Chicken wire on the ground will stop the digging, but they will still eat the plants (at least mine did). The best success I had was to place cheap wire fencing in a zig zagged pattern through the flower beds. The chickens seemed to at times avoid plants in pots, preferring the ground. i also used bird netting to enclose a larger garden area and covered it with a shade cloth. Was worried that they would get tangled in the net but they didn't
