by Melissa Caughey of Tilly’s Nest
If you are a gardener like me, your mailbox is beginning to fill with mail order catalogs. Each year, in addition to the perennial gardens, and the fruits and vegetables that we grow, we always plant things just for the chickens. A chicken garden does not need to be fancy nor does it require a great deal of space. You can even make a small chicken garden in planters.
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| Fennel and Lavender |
If you garden in raised gardening beds, why not devote one just to the hens? You can harvest from your plantings a few times of weeks and share it with the flock. Or this year, why not try planting around and near the coop just for the flock. There are plenty of wonderful herbs, vegetables and berries that your flock will love.
Once your chicken garden grows, you can easily pick, take clippings or allow them to carefully free-range among the plantings. One word of caution- you will need to cover or protect any delicate seedlings because chickens can and will eat entire plants in a sitting. This sometimes happens with the lettuce. It is a good thing that we can easily plant lettuce and mixed greens the entire growing season.
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| Nasturtium planted outside the run offers a tasty treat. |
You will find that the chickens’ taste will vary from flock to flock. Sometimes, one flock devours a certain herb while another flock could care less. Like people, they have their own sense of likes and dislikes. Herbs are also wonderful dried and sprinkled in the coop during the cooler Fall and Winter months. This helps to keep them busy scratching and searching for tasty bits of dried herbs and helps to freshen up the coop when they tend to spend more time in the coop than outdoors. Some dried herbs even act as insect and pest deterrents. To learn how to harvest and dry you own herbs, click here.
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Growing a Chicken Friendly Garden
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Herbs
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Vegetables/Seeds
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Berries
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Basil
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All lettuces
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Strawberries
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Parsley
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Mixed greens
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Blueberries
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Rosemary
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Carrots-tops and roots
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Gooseberries
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Fennel
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Broccoli-entire plant
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Raspberries
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Thyme
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Beet tops
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Blackberries
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Nasturtium
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Tomatoes- fruit only
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Lavender-dried
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Cucumbers-fruit only
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Marjoram
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Clover
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Catnip
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Chickweed
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Mint
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Sunflowers-dried seeds
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Bay leaves
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Mustard greens
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Tarragon
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Kale
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Cilantro
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Cabbage- in small amounts
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Chamomile-dried
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Swiss Chard
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Oregano-dried
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Lemon Verbena-dried
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22 Comments
I posted a comment while unknowingly logged into someone elses email!
Here it is:
Last year our chickens completely ruined, stomped, ate anything growing in their area that it ended up just being hard smooth ground. I would love to plant them a garden but I can’t afford fencing to protect it all while it grows. Any suggestions?
I had to cut their outside area by half for a while so I can let grass grow back on it without them eating it up right away.
These are free range birds, there is 100+ of them. They run, fly, jump way higher than I like. Certain baddies help themselves by breaking into the human garden too.
It got so bad last year with a few of them that I could, from a distance, just say “Chicken what are you doing?!!? GO HOME!” and it would fly/jump back over to the other chickens.
They ruin a lot of crops so I think this year a chicken garden is a must…somehow…
Could you try covering the plantings with some inexpensive chicken wire? You can make cages and covers to protect the plants while they grow.
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chard and collards
We have tiny cherry trees in our yard and seeing the chickens jumping up to get the cherries is a wild one. We do not eat these cherries. They also do this to the blueberry bushes in front it’s quite funny almost worth not getting to eat the berries.
Aren’t they so entertaining to watch? Cherries and the trees can be toxic though, so be careful that they do not over indulge.
Worked on my raised beds this weekend readying them for the spring season, and, of course, my flock. Can’t wait to see them pecking at those red, ripe tomatoes this year! Providing fresh greens and tomatoes for my flock makes all of the work worthwhile! Laura, Forest, VA at hens6@shentel.net
Fantastic!
Great lists! I posted a while ago about some more ideas for plants for the chicken run: http://green-change.com/2010/11/20/plants-for-the-chicken-run/
I’ve always wanted chickens but the city only allows two, even though we are a somewhat more rural area. I spoke before the city council and they agreed to put it on the agenda to increase what we can have in our backyards! Score one for the chickens!
WooHoo! Good Luck!
I planted sorrel around my enclosed run, and this year added some nasturiums !
I myself can’t wait until spring to get planting!
Everyday I lead my flock down to my vege garden and toss their feed in among all my plants including brocolli, arugula, tomatoes, squash, cucs, bok choy, fennel, onions, and more.
However, inevitably I find them scratching apart my flower bed in front of the house which results in all of the wood chips all over the driveway, all the flowers without leaves and huge holes everywhere. It always amazes me to see the pictures in Community Chicken, the Chicken Chick and the blog showing how beautifully undisturbed everything looks compared to the wreckage my girls create.
Oh yes, I quickly learned that areas where I wanted to keep the chickens away from needed a bit of chicken wire protecting them. I also find that following them and influencing their areas of fun helps to. Finally, a great deal depends on the free-ranging space for chickens. If the yard is too small and the flock is too big, it can be a recipe for disaster.
We’d love this….especially as this year we’re doubling our flock!
Jesse
jesseam@gmail.com
We’d love this….especially as this year we’re doubling our flock!
Jesse
jesseam@gmail.com
Love that the flock is doubling! Aren’t chickens addictive 🙂
We are just planning our back yard garden and we are getting chickens. This is such an awesome guide! Thank you!
Oh how wonderful! I am so happy to hear the news. I know your chickens will just love the garden.
Try arugula…it grows like a weed and our poultry love to chow on it! We tell folks at the farmer’s market that our eggs come from chickens that eat gourmet greens!
Yes! Arugula is fabulous. Peppery and delicious to us and our chickens. Another great green to try!