Landscaping for The Ladies — Pluckingham Palace

Last summer when we built the new coop, Pluckingham Palace, the ladies spent most of their time foraging in a small temporary fenced area under an apple tree. What was a weedy, patchy grass lawn ended up a clay dirt biological desert... they absolutely destroyed everything except the apple tree. In the winter, it gets puddles of standing water and in the summer it's a dry barren waste land.

And I don't blame the chickens... it was too small an area for four curious chickens. And they deserve better. So this last week I set out to landscape their yard. My husband and I built a porch frame for the club house (the old coop) and placed it on top of 6 inches of rock. Then my Dad and I brought in a couple loads of dirt and sod. Never mind it's going to be 90+ degrees all week! I'm told if I keep the new sod wet, it should establish fine... I guess we'll see.

I also read many online forums and "Free-Range Chicken Gardens" by Jessi Bloom to learn about what plants I can plant in the chicken yard (I should really call it something more special or regal, like the Royal Courtyard). I transplanted a rose and lavender that weren't doing so well in their current locations and bought a few "scratch and dent" plants from the sale table at Fred Meyer. JoAnne gave me a hollowed out log complete with a conk, so I planted that with a lemon verbena which will likely outgrow the log container, but it looks good for now.

I'm pretty happy with the results, as are the ladies.

My plans going forward... I found a solar fountain pump for $11 on Amazon. I'm going to order that and put it in the bird bath. I also need to find something to hang from a cool garden hook I found in my shed that is now in the Royal Courtyard. Lastly, on the other side of the fence is the garden. My plan is to overhaul the garden before next spring to make a nice sitting area to enjoy the garden and watch the ladies. The work is never done here, but I'm really enjoying it and I hope bringing some joy to my chickens and others that think I'm nuts for spoiling them.