Build a chicken moat to keep pests out of garden | Animals | Forums

I really like this. It's given me tons of design ideas.

You could build a few paddocks around the moat and then do a paddock shift with the chickens so that they always have access to the moat and one of the paddocks.  You can then have seasonal plantings in each of the paddocks to cut down on the chicken feed costs.

You could design in a work area on the outside for turning the compost and give chickens access to the compost so they can turn it and fertilize it for you.  Trellises over the moat for all of your vining fruits and berries.  Adding a greenhouse would be a nice touch too.  You can stack so many functions into this one simple idea. Nice!

OK, so I finished the design of my chicken moat.  The innermost garden and the kiwi trellis are existing and fenced to 8ft for deer protection.  I plan on fencing the perimeter of that and adding a grape vine trellis this fall.  I'll move the coop over to the new garden along with the new greenhouse I'm getting next spring.  Id add access to dump waste for composting from the outside of the fence.  The moat will be divided into three sections which will allow me to rotate the chickens so they dont overbrowse any one area.  I plan on planting two species of Mulberries, an American Persimmon and an almond tree around the garden and a hardy fig tree inside.  This should allow for fruit drop to cut down on feed costs.  Hugelmounds and swales are planned to plant the trees in.  Black locust, Autumn Olive, Seaberries and Siberian Pea shrubs are planned as support species for nitrogen fixation into the soil.  All except the Black locust produce an edible food crop.

My existing food forest has been expanded and will feature some more plantings next spring.  I also will put in three chestnut trees and about 20 black locust trees for nitrogen fixing and eventually coppicing for a wood yeild.