Landscaping around coop/run?

[boatagor]

Hi all,
This spring I am planning on planting around my chicken coop. I'm hoping it will make it look better and provide greenery for the chickens to eat. Has anyone planted landscaping around their coops? Can you tell me what you planted, and maybe show some pictures for ideas? I've attached a picture of my coop and run, I would like to plant all along the front part. I don't know that the back or one side would get enough sunlight to plant much of anything (lots of shade from nearby trees) and the other short side is where the door is. Excuse the mess in the yard!

 

[Little Chicken Girl]

Nice looking coop!

This is what I like using for coop landscaping...

Fruit trees, squash & Sunflowers: Not only do chickens love to eat fallen fruit, squash (even squash seeds) and sunflower seeds (if you let them out) but they benefit the plants by eating the bugs, which helps keep them nice and healthy.

Avoid bark/wood chips for landscaping: Even if you keep chickens in the coop, and the bark is on the outside, bark, wood chips travel easily and often cause foot problems in chickens.

 

[lazy gardener]

Are you looking for decorative, edible, combination?

Decorative: day lilies, nasturtiums, marigold, zinnia, sunflowers (be sure you get the ones that produce seed. Some don't produce pollen, so I'm guessing they would not produce seed either. I'm not sure on that.) Edible: Millet or other grains, zucchini, bush squash, beets, lettuce, chard, kale, any other greens. I'd go for a nice combination of both categories. You could also do climbing plants here and there to cast some shade in their run. Cucumber, peas, scarlet runner beans. I would not plan on eating any raw material from this garden with it being so close to the chickens due to likelihood of contamination from water run off and air born fecal matter.

 

[boatagor]

I was thinking a couple cucumber plants, and Sunflowers would be great too! But I may also have to do cucumbers in a safer place as my kids would kill me if they couldn't eat them too lol

 

[lazy gardener]

Yep! Save the cukes growing around the run for your birds. However, any veggies that you have to cook, such as zucchini COULD be grown adjacent to the run, and then enjoyed for YOUR supper!

 

[lazy gardener]

An other consideration: grow an insect trap crop. Grow some pole beans (scarlet runner would attract humming birds) up the side of the run. Japanese beetles LOVE bean plants. And chickens LOVE japanese beetles. This is a win/win situation. Or you could give your sunflowers a head start, and then grow your beans up the sunflowers. If you had to tie the sunflowers up b/c they got too heavy, you could tie them to the run. And, b/c the beans need cooking, they would be safe for your dinner. There are many bean varieties that are better tasting than scarlet runner though. My favorite is Fortex.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I trellised snap peas on one side of my run last year (and have it set up the same way this year) and grew a little nasturtium as well, though the chickens didn't seem interested in it. They sure loved the pea leaves though and I also popped some peas out of the pods for them. Actually all my garden beds are next to or inside my chicken run at this time - thankfully we haven't had any issue with contamination, though I can understand the concern that there could be cross contamination due to proximity to the chickens.

 

[boatagor]

I was also thinking of getting some big, brightly colored pots and planting in those but I'm afraid the hens would dump them or jump up and try to bathe in the dirt .

 

[Ruralhideaway]

An other consideration: grow an insect trap crop. Grow some pole beans (scarlet runner would attract humming birds) up the side of the run. Japanese beetles LOVE bean plants. And chickens LOVE japanese beetles. This is a win/win situation. Or you could give your sunflowers a head start, and then grow your beans up the sunflowers. If you had to tie the sunflowers up b/c they got too heavy, you could tie them to the run. And, b/c the beans need cooking, they would be safe for your dinner. There are many bean varieties that are better tasting than scarlet runner though. My favorite is Fortex.

This is a great idea, I've already got my sunflower seeds to shade the coop so this is perfect. My roses thank you LG!

 

[Rick&chickTampa]

I have a shady backyard too. As far as just landscape plants I have Viburnum Suspensum, Nandina Domestica, and Liriope that my chickens have not eaten.