Chicken friendly garden

[kirsty b]

Hi all,

been away from here for a long while but am back into chicken keeping again, currently have 3 girls, Lexie, Prudence and Pearl.

I no longer have an allotment, so the ladies live in a run in my garden. Its about 7ft by 3t, so the girls get let out of it as much as possible. they get regular greens etc given to them as well.
Garden is 12 x 20 ft approx, and we are currently revamping it. I want plants/flowers obviously, but would also like to be able to let the girls out of their run when I am at home.

We have a raised bed at the back, and the rest of the garden will be slabbed (except where their run is, that will be left so they can dig etc) with stuff in pots.

My point (finally)
what plants can I get that they won't wreck, and also could I interplant these with stuff I wouldn't mind them noshing like nasturtiums etc. I'm assuming that anything safe for us, is going to be safe for them.

Many thanks

[chris]

Well, mine eat pretty much everything. Even stuff that they shouldn't like. My new lot even are eating my daff leaves in the garden . Mine will happily munch through potato leaves, tomato leaves (and fruit), horse tail, sedums, heuchera, even the tips of ornamental grasses.

The one thing I've found mine do not like is blackcurrant leaves (but will eat the fruit). The other soft fruit in the garden (wineberry, rasps, red and white currants) are pretty much stripped bare.

I've an elder shrub to go in shortly, I'm hoping it'll grow fast enough to outgrow their reach to provide me with some colour and flowers in the future

[BarleySugar]

I've found they dig up anything, even if they don't want to eat it, from the ground or from pots. In my revamped garden I'm going to make some chicken wire cylinders to go around plants in the ground or in pots to protect them. I'm glad I let them have the run of the garden BEFORE revamping, I hadn't remembered just how destructive they can be. It is funny seeing them jump to reach the bottom leaves of the raspberries and grape vine, they can get a lot higher than you'd think I hope my bulbs had enough time to store for next year's flowers as they have go rid of all the leaves. I've also ordered 30 cm log roll so that when they do scratch, the soil will not go all over the path. There was another thread on here suggesting what could be planted that they don't like to eat.

[petal]

your garden is only safe if its about half an acre and you have pekins. I would pen them. or have no flowers- go for big shrubs- buddlea are pretty.

[kirsty b]

thank you everyone for all your suggestions. Am looking into maybe getting an aviary sized pen for them to give them more floor space when the garden is done....or hanging baskets and troughs of flowers along the fences where the chooks can't get them!

[frias]

Ahh yes hanging baskets. I did all my hanging baskets and hung them on a rail until they settled. Girls ate all the lobelia!

[jessmorris]

Mine don't eat: buddleia, irises, cotoneaster, teasels, cherry laurel, privet, hawthorn, roses, nettles, lavender, holly, potentilla, sedges, grasses, willow...but they are small bantams and they have the whole garden. Strangely they like Eleagnus which is an evergreen shrub as tough as they come! And they love herbaceous Geraniums!

[Mikey]

Mine used to have the run of the garden, but I got fed up of clearling away poop everynight off the lawn, to ensure the nipper could run freely around. They now have an area that is roughly 40sqm which is about as much as I can give them. They have a variety of play areas a sand pit, a spare shelter, raised beds (they are spoilt!!!), they stripped the grass, so now get seeds planted on the 3 raised beds and get access to these when they are robust enough to be trampled. I also add some grass clipping in their pen along with collected dandelion leaves which they will eat out of my hand.

I do love my chooks.