I am thinking of growing luffas up the outside of my coop so that there will be shade and I can take advantage of the structure.

If I planted the vines on the outside of the big fence posts the chickens couldn't get to the vines ( or most of them).

I've always wanted to experiment with Luffas.

Do any of you grow things on your coop? What do you grow?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), October 16, 2001

Answers

we had morning glories climbing up the side of the chicken pen, and the chickens didn't bother it. That may be because they are poisonous, or at least the seeds are. On the hen house we had some cardinal climbers growing up the sides (we had about three plants the year before and now those darn things are everywhere!).

-- Elizabeth (lividia66@aol.com), October 16, 2001.

I planted tall sunflowers along the outside of the chickens fence one year for shade before I had a shelter built out from the chicken house for shade, and it worked quite well as they often lay in the shade of the sunflowers during the afternoon.

-- Duffy (hazelm@tenforward.com), October 16, 2001.

I'm going to try sunflowers and pole beans this spring.

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), October 16, 2001.

In the book "Carrots Love Tomatoes", she states that pole beans and sunflowers don't like each other but pole beans and corn do grow well together. My sunflowers did great but the pole beans were pitiful two years ago. I'm a believer.

-- Lynn (lynnannmb@hotmail.com), October 16, 2001.

I grow a vine around my compost pile that hides it completely. Wish I knew what it was! Got the seed pods from my son - grows wild at his place, climbs up the trees and all over. Leaves look sort of like maple leaves, has fragrant flowers that stand up like candles (lots of tiny flowers that altogether look like candles), and has prickly seed pods that look like baby cucumbers with stickers in the fall. The seed pods are incredibly full of liquid, and the seeds look like huge watermelon seeds. I'm sure it's an annual - very shallow-rooted, and the roots need shade for the plant to thrive. I tried planting it in full sun, and it didn't do so good. Grows well in NW Illinois.

If anyone knows what it is, please e-mail me!! Thanks!

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), October 17, 2001.

We call it wild cucumber. You don't want to let this go to seed anymore than necessary, as it will cover everything in site.

-- Lori Kittell (lkkittell@internetwis.com), October 18, 2001.

Depends on your climate. I've seen chokos (which I believe you call chayote) be quite successful. Also scarlet runner beans (sometimes also called seven year beans because they can regrow from tubers, or poor man's beans because they grow and flower (beautiful!) and set seed so prolifically).

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), October 20, 2001.