Digger Dog, Scratcher Chickens No More!

Since I put the flower beds in around the house, I've been complaining that the chickens scratch everything up.  And they do...every day of every year.  Of course, Ginger has joined the digging brigade.  Except, she digs big holes, just like Harry used to do.  Harry kind of grew out of it and prefers to lay on the garage concrete floor.  But Ginger is just getting started on her reign of destruction.  She likes to dig where the sprinkler lines run and she digs down until the pipe is exposed, then she lays on it.

This is one of her favorite places - right next to the house, digging to expose the pipe and the azalea bush's roots.

So, I think I have a solution.

This is a 100 foot roll of 1" by 1" welded wire mesh.  We had to drive an hour to the hardware store that carries it.

We rolled it out and cut it in pieces to fit along the front of the house in the flowerbeds.

And this little side area where Ginger especially likes to dig.  Placing tiles there didn't stop her.

I cut out small sections to fit around the existing plants.  The copper sprinkler poles fit through the wire nicely and help hold it in place.

My pot of Rosemary helps hold it down here.  If this works like I think it will, I should be able to plant seeds, whereas, before I had to either start the seeds in a pot indoors or I had to buy plants already started because the chickens would scratch up the seeds.  And, if by chance a seed survived and sprouted, they scratched up the seedlings.

The mesh itself should keep the dogs and chickens from digging, but if it doesn't, or if I want to keep them from even walking on an area, this is my plan - cut the wires and bend them up so that they make sharp little barbs.  I expect that they won't want to walk on those.  And, yes, I have already stepped on it and it hurt like the dickens (what is a dickens?).