Re: grasshopper control

Christian,

Yes, the fencing costs a bit. I use chicken wire fencing which is cheaper and keeps even the smallest wild bunnies out. Last year, a bunny got into the garden through a breach in the fortress and ate off the beans, beets, lettuce, etc. I thought it was the deer jumping in at night, until I spotted the little miscreant one morning. My son helped me chase him out through the open gate. He found his way back in, and we had to chase him out again. Then we searched for the hole and blocked it. So fencing is a necessary expense for gardening here.

At the time I had the chickens, we also had sheep that would get out on occasion. After watching them eat off every flower in sight one morning, I fenced the flower beds, too. The reason for keeping chickens out is that they have a fondness for eating many green plants, which are good for them but can ruin a garden. They also like to take dust baths which would be a concern if in doing so they uprooted an $85.00 iris. On the other hand, many animals won't eat irises because they are poisonous, I think, so it may be all right to let the chickens free range. Then it would be only the occasional dust bath that you would have to worry about. I recommend Gold Star hens if you are going to this. They are extermely gentle, and they lay large numbers of big brown eggs. Again, I will repeat that I had NO grasshoppers the whole time I kept chickens which I let free range - even in the drought year when there were so many that there were serious discussions by the experts about ways to control them. Maybe you could just fence in the expensive irises and the seedlings.

Lee

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