Safe for Peas to eat?

[MinxFox]

Yes I tried 2 or 3 bougainvillea plants as I really love them. The peafowl ate them up. My mom kept a nice trimmed bush of bougainvillea on our front porch, but after the first winter it went through it never was quite the same and would only have 1 or two flowers a year. Now I don't think it is alive at all. I guess it gets too cold here for bougainvillea. I would like to try something like the Dutchman's pipe vine. I love the unique flowers it has and the huge leaves. I love anything tropical looking.

I think my mom has mint in her garden so I could probably get some from the garden.

There is a peafowl breeder that does make a small box with chicken wire over it and inside the box they plant grass for the peafowl to eat. I need to throw out some ryegrass seed in the peafowl pen again. It has probably cooled off enough now for that. The pen used to be grassy but after a few years there was no more grass so my dad told me to try throwing out ryegrass in the pen and it did very very well. Once summer came the grass died and now that the cool temps are coming back it is time for more grass.
It is a lot of trial and error when planting things inside of the pen. There are some things that peafowl will shred and some things that they won't. Some plants they won't mess with at all for a year and then one day they decide to eat some of it. Surprisingly elephant ears survive life inside the peafowl pen.

Here are photos from early this spring of the aviary:




If you can manage to get grass to grow in the pen it is always nice for the birds because they can snack on the grass whenever they want and you don't have to worry so much about if they are getting enough greenery to eat. I think Zazouse did a necropsy on one of her dead free-range peafowl once and found that it was mostly full of grass so they do seem to like grazing a lot.

 

[Garden Peas]

Two questions, MinxFox --

(1) how far away from the side of the pen did you plant the bougainvillea? And (2), how cold have the winters been there lately? What's the lowest temperature and for how long?

 

[MinxFox]

1. I planted it right next to the fence, which wasn't a good idea but I first put the bougainvillea potted in the pen to see if the peafowl would eat it. They didn't so I thought it would be safe and it was for a few weeks until they decided to destroy it.

2. This past winter it got down into the 20's maybe into the teens sometimes. We had lots of ice this winter which was rare. I think I am listed as zone 9a. Sometimes I try tropical plants anyways even if they are not listed for my zone. I planted a white bird of paradise last year and it came back after the winter (although now it isn't very big and has 4 leaves).

 

[Garden Peas]

Hi @MinxFox (Wow, thanks it worked!!!)

Hmmm, that's a little colder than I expected, but I still think you can get the bougainvillea to overwinter if you can get it established. It will go dormant and lose its leaves, but should come back in the spring as long as it doesn't dry out too much over the winter. Here's some ways to help it survive:

1. Pull it back farther away from the pen. Try to put it at least 12 - 18" back, maybe even 2 feet. You can even put a separate trellis on the fence or between it at the fence to train it up on later, which will buy just a little more distance from the peas later on. If you are going to want a trellis, put it in at the same time as the initial planting so you don't disturb the roots later.

2. Carefully consider the microclimate of the exact spot where you plan to plant it. Don't put it down in a dip, even a small one, as that is where the cold air settles when it freezes. If there is a slope, the warmest place will be 1/3 of the way up from the bottom or a bit higher. The warmest spot is one warmed by the afternoon sun, so if you have a wall available, plant on the south side of the wall, where the wall can be warmed and radiate the heat back. Soil temperatures on south facing slopes are higher than soil temperatures on north facing slopes. Don't put anything frost tender on the north side of a wall. (Out here, south facing walls are like incinerators, too much of a good thing!) Watch to see where the shade patterns travel. Walk around in the evening after the sun goes down and feel where it stays warm and where the air feels cooler. Where does it warm up first in the morning? You will find consistent patterns in the yard, and surprising differences. If you tend to have wind, where does it blow the strongest? Where is it blocked by trees or vegetation or buildings? You can get some plants to survive out of their natural ranges by paying attention to microclimates.

3. It looks like deer sometimes eat bougainvillea, so put some kind of wire cage around it, at least until you get it established.

4. Make sure to keep it watered occasionally over the winter (oh wait, you folks have that RAIN stuff

), and try to protect it from freezing if you can. Put a sheet or blanket or row protector fabric over the wire cage -- it may not keep it from freezing, but it may keep it warm enough to survive. It's not as frost sensitive as citrus. You can use the spraying it with water trick to help protect it. Another trick for bushes is to mound it with leaves or lightweight mulch for the winter, and carefully brush off the leaves and dig it back out in the spring. If you do that, make sure it doesn't get so wet that it rots. You can cover it up pretty completely if it is dormant. That may be the best way to get it through the first winter or two. See if you can find someone at a local nursery to ask them what they suggest for your local conditions...

5. Plant it as early in the spring as you think you will be frost-free, so that you maximize the time the roots have to establish. If you have some root-growth promoting hormones lying around, mix up a bucket and pour it over the soil when you plant. Baby it that first summer while it is getting rooted in.

Once it is well-established, I think it will go dormant and overwinter just fine. Apparently they do best in somewhat dry soil with bright (full) sunlight, and won't thrive if heavily watered. The recommendation is for regular fertilization, but I would fertilize very lightly but frequently the first year so you don't burn the new roots. If the plant is dried out, don't fertilize until its had a chance to rehydrate and settle back down. People kill more plants by over fertilizing than under fertilizing.

Okay, that's all I can think of for now. Post pictures when you have it going