Free-Range Chicken Gardens: A Book Review

When I saw that landscaper Jessi Bloom had written a book about keeping a beautiful garden while letting chickens run around in it, I was excited. Did she have some secret insights into keeping my hens from gobbling up my collards and lettuce? Well...yes and no; but I still found Free-Range Chicken Gardens an inspiring and useful book.

So Bloom's ideas about hens and gardens, in a nutshell? Train the girls, block them when needed, give 'em plant diversity, and plant with chickens in mind.

The book begins by explaining why hens and gardens do go together. Chickens "weed" for us, eat pests, aerate the soil, "mow" our lawns, and provide organic fertilizer. If you don't have chickens yet, Bloom also offers sound advice on choosing some that are appropriate for your yard - and how to plan the yard to everyone's best advantage. I was surprised to see her define a typical suburban backyard as 7,000 to 13,000 sq. ft. - that's enormous in my neck of the woods - and much of her advice seems geared toward this size. But there is still plenty of info for those who have larger and smaller pieces of land.

Bloom also gives a good overview of taking care of chickens. She talks about their life cycle, their basic needs, clipping their wings, protecting them from predators, and so on, even offering tips for choosing chickens that do well with a free range lifestyle. She also delves into topics like composting chicken manure (although, surprisingly, she only explains how to do it with your kitchen or garden waste compost - with no info on keeping a compost bin just for manure). There is an entire section on coop design, with some amazing examples to inspire. And then Bloom discusses training chickens.



Most people think training a chicken is impossible, but I already know from personal experience this isn't so. For example, all we have to do is pick up a blue toy hoe, and all our chickens run into their house to be locked up for the night. My husband can also put a hand over them, and they will "sit" and allow him to pick them up. Bloom also says chickens can be trained to come when you call them by name. All of which is very useful when protecting your garden.

Next comes practical advice on temporarily fencing, netting, or blocking off new plantings, seedlings, and nearly-ready-to-harvest fruits and veggies. Fencing and hardscaping are covered rather extensively - which I suppose is to be expected from a professional landscaper. She covers garden design in depth - sometimes in a general way, but often with chickens in mind. For example, she offers diagrams and descriptions showing how hens can be cordoned off from certain areas (say, a vegetable garden, a children's play area, or a patio), while still giving them free range elsewhere. She then goes on to suggest how trees, shrubs, annuals, and perennials should be layered in the garden - both for beauty and for chicken foraging and habitat. In fact, plant diversity is a big part of how she suggests keeping hens from destroying the garden; the more plants, the less likely the chickens are to destroy any of them.

My favorite part of the book, however, is when Bloom discusses plants that seem to deter hens. For example, she notes that while all above-ground parts of nasturtiums are edible, her hens seem to hate them. She says a mixture of low growing ground covers may also deter hens and offers a page-long list of chicken-resistant plants. This gives me excellent ideas for protecting my vegetable garden from our hens, all while making the garden more attractive. Bloom also discusses plants that either provide hens with habitat or food and may be mixed into an ornamental garden. Oh, and if you're worried certain ornamentals could poison your chickens, Bloom gives expert advice on that, too.

Besides all this good info, the book is gorgeously illustrated with color photographs (most by Kate Baldwin) featuring hens in gardens and inspiring landscaping designs.

So while Free-Range Chicken Gardens wasn't exactly what I expected, I'm glad to have read it and have it as a part of my library. Already, I'm itching to improve my garden - then let the hens have at it.


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1 comment

  1. Maybe having the unfenced garden on the opposite side of my childhood farmhouse kept the hens at bay. They never seemed interested in the garden and were content pecking in the yard. Our chickens had true free range, not some small fenced in square to squat in. We had some awesome looking grass, too! :D I think all animals are trainable and some even express their love/loyalty in return. We had an old Sow that stayed under the kitchen window and acted as the watch dog. No one could get near us kids. LOL!

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