Vining / attractive / edible plants for the run fencing

[GiddyMoon]

Ohh no...we can go months without rain, even though we get more than phoenix, and it rarely gets over 30% there unless it rains..but then it is a cold rain..not a hot environment. Here those monsoons sweep in, seem to knock 10 degrees off..wash everything, then leave..yes, the next couple of hrs can feel nasty...but I love the monsoons. lol

You guys have done the same thing Sac did, you created a micro climate with all the trees and grass planted there. But Phoenix overall gets a lot more hotter days than Sac does.

 

[katydidit]

Our coop is on the side of the house (against the house and the fence). I'm in the process of putting a rosemary and lavender border along the path to get back to their coop. Not only do they grow REALLY well (and fast) in our weather (we get 100 days over 100 each year) it keeps a nice herbal aroma around the coop

Once they get rooted, there is just about nothing that can kill either plant!! Our month old chicks root around the base of them when we let them out of the brooder, and they love chasing the flying insects they attract!!

 

[GiddyMoon]

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I already have both growing in plants I can move!!

 

[juliette2009]

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So, are you saying that lavender, once established, won't be bothered by the chickens' scratching? Will they eat the lavender?

 

[dewey]

<----- I love monsoon, too.

If you're also interested in native type plants & vines that both you and your chickens can enjoy, there's a lot of edibles like that for our areas. My chickens always loved cactus fruit & pads (thorns removed, of course). http://www.gardeninginsights.com/html/articles/edibleplants.htm

 

[GiddyMoon]

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So, are you saying that lavender, once established, won't be bothered by the chickens' scratching? Will they eat the lavender?

I am planted it outside the coop and run..I want the chainlink and fencing covered and to add additional shade for our summers..it seems most things put in the run get destroyed lol

 

[GiddyMoon]

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The first time I experienced one..I swear people probably thought I thought I was 5.

 

[Hhoky]

DO you have the sand floor like we do here in Tucson? Yams do well in that? Are you putting anything over them or do you not have a ground squirrel issue? I loved the squirrels but they are putting holes all over our entire acre!!!!!!

No, for now I just put dirt in it, since I have an endless supply thanks to the dogs digging all the time. LoL. As for the Yams, I have a weird maybe 1 foot strip of ground between the concrete pan of our shed turned coop/run and our fence, so I put em in there. Hence the reason I'm not to worried about even squeezing back there to try to dig em up

. And no, no squirrels here.

I love the idea of rosemary and/or lavender. I actually have a rosemary plant out front I love. Looks like Im going to hit up the mid summer plant sales this year! (\\FYI, if your cheap like me mid or late summer sales at like walmart, homedepot or lowes etc, are great, cheap plants with a little love they come back wonderfully from the store "treatment". Oh, I also grow pots, yams and carrot tops for the girls by using old ones I bought from the local grocery. Carrots you can cut the tops off, stick in cool dirt and keep damp and they will sprout. Not sure if they ever grow carrots or not, but I use em in my mini barn salad bars

<Onions and Garlic will do the same but I dont feed em to the animals>

Right now, we have the typical desert wasteland backyard. When we bought the house last year the yard grew nothing but dirt. Luckily I was able to save a butchered Palo verde tree, a few baby sage bushes and some weird berry thing. No idea what it is, with bright orange egg shaped berries, the wild birds love em tho, and my girls ate all they could reach with no ill effects.

Love this thread. Keep the desert ideas coming! My chickies love you for it.

<Oh PS! Rosemary helps keep flies down! I have been cutting sprigs and hanging em in the mini barn and its working so far, my next plan is to make a wire enclosed hanging planter and just put one inside to grow.>​

 

[Hhoky]

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The first time I experienced one..I swear people probably thought I thought I was 5.

Omg

Monsoon! I cant wait for my Ohio born hubby to experience one. Its. . . stormgasmic!

 

[katydidit]

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So, are you saying that lavender, once established, won't be bothered by the chickens' scratching? Will they eat the lavender?

I am planted it outside the coop and run..I want the chainlink and fencing covered and to add additional shade for our summers..it seems most things put in the run get destroyed lol

Lavender gets QUITE big (here at least) I planted a 4" pot last summer, and right now the plant is about 4' wide by 4' tall

My chooks are so distracted by all of the flying insects that swarm around the plant, that they hardly have a chance to do much damage! However, if you plant it about 4 or 5 inches outside of the chain link, plenty of shoots will grow inside for them to peck at, while leaving the root system in tact to continue growing.

It definitely takes away from the eye-sore-ness of the chain link for sure!! I'm not sure if you have anything covering the top of the run, but DH is in the process of installing shade cloth over the whole thing to keep things cool (well, as cool as it can get...once it hits 100 degrees, it all feels the same!) lol.