Landscaping Ideas: How to Embrace Your Lawn and Garden

Owning chickens can be a great hobby for your family or even a great way to get farm fresh eggs without spending a lot of money from local farmers. If you're interested in introducing a few chickens to your backyard, it's important that you take the time to get your landscaping prepared for their arrival. After you make sure that your city allows chickens in residential areas, consider some of the following ideas for improving your backyard before adopting chickens.

Make Sure Your Yard is Fully Fenced In

It is important for chickens to be allowed free roam for a few hours every day, making it necessary that your backyard is entirely fenced in. While a chicken coop can be quite large, nothing beats allowing the chickens to wander freely around your yard, allowing them to forage and stretch their legs. When getting fencing put in, make sure that there are no gaps or easy ways for the chickens to escape.

Set Up an Area for Compost to be Sprinkled Outside

Raising chickens can get costly if you are regularly buying store-bought chicken feed. Luckily, there are a number of ways to provide them with the nutrition they need without spending a fortune. A good way to do so is by setting up a compost bin in your kitchen that you can drop scraps and bring out to the chickens once a day. This can help you get rid of extra waste, will be eco-friendly, and provide your chickens with the nutrition they need.

Provide Shade Through Trees or Manmade Structures

After your chickens are allowed free roam in your yard, it's easy for them to get overheated if there is no shade. Introducing shade can be as easy as getting a few trees planted or putting in a shade structure such as a large umbrella or canopy. With a shade structure set up, you can feel good letting your chickens roam freely without concern of being sunburnt or overheated.

Keep City Ordinances in Mind When Setting Up the Coop

When setting up the actual chicken coop, is important that you don't just place the coop wherever you feel like it. While aesthetics are certainly important, you need to pay close attention to any city ordinances since most cities require the coop to be a certain distance away from your home and your neighbor's homes.

As you prepare for buying or adopting chickens for your backyard, you need to keep in mind what kinds of features need to be implemented into the landscaping of your home. Contact a landscaping company, such as All American Landscape Design Inc., for more information.