Starting a garden

[lilrosc]

This is a year for firsts for me: first in a house, first with chicks, and first with a garden! My mother had a fantastic garden growing up, to the point where all our veggies for the summer and majority of the winter came from our backyard. While my garden will most likely not be that extensive, I would like to grow some good produce for my chicks. I gather that they can and will eat pretty much anything from a garden, so it will be fenced in, so they only get stuff when I say they can (I hope). But what are some particularly good things to grow for them? I have gathered sunflowers and wheat grass (that I might just plant in their run though), but anything else? I currently plan on growing a variety of lettuces, tomatoes (but if they think they are getting my cherry tomatoes, they are deluded), cucumbers, zucchinni, squash, green beans and radishs. And maybe peas, I'm still on the fence about that one.

Any suggestions would be very helpful. thanks!

 

[Judy]

They will eat most any of that, plus some of the plants if you let them. And chick poo makes great fertilizer after it's composted or as manure tea.

Chickens LOVE melons and strawberries -- any fruit, I think.

 

[Carrie Lynn]

In a fenced area, my chicken greens garden will contain:

spinach (a slow-bolting variety)
chard
letttuce
corn salad (new to me)
kale (lots, my hens love it)
arugula
beets
parsley

I will plant a fall crop of these as well, since several are cool weather crops.
I've also read they like broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprout leaves.

 

[Lesa]

Good luck with your gardening endeavor! Just remember if you do not keep your chickens out of your garden- they will eat it all!! So, it is important that you either fence in the chickens or the garden.... Happy Gardening!

 

[lilrosc]

Thanks for the advice. Though I am rather baffled by "corn salad." I could probably grown corn that would satisfy chickens though, and while looking I'll look for that. And lots of greens, that's great to know as they are easy enough I don't think I could mess it up. I tried growing lettuce for a tortoise once, and made the mistake of putting the pot in his tub, so he ate it down to the roots.

What about pumpkins? I'm not sure how well melons grown in CT, but I know we can grown some mean pumpkins. I have a feeling I will being doing a lot of experiments!

The current plan is the fence the back yard in completely (we have a dog who refuses to come and would probably bolt through an electric fence), then fence off an area for the chicks and an area for the garden. Lots of fencing! Once we see how the dog reacts to full grown chickens we will decide how much free range in the back yard they get.

 

[Lesa]

They love pumpkins! The seeds are a natural worm preventative. The great thing is you can store those pumpkins for a long time- and offer them when the rest of your garden is done. I would recommend swiss chard. It can be harvested all summer and is very hardy- well into frost. And super easy to grow! Also, they love all your weeds. Whenever I am in the garden weeding, the chickens are begging! Those are really easy to grow!!

 

[booker81]

I know my chickens LOVE watermelon. A friend grows a huge garden, and he gives me any melons that aren't good enough for sale. I just chuck them in the run so they split open and the chickens eat them to the rind in a day.

Also utilize the chickens as weed disposal. I hand weed my garden, no chemicals, so I can load it all in a wheelbarrow and dump it in the run. They love going through a big pile of weeds. My neighbor does the same - they have a large garden and they bring their weeds over and dump them in. Just make sure you don't have any toxic weeds around, I know there is a list somewhere about toxic plants. No tomato or potato leaves/stems either, though they love tomatoes. I toss bad strawberries into their pen as well, they LOVE strawberries.

 

[Carrie Lynn]

Regarding Corn Salad...I think it was Burpee seeds

Here's what other posters said...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=477357

 

[lizch]

Sounds like we're living parallel lives...my first year of chicks and gardening too. As I was sitting in the grass with the chicks yesterday afternoon, I marveled at how I would not have predicted this a year ago!

I've just finished building raised beds, two of which wrap around two sides of the chicken run. My hope is that some of the greenery will grow through the hardware cloth to provide snacks for the chickens. Other than that, my challenge is trying to keep the veggies for me, not the chickens

Plenty of weed filled beds away from the veggies that I'll let them go to town on instead.

 

[Carrie Lynn]

Mine love dandelion greens.
I think I'll research weeds they can eat safely...
Has anyone ever given their chickens borage?