I have been out of sorts these past few days. I have spent an enormous amount of time in the garden of late with my homemade sprays in hand and keeping all the pests at bay. I have managed to cause more damage than good with one particular organic spray by getting the dosage wrong and it damaged some of my plants, especially my broccolli and squashes! Huge yellow spots – almost as if they have been burnt! I have also managed to give some plants too much water (that’s a first!!) and they have turned yellow and flopped. They are the baby marrow plants and …….
The worst of the damage is done by two of the three chickens – Vanilla and Skollie!! They manage to break out and destroy the raised beds! I am so downhearted and I cannot get cross with them because it is just what chickens do!! I run around shouting with my feather duster in my hand but tomorrow they will have gotten loose again (I still do not know how they get out!!) and will have made mince meat of my broccolli, cabbage and my spinach! The rest on the plants they just trample all over or scratch out! I still have not had a real salad from my garden yet!
Oh well, I still get great pleasure from my garden and it just tells me that I have to make a plan with these chickens!
Happy Gardening xxxxx
10 replies on “Destruction 101”
One vote in. Good luck!
Scold those chickens, we will have none of this!
there are always loads of potential dangers to our plants – dogs, chickens, monkeys (in durban at least), slugs and bugs…
i would say a cage of chicken wire wouldn’t go amiss. you could build it up a couple of feet and cut flaps in the side of it so that you (alone) can access the produce.. if you use chicken wire with big holes, it shouldn’t affect the aesthetics of the plants too much (although it is never the same)…
gotta substitute prettiness for practicality somewhere along the line 🙂
good luck!
Awww…Barbara I feel your frustration gardening with chickens. They are truly a lot of fun to have around, but just don’t understand that if they let the broccoli grow larger BEFORE they eat it, they’d get to eat more! 😉 I have to grow all my lettuces and winter greens under a floating fabric row cover (I use a light weight type in summer, and heavier weight in fall/winter). The strawberries are all under netting too. Otherwise the chickens would be fat, and we’d starve!
I’m sorry to hear about the plant damage, but… please send me the email address of your husband along with an idea of what I could best use to bribe him to quietly whip out the video camera the next time you’re running around with feather duster “in action”. 😉
The plants in that photo will bounce right back — don’t worry about them. Even the uprooted ones may be okay if they didn’t desiccate.
Would hanging a couple of feather dusters in the beds (like a downy scarecrow) keep them away? (My fear is they would eventually get accustomed to the feather dusters and you’d lose a potent weapon.) Maybe worth a try though.
Haahaa!! 🙂 Now it all seems so silly to get upset! Especially with the chickens. And yes – they do get used to the feather dusters – especially when it has rained and they look like a wet cat, thin and not scarry! So my plan is to make their area so cool that they don’t need to venture outside of it! Good idea?
And – I am so glad to hear that the plants will bounce back! I know – they just look pathetic now.
thought about getting some plastic or galvanized chicken wire. It’s sold at Builders Warehouse. Bought myself some on Sunday (thin mesh) to help with the snail problem. Well, mesh and beer – they both are working a treat 🙂
Thats a great idea! I’ll have to enclose the raised beds! I just didn’t want to go that far. I love just leaning in and cutting salad leaves! But I have to make some sort of plan! Thanks for your advice!
I was going to suggest some sort of wire “cage” for the raised beds too, but they’re so pretty now. Is it worth it to have them uglied up with something like that?
No – I am so with you on that. I like pretty! I am not a fan of caging either. I still want my chicks to be able to roam free – just NOT in my garden 🙂