Last week, we harvested our garlic. We succession-plant bush beans, which was one of this weekend's tasks. The variety we plant mature in 60 days or so, giving us another crop to can, and hopefully, return some nitrogen to the soil. I headed to the bed in the morning with a garden fork to turn the soil and prepare for the bean seeds. The chickens quickly took note and hopped into the bed to 'help', eating worms and grubs unearthed by my work.
As I stood watching them, I thought back to the Madison garden expo we attend each year. Usually there is one session on gardening with chickens. I have never attended one of those sessions, as I find chickens to be fairly destructive in a garden. I planted some rhubarb along our garden shed several years ago, which they shredded in the late spring after we were able to harvest a couple of rounds of stalks. I thought rhubarb leaves were poisonous, but apparently not to chickens. Their scratching through the garlic bed's soil did help break up clods and even things out. They also do a great job in the fall picking through our main garden for bugs, weed, seeds, and other goodies, spreading their manure. Their gardening contribution is best limited to cleanup.
Shrugging, I decided to leave the chickens to their task and took care of a couple of other projects. I returned in the afternoon once the chickens found something else to do. I brought the bean seeds, a hoe, and a roll of temporary electric fence to provide protection to the seeds and sprouts. The chickens can have the bed back in the fall.
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