What to plant around coop/run that chickens like....

[fasschicks]

I would like to plant something around my coop/run that is possibly a little decorative but also something the girls can much on and enjoy. Is there anything hardy that you can think of that can withstand chickens eating it? Being decorative is not the main objective here - just something the girls will like and soak up any rain that comes off the roof to keep it from getting muddy. My covered run will have sand in it.

Fass

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i allso have been looking for some thing like that and i think i willl go with mint. it is supposed to repell mice but i havnt researched it for safety yet

 

[Angelicisi]

I plant herbs.
The different herbs they love. Not much maintenance and most are pretty.

 

[Blooie]

What about white vinyl lattice with some plants (safe ones, of course, like nasturtiums or such) in baskets or flat packs hung on the lattice? Our run is visible from the street and we live in town, so we put up the white lattice and have received many compliments on it, plus it adds some shade. (I haven't hung my plants on it yet). Your spot looks very sunny so for additional protection you could also tack up landscape fabric for shade - it's inexpensive, and the lattice would hide it, plus it doesn't bear any resemblence to blue tarp - which I hate as much as your dad does! LOL We put our landscape fabric on metal bars with predrilled holes that we got at Lowes. They are the same width as the landscape fabric. We attached the end of the landscape fabric by running steel wire through the fabric to "sew" it to the metal bar. It looks and acts just like a window shade - we can roll it up and down to control the amount of sun getting in. We clip it to the wire of the run when we have it rolled up where we want it. It doesn't act like a sail in the wind because it's air permeable, which also allows cooling breezes through. This is what our set up looks like. You can see in the bottom pic that we have the center landscape fabric "window shade" rolled up a bit. This could be adapted to your setup very easily, I think, without breaking the bank.

 

[Drivernumber22]

I plant herbs.
The different herbs they love. Not much maintenance and most are pretty.

Which ones do they love the most?

 

[Angelicisi]

I plant Mexican tarragon, oregano, mints, lemon balm, English thyme and purple mini hot peppers. Rosemary on the outside. These are the favorites.
I take constant cuttings and regularly root too.

I protect when seedlings.

Which ones do they love the most? 

 

[Angelicisi]

Planting grown plants I put right in.
If adding young plants I will plant them in a cinder block. It keeps at least half the plant growing shoots for the chickens lol Mexican tarragon and oreganos ate great in cinder blocks. Carrots too for carrot tops. Hard for chickens to dig out roots in blocks. I tried a bed of carrots and they made it a giant dust bath lol