flora and fauna: Living With Chickens

I debated what the title should be for this post; "Chickens in Charge" came to my mind.
But we're still learning how not to have the chickens in charge around here.

For instance, this fence is working, protecting the hellebores, aquilegia, snowdrops, heucheras and primroses.

On the other hand they've managed to make their way around this fence and have dug the hole on the right and pretty much destroyed the bleeding heart that was here.

Gotta eliminate those fence openings!

If you're a regular reader of this blog you may be thinking, "Hey, what happened to 'Corraling the Chickens'?"

Well, it worked for a while. Then the girls decided they just couldn't put up with being kept out of the yard and they started flying over the fence. And yes, I know we could clip those wings but Kim and I aren't willing to go there. Not yet.

And yes, we could just keep them in their coop which most people say is more of a chicken castle than a coop. But, they're chickens and they love to roam and we love it when they're happy.

So, enter the fences. We've decided to fence off the most tender and precious plants in the garden and allow the chickens free reign over the rest.

New garden decor?

No, it's Ginger.

Grass seems to be the most favored treat of our chickens. They LOVE it. They eat, eat, eat the grass. Yet they don't seem to destroy it. If you watch them, you notice they only snip off the tip of each blade, then move on to the next.

Jelly Bean contemplates what to eat next.

So, they're happy eating grass. And in most of the garden they mess around without really destroying anything. I say most because they have dug up two of our newest clematis. Yes, I know, we were sad too, but we're still optimistic that we may see new growth on both plants eventually.

And as you can see from this photo I took just yesterday we do indeed still have a garden. (From the angle I took this it looks as if the back deck is about to fall over backwards. It's just the angle, it's really very level.)

I bought this fence at Fred Meyers. Not working. The chickens fit right through it. I have some extra of this, I may try to just double it up. There are some new hostas and ferns in this area that I would really enjoy seeing this year.

We dug deep into the garden fund and put up this "big guns" fence around the veggie garden.

We moved the original ugly green fence and surrounded the ferns, eremurus, and white daylilies. Seems to be working great. Quite the eyesore though.

But the plants seem happy now.

One place the girls have claimed for their own is under the back deck. We're happy to agree with them. The space is dry and nothing grows there. They hang out under the deck and joyfully roll around taking dust baths to their heart's content.