ANy Tips on what I can plant in my Aviary with my Peafowl? Want some color in there.

[Joe.G]

Hi, I would like to liven up my Aviary a bit, I would like to get some color in there and also make it feel more natural, I live in Eastern/Southern NY, I do live in the country and we do get some snow here with some cold weather but nothing to bad and for to long.

I was thinking some Bamboo and some other stuff. Thanks

 

[MinxFox]

I live in Florida so it is hard to think about cold hardy plants... You could try some big ornamental grasses. My peafowl don't eat up the ornamental grass. I don't know if Maden Hair Fern would work or not. You can plant a Japanese maple which I think can withstand cold temps and their leaves change color. Do you know your gardening zone? For example my zone is 9a which means I can grow some tropicals but not really really tropical plants. The zones are determined by how cold it gets in the winter. If you enter your zip code on this page: http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/ it will tell you what zone you are in. Then you can search "Good zone __ plants" and get results on that. I always search zone 9a plants to find plants I can grow here. Since I try to have a tropical look it is hard to think of some cold hardy stuff.

The birds will pick at some plants so make sure you pick tough plants or tall plants. I think some like planting some kind of evergreen in their pen.
You can see my clump of bamboo in the pen. It grows right through the netting without a problem. I also have native trees like oak growing in the pen. They were there when we built the pen so we just left them.

 

[Joe.G]

Zone 5B is where I am. I'll get out some online bamboo places I do not want a spreading kind. Is there kinds that are bad for my birds in any plant?

 

[kuntrygirl]

Everything that I planted was eaten up by them. I want to get some clumping bamboo but people are telling me not because it grows like crazy.

 

[Joe.G]

I know I tried a few different little bushes and they tore them up with in minutes it seemed.

 

[duncan5]

Hi, I would like to liven up my Aviary a bit, I would like to get some color in there and also make it feel more natural, I live in Eastern/Southern NY, I do live in the country and we do get some snow  here with some cold weather but nothing to bad and for to long.

I was thinking some Bamboo and some other stuff.  Thanks

We planted a few viburnum and some little(4 foot) forest shrubs...not real sure what they are . If the peafowl can't reach the leaves they are not going to eat them. Try to use different large rocks and drift wood also maybe a sand pit,

 

[MinxFox]

Everything that I planted was eaten up by them.

I want to get some clumping bamboo but people are telling me not because it grows like crazy.

A lot of people get confused about bamboo. Not many people know about the clumping kind. The clumping variety will spread outward somewhat in a circle like what say a bush would do. Running bamboo is what will spread all over. Clumping bamboo grows outward slowly and is easy to manage. I think the horror stories about bamboo are all due to the running kind, or someone being sold "clumping bamboo" when it was really running bamboo. That is why it is probably better to buy from a place that specializes in bamboo.

When you buy a new plant for their pen, leave it in the pot and put it in their pen. Leave it for a day, a week, or longer and closely observe them to see if they are picking at the plant and if all goes well then plant it. Sometimes it is bad to plant something right next to the fence inside the pen because when a peahen paces before laying an egg, she will pace right over a small plant and stomp it to the ground as she paces and some of my cast irons are being tramped right now by a white peahen. Sometimes I see them pick at a plant but they never eat what they pick off. They just pick at it. I have a gold dust plant that they tormented. They left leaves on it, but with bite marks all over. This year they have not touched the plant and it is growing pretty new leaves. After a few years of my cast iron plants being in the pen someone has finally started pecking at them but they are growing back and I think the birds have stopped messing with them. I will have to take a current photo of the aviary to show the plants right now. I might have one so I will go check...
Found some recent photos of the aviary:
Here is Ice relaxing under the shade of a fatsia. I have 3 fatsias growing in the aviary and all do well. You can see some peck marks on some of the leaves but they don't really destroy the plant.


Here is Ice with some yearling boys under one of my smaller clumps of bamboo. The leaves are a mix of oak and bamboo leaves that fall into the aviary.


There are several plants here...The bush in the front is a lantana and next to it to the right is a crepe myrtle (it has pink hot pink flowers). Behind these two plants is the same clump of bamboo pictured above.


Lantanas- These popped up on their own and grow in other areas in or near the pen.


Closeup of the lantana flower.


Lantanas, heavenly bamboo, and maybe even one of the other plants are poisonous and it doesn't bother me having these plants in the pen. I can tell that the peafowl instinctively know what not to eat even from little peachicks and even if they are hand raised. I don't really worry about them when it comes to plants.

 

[Joe.G]

Looks nice in there, I Need some more green in mine.

 

[MinxFox]

I want grass in mine right now. I need to find the right number of birds I can have per pen and pen size so that I can have grass. I think there are too many peafowl in my pen that are eating the grass so it is not doing so well.

 

[Joe.G]

Id love to have grass also. I was thinking about trying some ferns, since they grow wild all over my property I have huge areas of them.