Chicken Worries

After spending three and a half hours preparing my garden plots yesterday, I was feeling really proud of the work I'd accomplished only to look out an hour later and see the neighbor's free range chickens scratching the hell out of all that nice new loose dirt.  Since I haven't planted anything yet, it's not that big of a deal right now -- but I'm positive it will become one.  I've been doing some google searches, trying to find tips on keeping chickens out of a garden, but I just don't know what will work and what won't.  The neighbor's have a really huge garden every summer, so they must do something to keep the dratted birds out of their garden... I've never minded the chickens.  I love that they keep the bug population under control -- especially since there's a horse pasture in my backyard -- but I'm worried about them digging up my new seeds and eating the sprouts and munching on the growing veggies.  I'll have to ask the neighbor what she does...

So I got some great exercise yesterday and this morning I'm all sore and achy, of course.  Brother Williams from across the street came over this morning and offered to use his tiller on my garden.  If only I'd talked to him yesterday!  He's still going to till up some areas that I didn't get to, and I spread manure over my plots that he's going to till under for me -- thank heaven for wonderful neighbors!  Then I'll need to rake out the walkways again, cover them with cardboard so we can put wood chips down on them, and figure out a way to keep those stupid birds out.  If their wings have been clipped, a pretty short fence might be enough.  Then I could still reach to weed and harvest, but since it's such a small area, I don't want to try putting up bigger fencing because I won't be able to get in to my plants!  I guess I could try enclosing the entire area, walkways included, but I'm not sure how that would work with the horse cleaning pad which is cement and can't be moved...  Grrr.  I wish they'd built that thing just a few feet east of it's current spot!  Of course no one at the time had any idea that someone might want to try a garden out there some day.  And since the whole backyard is pretty much built around the horses, there's not really anywhere else to put my garden.  :(  Besides, I've already put too much work into that plot to want to move it now, anyway.