Free-Range Chicken Gardens How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard

Many gardeners fear chickens will peck away at their landscape, and chicken lovers often shy away from gardening for the same reason. But the truth is a beautiful chicken-friendly garden is within easy reach, and award-winning garden designer Jessi Bloom proves it with Free-Range Chicken Gardens. A well-designed chicken garden offers chickens a healthy habitat and organic diet. The chickens in turn fertilize and aerate the soil and act as natural pest control. In this win-win scenario, the gardener reaps the additional pleasures of farmfresh eggs, a beautiful, healthy garden, and a uniquely picturesque panorama. With useful information on introducing chickens to a garden, gardening around chickens, strategies to protect precious plants, and design elements that encourage healthy play for the chickens in the garden, here is everything a chicken-loving gardener needs to know.

Jessi Bloom is a best-selling author, award-winning ecological landscape designer, and speaker. She owns N.W. Bloom EcoLogical Services, based in the Pacific Northwest, which is known as an innovator and leader in the field of permaculture, sustainable landscape design, construction, and land management. Her work has been recognized by government agencies and industry organizations and makes headlines in national media. She lives near Seattle with her two sons on their permaculture homestead, which is full of functional gardens and rescue animals.

Kate Baldwin is a food and lifestyle photographer in Seattle, Washington, whose work appears frequently in advertisements, magazines, and books, and can be seen at www.katebaldwinphotography.com.