Gardening with chickens, more fantastic fun

I thought it was time for another post featuring my beautiful rescue hens. Moreover, the girls have been posturing and posing, so they are clearly expecting to feature again, jolly soon. Such fantastic fun can be had when gardening with chickens.

I must say, my girls never cease to amuse me with their cheeky antics. Flora the Explorer can be seen above, cheekily perched on my shoulder. Also, my lovely chickens are tremendously kind and sharing, more on that later.

To demonstrate the fabulously fantastic fun I have gardening with my girls, I have chosen a few more photos and stories.

So, without further ado, here is the first one.

Colourful gardening with chickens

My first photo for this post is the colourful task of deadheading the dahlias. Naturally, this is a daily task as I have three hundred and fifty dahlias in my garden so far.

Notice the “so far” there. Clearly, numbers will increase, year on year. I am the Dahlia Queen after all, and one who loves her dahlias.

I snip off the fading blooms and task force chicken is activated. Each dahlia flower will be pecked and tossed around the lawn. Once interest has waned, I get to rake up and collect the faded flowers and add to the compost heap.

In order to maximise the dahlia tossing opportunities for all the girls, I drop heaps of deadheaded flowers around the garden from each flower border.

First to arrive at this small heap, Letitia Lettuce and Rafaela. I must try to get some action shots of the dahlia flower tossing for another post.

Occasionally, a dahlia will zing through the air and land on a chicken. A fabulously flamboyant fascinator, worn on a rakish angle. Such elegance!

Honestly, my girls would be a draw on any cat walk, or should that be chicken walk I wonder.

I must also try to get a photo of the elegant adornments for a later post too.

Fantastic fun for one and all, this gardening with chickens malarky.

Wings out, it’s sunbathing time

Ultimately, the sunshine, when it arrives, halts all those important gardening tasks. Some turbo charged feet can be merrily scratching away in a flower border or some dahlias are suddenly airborne and then the sun’s rays appear.

Immediately, the great dahlia toss and any soil excavations are put on hold and there is a speedy dash onto the lawn. Swiftly followed by a flop down and some tremendously elegant wing spreading.

Always the first to assume the sunbathing position is lovely Letitia Lettuce. Here she is in the photo above. How fabulous she looks in her elegant sunbathing pose near the nasturtiums.

Naturally, every lovely hen has to join in the sunbathing. I am often tempted to get my wing out too, and flop onto the lawn.

Although, I will always be noticing some weeds to remove or more flowers to deadhead or some dahlias to pick for the vases.

I pick more dahlias to bring in during late autumn. Primarily because with shorter daylight hours I will be indoors for longer and can enjoy some colourful flowers in the evenings.

I never look forward to darkness falling earlier and earlier, and I am sure this will be the same for most of us. Indeed, my lovely girls much prefer the long sunny days.

Another good reason to get the maximum time outdoors and fill our world with colour. And with plenty of fabulous gardening with chickens too naturally!

Turbo charged gardening with chickens

Time for some more deadheading and weeding. Straightaway, the girls race over to check out the heap.

Often, my beautiful black cat, Remus Nautilus, joins in the fun. Here he is with Pixie Pantaloon, paw stretched to nab a buddleia stem.

Here is the most recent Remus Nautilus post if you want to catch up with him too

The beautiful black cat who gardens for England

Whilst Remus Naut rolls around with his Buddleia stalk, Pixie decides on her first choice for a peck and scatter.

Clearly, I must speedily continue with the weeding and deadheading to provide more material for their enjoyment then.

I might get to collect all the trimmings to make some compost too, once I rake it all into heaps again.

However, the buddleia will not be going into the compost bins, as I do not need hundreds more of them to self seed in every border. I need the space for those three hundred and fifty dahlias and twenty six varieties of cosmos!

The buddleia I mention above are davidii which are large bushes and prone to self seed vigorously. However, there are plenty of smaller, better behaved ones if you would like one for your garden.

I have provided a link below for some options. A fabulous plant for pollinators and I have some of the smaller varieties in my garden. I have my eye on a variety called Flower Power. Looks fabulously zingy and colourful.

Click here for Thompson and Morgan buddleia options

Time for a dust bath

More deadheading of the dahlias and plenty more help from my lovely chickens. Or so I thought!

Clearly, the daily deadheading of dahlias and other flowers had become boring. After a general mooch around in a flower border, a plan was hatched.

I had weeded this flower border earlier and some bare soil was available for new planting. In the meantime, some lovely girls spotted the bare soil with their beady eyes.

Ultimately, the bare soil become a prime dustbathing spot. Initially, Pixie Pantaloon dug in and bathed. Next up came Rafaela, and out flew the soil in all directions.

Naturally, I stopped to watch the soil flying and feather flapping spectacle.

Consequently, the newly grown calendula plants earmarked for the flower border were destined to wait a little longer to be planted out.

The joy of watching my girls enjoy a dust bath, knowing they had none before they came out of the commercial farms, is a heartwarming sight.

Additionally, I usually get to enjoy a dust bath too, when the girls stand up, saunter over, and have a mighty shake. Thank you girls, for your kind and considerate dust sharing!

Time to relax

So, the preening, grooming and gardening has finished for another day, and we all have fabulously clean feathers.

Finally, it must be time for a little relaxing on the sun lounger.

I nab my place first with one of my turbo charged moves. As always, Rafaela is first up to claim the prime cuddling spot on my lap. Likewise, Pixie Pantaloon is often second to claim her spot.

After this, it is generally a free for all, with, fabulously clean, wings flapping and Tansy Teapot, Sophia on her Soapbox and Letitia Lettuce settling down somewhere near me for a well deserved rest.

If you missed my earlier posts on gardening with chickens, I have added links below.

Companion planting with beautiful chickens

Beautiful rescue chickens get gardening for England

I can thoroughly recommend adopting some beautiful rescue hens if you can. Since I started adopting hens many years ago, I, and they, have had some fabulous fun.

I adopt my hens from BHWT (British Hen Welfare Trust) and have provided a link below if you would like more details.

https://www.bhwt.org.uk/hen-adoption/

I cannot imagine my garden without my beautiful feathered friends. Furthermore, they give me such a boost to my wellbeing and keep me laughing with their antics.

I hope you have enjoyed this feathered post about gardening with chickens and will join me for the next one.

This blog is an affiliate with Thompson and Morgan. If you click on the buddleia link in this post, and make a purchase I may receive a commission, at no additional cost to you.

To see all my updates as they happen, please enter your email address below and press the subscribe button.