Planting vines around an enclosed run?

[sarahlorrain]

Has anyone ever tried planting viney/climbing plants around a chicken run? II thought it might be a good way to provide shade in the summer time.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

You will to fully protect them from the birds until they are very well established.

 

[welasharon]

I have vines planted along the sides of my chicken pens and running up on the top. I am in NorthFL so it is very helpful for shading and cooling them.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I built my run over top of three grapevines. They provide fantastic shade for the hottest parts of the year and continuous forage for the chickens from spring until our first frosts in Nov. cause them to drop their leaves. If you get vines from your local nursery you can find them with longer canes that will be quicker to grow out of the reach of jumping chickens. After the first year you can prune them to a height where the chickens can't reach the new growth the following year. The vines can get to be heavy, so you would need something sturdy to trellis them upon.


Here is my coop and run in early spring before the vines escape the confines of the run.




Each new year the vines grow longer at a faster rate. We now have them trellised over top of the coop. Here is an older pic of the vines in early summer.

 

[TinaG]

I have a suggestion for a vine that has done amazing in my garden and is totally edible (it may be just as tasty for chickens too). Malabar spinach, specifically the red stem Malabar spinach. It grows incredibly fast, is beautiful and tastes great in stir fries, Indian food, Asian dishes, etc... It is very sensitive to cold so will definitely die back with the first touch of frost. It produces a lot of purplish red fruits with seeds so would be easy to regrow or you could bring a pot of it into the house for the winter.

 

[TinaG]

OK now how come the photo didn't show up on my post. Let me try again.

 

[sarahlorrain]

Oh, wow! That is gorgeous!! Our run will be covered on all side and the top with hardware cloth so the birds won't be able to eat it unless I let them out to free range. I was thinking if I planted something now there might be enough time for the plants to grow a bit before the end of the year. I was hoping to find a perennial so that I wouldn't have to replant every year. I think I'll go to the nursery and see what they recommend

 

[welasharon]

Here you can see my chocolate vine and, on the other sides, I have a cross vine, white wisteria (not as crazy as regular wisteria) and a white sky vine that grow over mine. The white sky vine is the only one that dies down in the winter so I put it on the north side so they can get sun in the winter. I need to move the white sky vine...I built a new extension around it!

 

[SunnyAlberta]

What growing zone are you all in? I'm zone 3 and my choices for a perennial vine would be limited. Hops might be a good plant here.

 

[sarahlorrain]

I am in zone 8a I believe. I used to have a great perennial flowering vine but it attracted caterpillars like crazy .... and I don't like caterpillars. It spread like crazy though .... so maybe I could plant that one again. It had a really great purple flower on it and smelled amazing.