After having recently remodeled the front of our chicken run, I felt we needed to add some interest to it and, on a whim, put my husband to work making a flower box. The beauty of this micro flower garden is that the chickens can neither eat them nor trample it! Using spare wood from a previous project, he whipped up this flower box in less than a half an hour (paint drying time not included)
The front of my run, before flower box installation.
The top piece of the run measures 90 inches, so two pieces of wood were cut to 90 inches. The 2 ends and middle support were cut to 3 inches each. The wood was painted with paint we had on-hand and the five pieces were then screwed together.
After assembling the box, 1/4 inch hardware cloth was nailed to the bottom. I thought this would make the flower box lighter and allow for excellent drainage
The bottom of the flower box was lined with burlap to keep the soil from washing through the hardware cloth when watered.
Once lined with burlap, the box was screwed to the front of the run
I added some potting soil and compost, courtesy of my feathered pets, and then planted vinca vines and some petunias.
Kathy Shea Mormino
Affectionately known internationally as The Chicken Chick®, Kathy Shea Mormino shares a fun-loving, informative style to raising backyard chickens. …Read on
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After having recently remodeled the front of our chicken run, I felt we needed to add some interest to it and, on a whim, put my husband to work making a flower box. The beauty of this micro flower garden is that the chickens can neither eat them nor trample it! Using spare wood from a previous project, he whipped up this flower box in less than a half an hour (paint drying time not included)
The front of my run, before flower box installation.
The top piece of the run measures 90 inches, so two pieces of wood were cut to 90 inches. The 2 ends and middle support were cut to 3 inches each. The wood was painted with paint we had on-hand and the five pieces were then screwed together.
After assembling the box, 1/4 inch hardware cloth was nailed to the bottom. I thought this would make the flower box lighter and allow for excellent drainage
The bottom of the flower box was lined with burlap to keep the soil from washing through the hardware cloth when watered.
Once lined with burlap, the box was screwed to the front of the run
I added some potting soil and compost, courtesy of my feathered pets, and then planted vinca vines and some petunias.
Do you have any ideas how to keep the chickens out of flower beds? I love letting my chickens free range but they tear up my beds. Any ideas?
That looks do pretty. Great job!!!!
Cute! Unfortunately for me, unless we rebuild the run we can't do this. We used 2"X3" boards as because this a backyard coop in a well-fenced city yard, we use 1" poultry wire for the sides and plastic bird netting on top. An A-frame on one side provides a covered place to be out of the weather and shade cloth on another section provides shade. Our run is 10'X24', so quite large for our 6 gals. We do have to modify our coop to add a bit more space, currently it is 3'X4' plus attached nest boxes, as it was… Read more »
Really neat idea, I'm building a new run and I'll incorporate this into it., thanks!
Very nice. It appeared that Mr. Chicken Chick had a lot of help with thus project! Your burlap liner idea is great! Thanks for sharing!