North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Toni Pralle" <toni.pralle@gmail.com>]

<I've found that chickens in the garden are quite destructive with their
scratching.  <

 

Yes, I let my regular size chickens into the garden the first year. They scratch up everything, they eat everything -or to be more exact, they eat a bite out of everything, I even found a nest of eggs in there. My garden is flowers and food all mixed together. One year I laid cattle panels over the plants when they were small. That worked fairly well. I've decided fencing the chickens out is the easiest/best. I open the garden to them once I have harvested everything I want. I won't close it again until I start planting. No doubt they will scratch around in it until end of May or so. Something else I am going to have to attend to this year is my rhubarb and lilac bush. The chickens have dug deep holes around the roots looking for a cool spot in the summer. I don't want to loose either of them.

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Toni in zone 4 Iowa USA
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It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.
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