posted 10 years ago
My partner and I moved to Ellensburg, WA this week. We are accustomed to the New York/Pennsylvania flora but we have no knowledge of this dry biome. We intend to raise chickens immediately. The owners of the house we are renting are wonderful people who have already done a lot to the property with multiple raised beds, mulched soil, mature peach, apple, and pear trees, and a great coop. What I want to do is minimize the feed and provide as much fodder from our kitchen and plants in the many potential polycultures we can develop.
What are excellent conventionally-planted species that will provide greens, seed, bug attraction and so forth for chickens?
What are the early succession opportunists that are desired by chickens? in the Delaware water gap of Pennsylvania we used tons of chickweed, smart weed, lamb's quarter that we wouldn't plant, but encouraged in certain areas. What can we keep our eyes open for?
Thanks!