Need suggestions for chicken pasture (plants landscape ideas ect)

[BaronRenfrew]

For something quick and big, I use sunflowers. Fence them off for a little while so they get ahead of your birds, then they'll be a forest for the summer. They can become real giants with a bid of chicken manure (i'm sure you can find some somewhere) Corn can be just as good. There might be some type of bamboo that you can use as well.

Some chicken breeds are also better for airborne predators. The Lakenvelder was created to free range as their black/white coloring is confusing to a hawk. My Silver Spangled Hamburgs are also good as they will run from cover to cover, far better than the RIR's I used to have.

I also suggest setting up a "grey" water system for your garden. Water used for dishes, shower, bathtub can be recycled and used in the garden. The soap will kill a few bugs but do no damage. Also check into the type of soaps you use.

ALso run your eavestrough to a barrell. Put a cover over it to stop mosquitoes (or put a goldfish in the barrell). If mounted with a bit of elavation, can set it up with a hose and will run by gravity. Garden places sell these systems.

If you plant any trees, a mulch at the base (straw, wood shavings but never sawdust) will double the growth rate of the plants. Straw is also great for other plants so they'll need far less water and it chokes off nearby weeds. (this is why they're used for "straw"berries)

 

[waynesgarden]

I'm also planting comfrey for my birds. My plan is to plant a short row in the middle of the permanant chicken run with some wire fencing around it and over it (like an enclosed run inside an enclosed run.) The fencing will let the birds nibble the outer leaves as it grows without demolishing the plants.

Comfrey is fast growing and high in protein. Chickens love it. It is also an very aggressive (invasive) plant so my thought is that growing it inside a cage surrounded by chickens will keep it from spreading.

Wayne

 

[whatnow?]

I like the idea of keeping the invasives in the run, but watch out for seed in the poop. I wonder if I put my mint in the run, would the poop smell better?

I plan on landscaping my coop as part of my overall neighborhood public relations campaign. Evergreen shrubs are going to be the main act.

 

[Dawn419]

Jerusalem Artichokes would be another good plant for the chickens. Our patch gets both tall and very dense.

Dawn

 

[SkyRoo]

wow everyone! thanks a million gosh

great ideas

like the lattice A frame idea....though we have to figure way to keep it in place during our windy days...but for sure do this idea. Might try some climbing roses or something on it. I noticed the chickens peck roses a bit but not much. sooo far.

any suggestions how to keep lattice from going away in the wind?

oh I did not know they like comfrey...great thank you and love idea of putting in enclosed run like that! way awesome!

okay 4 feet...thank you! like to see them!

I think I will do our sunflowers and corn out in pasture! wow thats great!
we planed to plant both those this year but not in the pasture...wow...I sure not thinking.
those will for sure help them out.

oh thats great news our mystery chick in our order is a silver spangled hamburg. *most likely a roo* maybe he teach the girls?!

I did not know that. I know some are better with free-range bit did not know details of why and how.

wow everyone gonna have a whole list of great ideas for people to choose when adding plants for their chickens....
nice

 

[mamaboyd]

Patandchickens, nice to know I'm not the only one living in these windy conditions!! You have alot of good advice, where the heck did you find lilac bushes so cheap????? I'm going to have to go out to the back fields and dig up some roots and transplant some of the wild lilac bushes we have growing around here. I have to laugh because our nutbar neighbour just cut down her beautiful lilac tree today and I was thinking why the heck would you wanna do that, but you have to know this woman(no, actually you don't want to know her

) The clematis thing has my curiousity peaked, you have so much wisdom!! P.S. how much snow do ya have left, we have quite a bit!!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Hiya mamaboyd! The freakishly cheap lilacs were at Greenbank Nurseries, but if you want lilacs you need to take a road trip down to the Hamilton/Burlington area to www.northlandnursery.com . They are a weird wholesale-like-but-open-to-retail-public place with acres of 1- and 2-gal shrubs and small trees... for $4.99 each, yes, that's five buckaroonies per 1-2gal shrub or tree, yes indeedy. Their inventory is um extremely unpredictable

but every time I've been there they have had lots of good-sized lilacs. It is NOT the place to go if you are looking for one particular thing, or if you don't know what you're looking at (labelling is minimal and sometimes wrong; cultural notes and advice are basically nonexistant). But if you can just walk around and say 'ooooh, some of those would work well, and I know where I could put one of these, and how about them over there, I know just what I'll do with them" then you HAVE to go!!!!!!

Also I recommend the native plants sale in Peterborough on the May long weekend monday.

FWIW I have had exceptionally poor luck transplanting lilacs or the suckers thereof from our back hedgerow to the yard. Maybe it's just me, but they sit and sulk for a few years and then grow extreeeeeemely slowly.

We're almost out of snow, just the remains of the biggest drifts are left (and some of the ice "lakes" from Jan thaw-and-freeze). The backyard has mostly drained but here is what it looked like last Tuesday (linking to easygarden thread b/c too lazy to copy links

):

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=22805

It's mostly just grass and puddles now.

Pat

 

[mamaboyd]

Hi Pat, where is this native plants sale held in Peterborough?? I was born and raised in Peterborough and my family still lives there. My brother would have a hay day if he found another good place to buy plants!

 

[patandchickens]

At the, what's it called, Ecology Park <pause for quick google> hmm, that is weird... the website seems to be all but inoperative... it *should* be at http://ecologypark.greenup.on.ca/ . I hope it's just in the process of being updated for 2008, rather than the whole thing's gone toes-up...

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...borough+ecology+park&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca

You really have to go down to the Northlands nursery sometime, anyhow, if you are looking for numbers of shrubs or anything like that.


Pat

 

[mamaboyd]

Thanks Pat, I know where the ecology park is, haven't been there in so long, but I will tell my brother, he's a garden freak!!
I need to find somewhere that sells shrubs for hedges that are cheap for at the bottom of our laneway to block out our neighbors place. We have a wide driveway and it's going to take alot of bushes, and I need something that is going to grow fast!!!! Our neighbor just cut down 2 beautiful lilac trees and last year cut down a nice maple tree(she just moved in a year ago). I can't for the life of me wonder why she would cut down such beautiful mature trees and they were healthy. I would have thought she would have wanted a bit of shade around the house so it would keep the house cooler in the summer.I do know that she was trying to attract purple martins to this area and was complaining there was too many trees around here and she was even hinting that we should get rid of some of our huge maple trees.

I don't think so!