Around the garden

The chickens circle my garden like sharks. Their parted lips hang open ready to tear into the flesh of lettuces, chard, and kale. The girls eye the freshly tilled soil plump with white bean seeds. Adept at breaching security, the twins, Tweedle and Dee are the first to dive into the row of lettuces. Fortunately, my lookouts spot them before the dainty feet of these clumsy ballerinas donning feathered tutus stomp my baby cucumber plants.



Once the garden is all clear, the predators of the yard feast on our gifts of cool sweet watermelon rind; their red and green christmas.


As idyllic as man and nature working together in harmony seems, really chickens and gardens don't mix always mix. However, there is a place for the chicken right outside the garden. While it is true that the chicken will remove the foliage of your cabbage while also removing the cabbage worms, it is important to remember that your feathered friends are farming through your yard helping to keep the general population of bugs in the garden down by working from the outside. Yards with chickens have far less problem with fleas, ticks and other pests. The chicken also has a place in the garden after the harvest. They enjoy scratching around tilling up the soil, removing slugs and grubs and fertilizing all at the same time. Sarah Farmer, author of the blog, Farmama and a "no-till" farmer in Telluride, CO puts her chickens to work preparing beds for planting. There is a place for chickens and gardening, it just has to be timed right. The soft clucking of contented hens compliments any time spent in the garden.