After all the work over the school holidays, I thought a long shot of our handwork might be nice. So we now have four veggie patches in working order with three in production and one fallow which the chickens are working on for us. The chicken access points to each of these veggie patches is from the central laneway that runs one metre wide around the covered chicken run. So when we let them out each morning, they follow the path around until they get to the patch we want them in. We did this with one small concession - the mandarin tree. They love spending the hot hours of the day under the tree so one of our ptaches is a strnge shape to allow them to still access their favourite hang. We put a shade cloth up in the chicken run, which they also enjoy, but not as much as the tree. It will be interesting to see if they like the white mulberry that is inside their run once its grown a bit and provide both shade and food for them.
Then there are also gates on the outside of each patch that allows the humans to enter. And now that we have the new tank in, there is also a tap just next to the patch as well, which is SO much better than watering with a bucket from the dam, which is what we were doing for a while. Then lastly, there is the beautiful bench under the tree overlooking the dam, thanks to Shaun's folks. We have both parked off her many times already and the dogs don't mind joining us either. That spot will be even better over the summer as the canopy gets dense and the weather warms up.
I love how you've incorporated the chickens in and around your vegie garden. I have often designed similar chook runs for people but your the first that I've heard of that has set one up.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the note Kate. It works really well and we've built it one or two at a time over six months so it wasn't too overwhelming to do. I have to admit that I find it hard to share that last patch with the chickens as I love planting areas out with new stuff but I do know the soil will be better for it, what with the horse and chicken manure.
ReplyDeleteWhat have you used as gates to the individual veggie patches? I saw that you have used an arch - did you use 4 of them?
ReplyDeleteWe have cut the existing fence in line with one side of the archway and then attached a star picket (something with a bit of weight) to it. We then peel back the star picket (and now loose fence) to enter/exit under the archway. It just helps to keep the chooks out, so it doesn't need to be Fort Knox (which is my usual tendency ;. Check out pic 1 in this post - http://barefootbounty.blogspot.com/2011/12/selenas-great-ideas.html
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