I really do.
They provide us with yummy eggs.
They have done a number on the tick population around our house.
They provide plenty of entertainment.
But do they frustrate the hell out of me.
Why, yes. Yes, they do.
I try - oh how I have tried - to keep pretty plants and flowers. I desperately - DESPERATELY - want to keep our front and back yards appealing. It's like this dream that I see but just keeps alluding me. I see all the pretty flowers all lined up perfectly just swaying in the gentle breeze...but then I wake up to find them lying on the ground dead under the scrapping claws of a bunch of chickens.
HOLY@$&*@^#%$!!!
It's really like a massacre. Flowers just dug up, tossed about, completely shredded and dirt just kicked all over the place.
I honestly do love having chickens. I just have to figure out a way to have my chickens and plants live cohesively before I take them out into the woods and leave them there (kidding, kidding).
I've tried lots of things - (trial and lots of error) - that I thought were ingenious but all turned out to be failures.
After spending long grueling hours laying down, hammering in and covering up chicken wire, those darn chickens decided to undermine me and just found a spot beyond the chicken wire and kicked up dirt even higher and further so that it still landed even more scattered all over the pavement.
What about container gardens? Yes, these do work for the most part but depending on what kind of plant it is or how how your pots are, don't count out a chicken still getting to them or digging around in the pot's dirt. Or they just find a nice spot on the pot's edge to sit and eat, which is I imagine like dining in at a restaurant for them.
Plus, pots are kind of expensive and I have a lot of space to fill.
Really the only alternative is to figure out what plants your chickens will not eat, and I have discovered that there are actually a lot out there to choose from.
Roses
Maybe it's the thorns but the chickens stay away from my roses.
Anything with waxy leaves
We have camelias, gardenias, rhododendrons, indian hawthorns and creeping jasmines. Chickens seem to avoid any plant we plant with the waxy leaves, so that is what I usually buy when looking for plants for the garden.
Clematis
So happy they don't touch any of my clematis because I love clematis. I have four different flowers growing in the yard and the chickens don't touch any of them.
Azaleas
No picture because I ended up getting rid of our azalea bushes. Chickens are not the only ones that are not impressed by azaleas.
Lantanas
Not sure why the chickens seem to ignore these flowers, but they I'm glad they do.
I am sure there are tons and tons of other plants that are chicken resistant but those are the list is from my own personal experiences. And the chickens are around each type of plant every day. They have tons and tons of room to roam other places but they seem to prefer to hang out by my flowers, which means that even though they won't actually eat those flowers or leaves, they still absolutely love scratching around them.
I tried putting mulch around the base of the plants but guess what...chickens freaking love to dig around mulch.
Pebbles.
I put some pebbles around the base of my plants and that stopped them. I'm sure an even better solution is to just fill your entire garden bed with rocks, but that is just not a look that works for me. Especially white rocks...sorry but that just repulses me.
So, for now, I have found a place where my flowers and chickens can coexist, and we don't have to take a late night field trip into the woods...
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