Take a Course at Forested! First of all, I must let you know about my friend LincolnSmith’s workshops series at his forest teaching garden, Forested, this spring – here’s the link! https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/14cd4a6cf3709800
Flowers for Chickens? Why? This idea is totally stolen from an inspiring website I looked at and have not been able to relocate. But search “chicken garden” and you find this subject is on flockster’s minds. Because chickens benefit enormously from grass, yet this is what lawn looks like after a winter under the tender mercies of my 13 chickens:
(It took them about 2 weeks FYI.)
The lady whose great website I cannot find plants her chicken run with living forage, grass, but things beautiful as well as tasty to peck. What an inspiration! A run could be something other than a wasteland? She is constantly on the lookout for plants which co-exist happily such as ROSES(!) – given how prone to being buggy roses are, this could be a real source of nourishment. She sets large rocks or pavers to protect roots from scratching claws. Beware the long list of chicken toxic plants – http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/627282/comprehensive-list-of-poisonous-plants-and-trees – Also listed below). So, thank you lady!! wherever you exist in the blogospere. You have changed the way I am going to manage my chickens this summer.
Edward and I had already planned to add living forage into and around the run this year – and here’s what we have so far:
A Mulberry sapling – we are growing a mulberry bush into the run. The first step was to a convince Edward not to kill it, since he considers mulberries invasive, water-stealing, horrible plants. MULBERRIES are a very nutritious food, easy to grow and tough (yes dear) and voila! free food that our chickens can feed themselves. You can see that despite Edward’s dislike, this plant is very happy. Sadly, he says, it probably will thrive. I have the roots outside the run wire, so it’s roots are protected most of the time, and leaves outside the run roof get tons of sun.
Berries – one of the areas the chickens will be guided toward is under the brambles, to clean up the fallen fruit. 
I have JUST hatched an idea to grow Black Raspberries (black caps), a plant that loves us, ACROSS a small wire paddock, so the chicks get fruit from under it and we can harvest from the top. I will post photos soon.
Less impressive at the moment is the beginning of our Vegetable Garden Tower beside the mulberry (yes, you unbelievers, I will prune the mulberry heavily! so that the tower is not shaded!). This is an idea I got from Ben Friton of Can Ya Love.
The fabric cloth will hold dirt in, and plants can be inserted to grow and hang out all the way up. Chickens can harvest their side, plus the lower regions of front when they are in Paddock 1. We can harvest the upper section. I’m going to try cukes up there. I threw this together using some old fencing and row covers from last summer. Learn more about Ben’s work from his website at www.canyalove.org. A grower friend of mine, Lincoln Smith of the teaching garden Forested (http://forested.us/), introduced me to Ben and his book Can Ya Love? which describes the creation of his vertical garden concept, and shows how he has used it to help hungry communities around the world grow their own greens.
