Chickens vs Garden

I understand that the chickens have already made a comment regarding the garden.  I would like to add my side of the story.

Once upon a time (as all good fairytales start), I had a lovely garden.  The decking was new, the plants and shrubs were lovingly planted surrounded by gravel with some railway sleepers making a pathway towards the garage.  Later on, a shed was added, to house the garden furniture which came out on a few occasions every year (i.e. when it was hot).

Then along came the chickens.  They added sparkle to my life and chaos to my garden.

The decking showed signs of poop, the shrubs slowly deteriorated as the chickens ate them, and the gravel moved mysteriously round the garden as the chickens scrabbled away looking for worms.  To be fair, two of the shrubs did actually die as a result of a particularly cold winter and I was responsible for the death of another by over-pruning it.  And the chickens (for some unexplainable reason) do not eat box bushes, so they are still there.

So, I replaced the demised plants with more box bushes (nice triangular ones in pots) and two plastic bushes, which if you didn't know, look just like the real thing.  I have also been able to add two Buddha nightlights to the garden which are very appropriate considering my job and look quite spooky at night.  The gravel is now mixed in with bark chippings so that the chickens have more places to scrabble in.

I still have a nice garden.  It's just a bit different from what it looked like before.  And now I share it with the chickens.

On reflection, I don't share it at all.  It now belongs to them.  I just happen to use it to hang the washing in on odd occasions.