Cassandra
Garden Ornament
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 248
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After much discussion, John (dh) & I decided that we are going to leave our chicken run where it is now. We had originally made it so we could move it around. But that's too much work on us and hard on the run. So, there it stays.
I have a double layer of wire around the bottom two feet of the run, so the chickens can't stick their heads out and peck at young shoots. Obviously if something grew up over two feet they could get at it. And anything that pokes through their side of the wire will be fair game.
I am trying to decide which way I want to go....
I have some canna plants growing in a place in the yard where I don't like them. I could dig some up and plant the rhizomes around the coop.
The problem is, I think cannas are really ugly most of the time! When they are flowering, they look pretty. But most of the time they look dead or half dead. Maybe this is just our climate. We get really hot and muggy in the summer.
OTOH, I was reading about cannas and they seem to be a great plant for something such as that. I didn't realize how useful the canna is. (Can be eaten, can make paper out of it, jewelry, musical intruments; it absorbs toxins and on and on!)
OR
I could do some herbs around it. I was thinking something that would creep and take over for a few feet around the run, so that we don't have to mow too close to it. Maybe some herbs... thyme, some mints... things that smell good.
Or I wonder if I could transplant some clumps of clover from other parts of the yard... I don't know anything about clover, but I think it is pretty.
Whatever I plant needs to take a bit of traffic. Is there some other type of ground cover that would be suitable?
Any thoughts?
Cassandra
I have a double layer of wire around the bottom two feet of the run, so the chickens can't stick their heads out and peck at young shoots. Obviously if something grew up over two feet they could get at it. And anything that pokes through their side of the wire will be fair game.
I am trying to decide which way I want to go....
I have some canna plants growing in a place in the yard where I don't like them. I could dig some up and plant the rhizomes around the coop.
The problem is, I think cannas are really ugly most of the time! When they are flowering, they look pretty. But most of the time they look dead or half dead. Maybe this is just our climate. We get really hot and muggy in the summer.
OTOH, I was reading about cannas and they seem to be a great plant for something such as that. I didn't realize how useful the canna is. (Can be eaten, can make paper out of it, jewelry, musical intruments; it absorbs toxins and on and on!)
OR
I could do some herbs around it. I was thinking something that would creep and take over for a few feet around the run, so that we don't have to mow too close to it. Maybe some herbs... thyme, some mints... things that smell good.
Or I wonder if I could transplant some clumps of clover from other parts of the yard... I don't know anything about clover, but I think it is pretty.
Whatever I plant needs to take a bit of traffic. Is there some other type of ground cover that would be suitable?
Any thoughts?
Cassandra