Chicken Garden, Part 2

Ok, so here's the short version:

I started with the above, plus some other tasties...

Added cardboard, as mentioned before.

Topped with 1 year old sheep manure and bedding materials (wood chips and straw).

And proceeded to scatter seeds, willy-nilly.  

We then covered the whole lot with shade cloth, to prevent the dastardly quail from eating all the seed.  (Grrrr!) and to help germination with a little heat, as we haven't had so much of the sun around these parts of late.  The shade cloth is the black thing at the back of this photo:

Well, it's comin up like crazy now!  The chickens are poking their heads thru the fence to get at all the greens and I swear I even saw a couple of the smarter ones conspiring to jump the fence today... you think I'm kidding.  I turned the chairs upright after the windstorm knocked them over and when I glanced out at the chicken yard later on, there were 2 sitting on the seat of the chair staring determinedly at the lush greens on the other side of the fence.  At this point, to them, the grass IS greener on the other side!

We've since removed the shade cloth so those tasty treats are looking extremely tantalizing to the ladies right now.  But, we have to keep them out for a bit longer so that the grasses and other plants are well-established, or the chooks will happily yank them out by the roots and the entire yard will be barren by mid-July.  They'll have to be patient and just enjoy the garden gleanings and kitchen scraps for a wee bit more.