Gardening with Chickens

Lisa Steele knows chickens. In her book, Gardening With Chickens, she has created an informative guide to help you train your flock to work with you. It’s not about “tolerating” chickens in the garden while scratching hens kill your plants and destroy your beds – it’s about designing the garden “around” them by creating a system to turn your flocks’ habits into your greatest asset. Lisa will teach you what plants are safe for hens, what plants to avoid, and how to protect your garden across all four seasons. She also covers composting and fertility tips and teaches you the steps for training your chickens how to till, weed, aerate, and control pests. 

What you’ll discover inside the book: 

• Themed Garden Layouts: design gardens with herbs for nesting, yolk-enhancing greens, insect-repelling zones, and more 
• Plants Safe for Hens (and ones to avoid): detailed plant lists so your chickens enrich rather than destroy
• Seasonal Systems: what to plant, how to use your flock, and how to protect your garden across spring, summer, fall, and winter 
• Chicken as Garden Workers: steps to train your flock to till, weed, aerate, control pests 
• Composting + Fertility: how to use chicken manure (without burning plants or risking disease) and make “chicken poop tea” 
• Edible Garden Integration: grow treats that feed both your hens and your family 
• Creative Flank Moves: medicinal herbs, edible flowers, natural wormers, first-aid plant applications
• Problem-Solving Tactics: how to prevent flock invasions, protect delicate seedlings, and keep balance

About Lisa Steele:

Lisa Steele is a fifth-generation chicken keeper, a Maine Master Gardener, and creator of the blog Fresh Eggs Daily – the go-to online resource for chicken-keeping advice. She lives in rural Maine with her husband, their corgi, and a mixed flock of chickens, ducks, and geese. Her books on raising poultry have sold more than 150,000 copies worldwide and are among the bestselling chicken-keeping books in print. The media has named her the  "queen of the coop." Lisa has been recognized by many national media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, Country Living, the Farmer’s Almanac, and Parade. As a television and radio personality, Lisa has appeared on the Hallmark Channel's Home and Family show, Martha Knows Best on HGTV, NPR's Maine Calling, and P. Allen Smith's Garden Home on PBS. Lisa also hosts her own "country lifestyle" show, Welcome to my Farm, on CreateTV. She has also written two cookbooks, with a third on the way.