Swiped from his website, Ben’s vegetable pillars:
Have fun in your gardens this weekend!!
HERE’s the Evil For Chickens List:
Backyard Chicken’s Comprehensive List of Plants Toxic to Chickens:
ARUM LILY
AMARYLLIS
ARALIA
ARROWHEAD VINE
AUTUMN CROCUS
AUSTRALIAN FLAMETREE
AUSTRALIAN UMBRELLA TREE
AVOCADO
AZALEA
BANEBERRY
BEANS: (CASTOR, HORSE, FAVA, BROAD, GLORY, SCARLET RUNNER,
MESCAL, NAVY, PREGATORY)
BIRD OF PARADISE
BISHOP’S WEED
BLACK LAUREL
BLACK LOCUST
BLEEDING HEART OR DUTCHMAN’S BREECHES
BLOODROOT
BLUEBONNET
BLUEGREEN ALGAE
BOXWOOD
BRACKEN FERN
BUCKTHORN
BULB FLOWERS: (AMARYLLIS, DAFFODIL, NARCISSUS, HYACINTH & IRIS)
BURDOCK
BUTTERCUP
CACAO
CAMEL BUSH
CASTOR BEAN
CALADIUM
CANA LILY
CARDINAL FLOWER
CHALICE (TRUMPET VINE)
CHERRY TREE
CHINA BERRY TREE
CHRISTMAS CANDLE
CLEMATIS (VIRGINIA BOWER)
CLIVIA
COCKLEBUR
COFFEE (SENNA)
COFFEE BEAN (RATTLEBUSH, RATTLE BOX & COFFEEWEED)
CORAL PLANT
CORIANDER
CORNCOCKLE
COYOTILLO
COWSLIP
CUTLEAF PHILODENDRON
DAFFODIL
DAPHNE
DATURA STRAMONIUM (ANGEL’S TRUMPET)
DEATH CAMUS
DELPHINIUM
DEVIL’S IVY
DIEFFENBACHIA (DUMB CANE)
ELDERBERRY
ELEPHANT EAR (TARO)
ENGLISH IVY
ERGOT
EUCALYPTUS (DRIED, DYED OR TREATED IN FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS)
EUONYMUS (SPINDLE TREE)
EUPHORBIA CACTUS
FALSE HELLEBORE
FLAME TREE
FELT PLANT (MATERNITY, AIR & PANDA PLANTS)
FIG (WEEPING)
FIRE THORN
FLAMINGO FLOWER
FOUR O’CLOCK
FOXGLOVE
GLOTTIDIUM
GOLDEN CHAIN
GRASS: (JOHNSON, SORGHUM, SUDAN & BROOM CORN)
GROUND CHERRY
HEATHS: (KALMIA, LEUCOTHO, PEIRES, RHODODENDRON, MTN. LAUREL,
BLACK LAUREL, ANDROMEDA & AZALEA)
HELIOTROPE
HEMLOCK: (POISON & WATER)
HENBANE
HOLLY
HONEYSUCKLE
HORSE CHESTNUT
HORSE TAIL
HOYA
HYACINTH
HYDRANGEA
IRIS IVY: (ENGLISH & OTHERS)
JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT
JASMINE (JESSAMINE)
JERUSALEM CHERRY
JIMSONWEED
JUNIPER
KY. COFFEE TREE
LANTANA (RED SAGE)
LARKSPUR
LILY OF THE VALLEY
LILY, ARUM
LOBELIA
LOCOWEED (MILK VETCH)
LOCUSTS, BLACK / HONEY
LORDS & LADIES (CUCKOOPINT)
LUPINE
MALANGA
MARIJUANA (HEMP)
MAYAPPLE (MANDRAKE)
MEXICAN BREADFRUIT
MEXICAN POPPY
MILKWEED, COTTON BUSH
MISTLETOE
MOCK ORANGE
MONKSHOOD
MOONSEED
MORNING GLORY
MTN. LAUREL
MUSHROOMS, AMANITA
MYRTLE
NARCISSUS
NETTLES
NIGHTSHADES: (DEADLY, BLACK, GARDEN, WOODY, BITTERSWEET,
EGGPLANT, JERUSALEM CHERRY)
OAK
OLEANDER
OXALIS
PARSLEY
PEACE LILY
PERIWINKLE
PHILODENDRONS: (SPLIT LEAF, SWISS CHEESE, HEART-LEAF)
PIGWEED
POINCIANA
POINSETTIA
POISON IVY
POISON HEMLOCK
POISON OAK: (WESTERN & EASTERN)
POKEWEED
POTATO SHOOTS
POTHOS
PRIVET
PYRACANTHA
RAIN TREE
RANUNCULUS, BUTTERCUP
RAPE
RATTLEBOX, CROTALARIA
RED MAPLE
RED SAGE (LANTANA)
RHUBARB LEAVES
RHODODENDRONS
ROSARY PEA SEEDS
SAND BOX TREE
SKUNK CABBAGE
SORREL (DOCK)
SNOW DROP
SPURGES: (PENCIL TREE, SNOW-ON-MTN, CANDELABRA, CROWN OF THORNS)
STAR OF BETHLEHEM
SWEET PEA
SWISS CHEESE PLANT (MONSTERA)
TANSY RAGWORT
TOBACCO
UMBRELLA PLANT
VETCH: HAIRY/COMMON
VIRGINIA CREEPER
WATTLE
WEEPING FIG
WHITE CEDAR, CHINA BERRY
WISTERIA
YEWS
YELLOW JASMINE
…I hope you’re still here and read through the list.
I know that as I typed it, I was reminded of many very common
plants that I had forgotten were unsafe for my flock.
Suburban Growing 
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