4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[fluffyknickers]

More questions I am sorry!

 

I want to get some tubs with plants in to look nice round the garden and round the cube, I am not great at getting out there loads to do the plans and look after them so going to get things that are easy to look after like some evergreens and some grasses.

 

Is there anything in the flower/plant/shrub area that should be avoided with chickens as unsafe?

 

i also tend to grow things like strawberry plants and rockets but this year will have to be covered as assume the chickens will eat them!

 

Thanks

Michelle

[Guest]

Its the plants that will be unsafe! No, seriously, there are some plants that are poisonous to chickens, and someone will surely come up with a link to a list of those presently!

To go off at a slight tangent, I noticed a book advertised in Country Smallholder this morning called Chicken runs and Vegetable plots which proports to tell you how to successfully have chickens and vegetables co-existing in the same garden. Might see if I can get hold of a copy of that......

[Guest]

Here you go, found it myself after all that....

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=22559

[poachedegg]

Don't forget, once you get chickens you will be out there all the time - so your pots will be well cared for.

[fluffyknickers]

Ah thats great thanks.

 

I assume things like some grasses are ok and some ferns/conifers and just take this list with me to the garden centre. I assume when I have my strawberry plants and rockets leaves etc I have to come them in some sort of mesh/wire to stop them eating them - or just go for everything in hanging baskets!

 

Michelle

[Hen Watch]

My chooks eat mostly everything except for shrubs. Strawberry leaves, rocket, lobelia, plants with nice tender juicy leaves will be gone in seconds if they are not fenced off. Some plants are nibbled everyday but not enough to kill them, so I have very small examples hardy geraniums and fushias where the chooks live but larger of the same away from the chooks. (My chooks are now kept away from my main flower border in their own enclosed area now). Some shrubs that they don't eat, they jump on instead, so I have lots of flattened lavender in the garden too.

 

So it is a bit trial and error. Shrubs in pots should be OK. But personally I would say a nice wide large pot is harder for a chicken to jump on and knock over than a small/tall one (and I have a few smashed pots to prove it).

 

There is a list of poisonous plants in the FAQ Chickens section. However, I have loads of those listed in my garden and they either ignore them (like my ivy) or take one peck and hop away (like the rhodedendron and daffodills). So they seem to know what they can and can't eat.