What kind of Flower Gardens have you planted around your coops? Post a Picture for BYC to see

[Eggette]

Hi everyone

I am currently planning on adding a pretty little raised flower bed around my coop. I don't want to plant anything poisonous or harmful to my chickens in this bed. But I am a little limited as to what I can plant in mine because of how much shade it gets. I am thinking of going with azaleas, hostas, ferns and some kind of mossy ground cover. I've been reading up on the subject and planning this for a while now, ever since I ran across a book tilted (Free Range Chicken Gardens).
I have also been searching on the web for ideals and pictures.
So I thought I would post here and ask the BYC community to show me pictures and ideals of the flower beds and decorations they have planted and placed around their own coops, before I get really started on my own.
I will try and post a picture later of my own coop and show you where how and why I am wanting and needing to run a flower bed around it.

Personally I think that a few flowers planted around any coop adds beauty and makes the hens feel like happy healthy beautiful girls, plus I believe it has to make the rooster more romantic towards his ladies.

I'm doing this as much for them as I am for me.

Also I would love for you to share any little flower boxes or pots you may have hanging from your coop window.

 

[chickenmadness7]

Following! I plan to plant some mint and lemongrass around my chicken run to help deter predators and keep things smelling nice. Mine is in the shade in the woods...would love to try some shade loving flowers too.

 

[madicakes]

Following. I would love to see some other people's gardens, as I am in the planning stages and have no clue what to do.

 

[Eggette]

Following! I plan to plant some mint and lemongrass around my chicken run to help deter predators and keep things smelling nice. Mine is in the shade in the woods...would love to try some shade loving flowers too.

Those are lovely choices and they will smell wonderful!

Just be ware of purple mint! It's poisonous to chickens.
I tried planting regular peppermint one year around my run, but it didn't survive the heat wave we got killed it. The lemon grass though is something I haven't thought about, do you know if it can thrive in shade? I might like to plant some of that myself. I wish I could plant rosemary and lavender in my bed, but I know they probably won't do in that much shade.
I know, I can't wait to get some established azaleas around mine.

But I am having trouble finding them right now around where I live. And the ones I have found are so expensive!

So now I'm looking online for them. I am thinking about going with a orange white and red for the azaleas, with pops of white and green gold for the hostas and rusty red for the ferns as my color scheme. What do you think? I thought this palette might look nice around my salmon faverolles when I move them in later this year.
On my other coop I am thinking about lavender and pink shades with pops of white and lime green. And somewhere I am wanting to plant a climbing rose or two in the spot where I get a little sun I've also thought about a hydrangea or snowball bush, just need to be certain that I plant it out of reach of my chickens, cause I read it can be toxic to them.

 

[henless]

I have a raised bed at one end of my coop. It's not flowers, but my vegetable garden. I think it makes the coop look more attractive, adds shade and gives the chooks something to nibble on when a stray shoot or two grows into the coop.

This is how it looks from the inside.




I used cinder blocks to build my raised beds. Nothing fancy, but I like it.



We are in the process of building an outside run. I plan on putting up more raised beds along the parameter.

 

[chickenmadness7]

Whoops. I actually meant to say lemon balm, not lemon grass. Lemon balm grows well in the shade. Not sure about lemon grass but I do know that it's a good snake repellent.

 

[chickenmadness7]

Henless, I really like your run and the raised bed is beautiful! Do you happen to have a closer pic of your feeders? They look interesting.

 

[henless]

Thanks! It really gives the coop interior a more "woodsy" feeling with all the greenery growing.

My grit and oyster shell feeders:





My bucket feeders:




My horizontal nipple waterer:



Links for both buckets are in my sig. I saw the pipe feeders in another post and thought they would be perfect for grit/oyster shell. My girls were always flipping over the grit bowl.

 

[Mermaid909]

Wow,Henless, what a wonderful set up. I think im going to steal some of those ideas.

 

[Eggette]

I have a raised bed at one end of my coop. It's not flowers, but my vegetable garden. I think it makes the coop look more attractive, adds shade and gives the chooks something to nibble on when a stray shoot or two grows into the coop.

This is how it looks from the inside.




I used cinder blocks to build my raised beds. Nothing fancy, but I like it.



We are in the process of building an outside run. I plan on putting up more raised beds along the parameter.

Henless what you've done with your coop is just lovely! It really does have that earthy woodsy feeling to it. I can't imagine how lovely your coop will be once you add onto it and border it with more beds. You will have to post pictures for us in the future to see.
My mom suggested that I should consider using cinder blocks for my raised beds, since I am having a washing problem around my run. We currently are considering landscape timbers instead though, since I got a few recently that were on sale. I just hope they are high enough to divert the water run off.

I love your feeder and drinker system!

I recently went online and bought some screw in drinker nipples cheap, to make a water bucket like yours so my chickens don't get their water dirty anymore.