chicken proof shrubs

[bmpsands]

I know that my girls will dig anything up if it looks as though there might be something good underneath - but I want to develop a little hummock-type area in the garden. The soil isn't good and I don't want anything tall as it will block my view of the chicken run.

Suggestions please for shrubs or ground cover planting that are not on the "good for chicken to eat" list

Thanks in advance

[Mo]

If you plant something that they don't like eating they'll dig it up so that you can plant something better.

[kitla]

I've got planting new things down to a fine art now- dig the hole, get everything
ready, then dig another hole a few yards away & call the chooks over to it. while
they're busy scratching quickly get the plant in & put a few bricks/big stones around
it till the ground settles! Anything small gets protected by some of those little wire edging panels from £shops until its grown a bit sturdier.
Cistus & rock roses have survived well on my rockery, also perennial geraniums
cover well & are very tough (the chooks do like to sit in them sometimes)

[KarenE]

LOl @ Kitla, excellent strategy!

My perennial geraniums were munched and/or dug up, so they may not be chicken proof. For ground cover plants, there's little that is chicken proof - if they don't eat it, they will dig it up. Shrubs are a good bet - I've got euonymous, box and hebe and they don't bother with them, same with hostas, lilies and iris, hellebores. I put crysanths into my border late last year and they seemed to survive, but i think that was because I packed the border so tightly there wasn't room for the chickens to get in!

[kitla]

just remembered another one, I have one of the new miniature budleahs (mine's
about 2' in its 2nd year) which is quite nice & untouched by the girls.
How about something a bit prickly like a little rose bush - or some holly (ha! they
wouldn't like that!)
I think a lot of my plants have survived because most of my "posh" girls have
soft feathery feet & aren't too destructive, not sure what to expect this year now
2 exbatts have joined us!

[bmpsands]

Thanks all.

I have quite a lot of holly in the garden already - and the girls certainly steer clear of it. On the other hand, the bush by the back gate is full of sparrows and a pair of robins also use it.

All suggestions welcome - and I am strategising in line with suggestions.

[albertajune]

I agree that any ground cover will be dug up if not eaten. They don't touch any mock orange blossom shrubs or hebe. Love rose leaves and will leave the stems bare, so they are a no no. I have a spotted laurel that I keep no more than 4ft and my 3 girls absolutely love it. Not to eat, but to sit under. Summer or winter they make straight for it.
I have found that even with shrubs, they need to be of the woody type or they will just get trampled and not get a chance to grow. Good luck

[bmpsands]

Thanks again.

My hens seem to avoid the perennial geranium, so I might have some more of that. They also leave the perennial sweet peas alone, but the wallflowers have really suffered.

Next month I'm off to visit an old chum whom I haven't seen for years. She now lives in what used to be her father in law's farm house instead of the farm cottage. She says her hens are now free ranging in the garden but in spite of that the garden looks OK. I'll take notes