what type of flower

[lnm03]

I have always had veggies but never really got into flowers. I am wanting to put a flower garden around my chicken run which is about 30' by 15'. I want something with a lot of fragrance but not too tall.

Any ideas?

 

[vfem]

Try some Daisies or Lilies. Lilies are a bit taller, but more fragrant. I planted some flowering tobacco in pots around my deck, SUPER fragrant... but only blooms at night and are annuals. Hope that gives you some ideas.

 

[patandchickens]

What type soil is it? (clay/sand/loam content, and wetness/dryness?)

Tuberose (Polianthes) is a strongly scented medium-height summer-flowing bulb, tho you would have to dig it up and winter in the garage or basement.

There are various roses that are quite fragrant and you could choose one(s) that don't get too awful large and rebloom (but choose carefully, because tea roses etc are WAY too high maintenance and frankly the plants are kinda ugly and spindly, and not all roses are particularly fragrant, and you'd want to stick with something naturally fairly short).

Shorter fragrant things include Stocks (is that an annual or perennial? not sure, never grown it), lavender, and herbs (many herbs are noticeably fragrant even without being touched, esp. on a hot sunny day).

Butterfly bush (Buddleia - warning, invasive menace in some states) blooms for most of the 2nd half of the summer and until frost, with a fair good fragrance; it is a bush but very loose and straggly so wouldn't necessarily impede your view of the chickens that much.

If this is intended as an air freshener vs coop funk, I would suggest herbs, as things that are fragrant while blooming generally do not bloom for that many days/weeks of the summer.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lnm03]

Thank you for the great Ideas!

Pat - as of right now our run doesnt really smell just kind of looking for something that will make it look nice and smell good if it does start to smell but I still want to be able to watch my chickens! As far as soil I would say we have pretty good soil here. Not too much clay or sand.

 

[karanleaf]

You may not want to put lillies around your chicken run as some are posionous to chickens. A friend of mine lost a hen due to it eating one of her lillies. Check for toxic and posionus plant list before planting. :tools Just a helpful suggestion :weight

:happy_flower Karan

 

[digitS']

Leslie, my flowers are mostly in the front yard or in other gardens. You haven't said whether your chickens are ever out and about in the yard.

An herb garden is in the backyard and there are a few "patches" of herbs and a few other things. My hens pay very little attention to the herbs other than scratching around them.

I'm not saying that no chicken eats herbs but my hens have never done so. They have a choice of lots of different mints, chives, basil, rosemary, sweet marjoram, oregano, thyme, anise hyssop, sweet fennel, and probably a few more that I can't think of. But, they obviously prefer the grass and clover in the lawn.

The fact that they don't bother so many of the mint family of plants makes me think that you may want to raise ornamental mints. Those would include - agastache, salvia, monarda, lavender, perila, ajuga, catmint, and some others . . . Some of these are nicely fragrant when in bloom but the culinary mints are especially so.

Steve

 

[mythkat]

Dianthus (Pinks, Sweet William) blooms all summer and isn't too tall. They are a perinnial here (zone 6b).

 

[Reinbeau]

Steve is right, my chickens have never bothered with my herbs, I've got mint planted out back near their coop that is unmolested There's lemon balm all over the woods, they ignore it.

 

[digitS']

Ann, I have lemon balm directly below the window where I'm sitting now. There are also hostas there. The birds have really churned up the ground around the hostas - I don't think they are eating them, however. But, I have noticed how they don't even seem to like to scratch in the lemon balm.

I've been working on a new carport roof and directly below I built a little planter a few years ago and planted chocolate mint. I'm back and forth trying not to stumble over or step on the plants. There's no sign that the chickens have ever touched that ground.

Directly in front of the coop door, there's a row of mints of various types - apple, pear, pineapple, ginger . . . The chickens scratch almost everywhere else but not there.
Steve

 

[CityChook]

Good suggestion on the mint family (hi Steve!). Catmint is pretty with sage-y foliage and purple flowers, fragrant, gets about 18 inches high, but around 2-3 ft. wide, attracts bees and the chickens will leave it alone. It's perennial here in MN, so I'm sure you would have NO problem in Indiana. It would be lovely surrounding a run.

I have also noticed that the hens stay out of my perennial oregano. That stuff grows like a weed, too, with suckers.

I have many types of daylillies in my backyard and last summer they were completely trampled into the dirt. I don't really think the hens were eating them, just tromping all over them for some reason. Oh, and I have very established hostas, like BIG, and yes, those naughty girls WILL eat them...

Do daisies have a scent? I love them so, but they aren't always predictable and need to be replaced often. Most perennial daisies in my neck of the woods only bloom in early spring.

Most hardy roses don't have a scent. And if the chickens run underneath them, they can be very prickly and painful during extraction... They're lovely but maybe not worth the maintenance around a chicken run.

I was thinking about planting some flowering ginger around the run this year to see if the girls will keep out of it. Smells nice...

Well, that's just my $.02 - Happy Spring!