Chicken-safe/chicken-resistant landscaping in hot, dry climate

[RGB RIP]

My chickens have the run of my backyard in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. It's hot and dry here, with terrible compacted clay soil that doesn't drain well, so gardening is a challenge. The one thing that grows really well is succulents, and I inherited a lot of them in the backyard landscaping that came with the house.

The girls went crazy for the aloe, and for a long time I didn't care because people take aloe for their digestion, so I figured it couldn't be all that bad for the hens. But then they developed chronic diarrhea, and I did more reading, and it turns out aloe is bad for chickens. Ok, so I removed all the aloe, and they started going for the jade plants, which are toxic. So I got rid of those, and yesterday I saw them nibbling at some fire sticks - also poisonous - that they had never bothered before.

I'm now starting to realize I'm going to have to pull all the succulents out because so many of them are toxic, and I have quite a few of them that I can't even identify to know if they're safe. I'm looking for suggestions about what I could plant in their place. I'm looking for things that they won't gobble down to the stem, but that won't be harmful to them if they nibble on it a little to entertain themselves. But the other challenging part is that it needs to be drought resistant, heat resistant, and grow in my terrible soil. (I could also put some things in big pots, but with all the landscape plants I need to replace, I'm going to need some good chicken-safe bushes and shrubs.)

Does anyone have some good suggestions?

 

[Stipenvlerk]

I'm from a cold and wet climate so not of much help... But I think this wil help you:
https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/resource/plants-for-chickens-in-the-sonoran-desert/

 

[RGB RIP]

Thank you! I may have to hit up a native plant specialist to find some of these, but that's a good reference list.

 

[Stipenvlerk]

Thank you! I may have to hit up a native plant specialist to find some of these, but that's a good reference list.

Great! Wish you all the best

 

[Acre4Me]

@igorsMistress - you might have some suggestions.

 

[igorsMistress]

Hi there! I’m in Phoenix but moved here from your general area and there are lots of things you can grow. Emu bush, red and/or yellow Mexican bird of paradise, yellow bells and bells of fire, rosemary. I’ll be honest, you’ll have to protect anything you plant until it’s big enough to withstand being eaten, ie it’s too tall for the chickens to eat all the leaves off and kill it. My flock doesn’t care at all for rosemary and it grows into a rather large bush. These are all nice shrubs for shade and cover, but haven’t made my flock sick. A bigger option is Arabian lilac, which you can grow as a tree or large shrub. You might try a grass frame as well. Made with 2x4s and covered with hardware cloth so they can’t scratch it and destroy it. Also, my flock didn’t eat the marjoram I grew near my lemon tree one year. Maybe grow some herbs in pots and rotate those to the flock for munching. Mine like dill quite a bit, a little thyme, some oregano. You can sprout birdseed for them and put it out in a flat. You want safe greens in abundance for them so they leave the other stuff alone. They may be eating the succulents because there’s no other greens available. Even with all these things in my yard, I still find a few chunks missing from the aloe once in a while. Good luck!

 

[chfriedmam]

My chickens have the run of my backyard in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. It's hot and dry here, with terrible compacted clay soil that doesn't drain well, so gardening is a challenge. The one thing that grows really well is succulents, and I inherited a lot of them in the backyard landscaping that came with the house.

The girls went crazy for the aloe, and for a long time I didn't care because people take aloe for their digestion, so I figured it couldn't be all that bad for the hens. But then they developed chronic diarrhea, and I did more reading, and it turns out aloe is bad for chickens. Ok, so I removed all the aloe, and they started going for the jade plants, which are toxic. So I got rid of those, and yesterday I saw them nibbling at some fire sticks - also poisonous - that they had never bothered before.

I'm now starting to realize I'm going to have to pull all the succulents out because so many of them are toxic, and I have quite a few of them that I can't even identify to know if they're safe. I'm looking for suggestions about what I could plant in their place. I'm looking for things that they won't gobble down to the stem, but that won't be harmful to them if they nibble on it a little to entertain themselves. But the other challenging part is that it needs to be drought resistant, heat resistant, and grow in my terrible soil. (I could also put some things in big pots, but with all the landscape plants I need to replace, I'm going to need some good chicken-safe bushes and shrubs.)

Does anyone have some good suggestions?

Hi, I'm in 91606 area code neighbor! My garden is all sage and Manzanita type stuff. The chickens love the sage in their coop as cuttings but don't eat it. I have a honeysuckle hedge along one side of their run and they've denuded the bottom half- but I'm fine with that. I've resorted to fencing off areas and sprouting field peas from Scratch and peck and microgreens. Beet seeds grew well. I even started one with (gasp) grass seed from home depot. Just a small 8x3 foot rectangle. I set a grate over them and let them grow a few weeks, then I open it up. My toddler picks mustard weeds and feeds it to them and they love it-and while it's not native you know it's growing EVERYWHERE! I actually just ordered some mustard seed to grow In a different quadrant of my yard to rotate them into.

I was thinking a hedge of lemonberry with chicken wire protecting the innermost parts-infeel like that's the only way to keep plants alive in the run. That or a tree that drops things they like.

My soil isn't doing so hot. I add old bedding to it and once a week I turn over the whole run with a shovel. I think the peas (legumes) will help deplete some of the nitrogen deposited by the manure, but I'm no farmer

 

[chfriedmam]

Great! Wish you all the best

Theodore Payne Nursery in Sunland has great native plants at reasonable prices-and they are experts

 

[DominicParrish]

You can set aside an area for the chickens, so they don't walk all over the lawn. Having animals is nice, but they shouldn't be such a nuisance. When we built our new house, we faced an almost identical problem. So after a while we installed a fence to separate the area with the animals from our orchard.

 

[MartaDeniel5]

You can set aside an area for the chickens, so they don't walk all over the lawn. Having animals is nice, but they shouldn't be such a nuisance. When we built our new house, we faced an almost identical problem. So after a while we installed a fence to separate the area with the animals from our orchard.

These features caused some problems with the landscaping. But thanks to the experts at https://jscustomlandscaping.com , we turned a very cool design into reality. Now the area around the house looks just great. Every area is a pleasure. We enjoy our time outdoors.