore up the nubs with their scratching. Same thing happened with my spring onions.

That's unusual because chives are on the toxic to chickens list too.

Yup. Definitely dysfunctional.........

 

[nic2701]

I am a landscaper and chook lover and Im currently in the process of totally re-doing my own backyard. I see though that most of you here are from the US... I'm down here in Australia and am planting out my yard with Aussie natives (very hardy/woody - and one would have to assume not that tasty).
One idea I had though in regards to 'general' Ideas for the backyard was to build a landscaped 'chook island'. I'm going to dig a moat making an island of any shape, making sure that the 'moat' isnt too deep, but wide. Landscape it with river rocks of all sizes in the water and along the edges. Plant it out with some low aqua plants (they cant eat them if they're surrounded by water mwahaha!), and just turf the island itself (maybe even making a 'hill' for them to keep watch from). I thought then it might look nice with just a single fruit tree for a bit of shade. To get them on and off, I was going to make a draw bridge, but you could just as easily use a plank of wood.