Gardening with chickens

In 2009 I started gardening with a companion chicken named Cinnamon. I borrowed her from a good friend in Fairfield who identified her as not fitting in with the rest of the flock. I was unable to keep her over the summer but received a different Cochin this January. Elizabeth named her Sugar.

Sugar stays in a large rabbit cage when at at home and travels in a cat carrier in my car to my gardening jobs. I like gardening with cochin chickens because they are quiet and calm birds with determined yet friendly dispositions.

She love to eat weeds and gets the occasional worm for her efforts. The forage she gets from a days work helps to enrich her lovely brown eggs. In my family we view Sugar as a pet and treat her as kindly as our family dogs.

Having Sugar work with me helps to encourage my colleagues and clients to consider keeping chickens and fosters a better understanding of perma culture and the need to treat farm animals humanely.

Salvia conferiflora (red-velvet salvia)

A native from Brazil that will reach 4-6 feet in height and width in one season. It has large dark green leaves, with a yellow undertone, with serrated edges, and with velvety red-brown hairs on the petiole and stem of the new leaves.

Flower inflorescences reach up to 2 feet long and are covered with velvety red-brown

hairs, with the stems of the inflorescence and the calyx also having a red-brown color. The .5 inch flowers are orange-red, and very profuse, explaining the epithet confertiflora, or "crowded with flowers". The plant grows so large that it needs staking and protection from wind in gardens.

Hummingbirds love it and it blooms year around in San Francisco.

Pink flowering currant, ribes sanguineum v. glutinosum "Claremont"

This is a california native that has beautiful spring flowers, maturing in to purple/bluish berries with a silvery sheen.

Humming birds and native bees love the flowers and the berries attract grossbeaks, thrushes, waxwings and other birds.

This shrubby small tree has multiple trunks and does not get too large 10-15 feet at most. Making it a great addition to any garden.

Pride of Madeira

Family: Boraginaceae

Origin: Native to the Canary Islands


Hardiness: Hardy in zones 9 and 10 only; best at coast
Growth: Rapid growth to 8 feet with wider spread
Form: Naturally a wide mound, but can be pruned to upright form
Leaves: Gray-green 8 inch narrow leaves at end of stems
Flowers: Blue to purple 1/2 flowers in long spikes in spring
Fruit or Seeds: Remove flower spikes when they fade
Exposure: Full sun; good at coast
Water: Weekly to monthly or none at all during summer
Soil: Well drained; grows in poor soil
Fertilizer: Fertilizer causes rapid growth and poor flowering
Prune: To shape and to expose branches
Problems: Snails; root rot if drainage is poor

Spectacular plant in coastal areas. Echium comes in a variety of rich blues and purples. Easily rooted from cuttings.

Black Mondo grass Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens') This cultivar was developed in England but the species is from Japan.

It likes partial to full shade, does well from boggy to dryish soil, and when established needs only weekly water. It will send out runners and slowly spread to form a loose "colony" of plants.

I use this plant a lot in SF shade gardens.

Installation I did in 2009 including the paver stones.

Shade garden installed in 2008.