{"id":58134,"date":"2025-01-06T18:21:49","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T07:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/maintenance.html\/?p=58134"},"modified":"2025-01-06T18:21:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T07:21:49","slug":"how-to-stop-insects-eating-plant-leaves-naturally-construct-a-chicken-moat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=58134","title":{"rendered":"How to Stop Insects Eating Plant Leaves Naturally: Construct a Chicken Moat"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"mx-0 lg:mt-2 text-2xl text-center font-normal text-primary lg:text-3xl lg:leading-tight\">This protective enclosure for the garden uses chickens as an effective garden pest control along with a moat to protect your crops.<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-58135\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Chicken_Moat.jpg\" alt=\"Chicken Moat\" width=\"892\" height=\"753\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Chicken_Moat.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Chicken_Moat-300x253.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A chicken moat is not a waterway, but it does provide a protective enclosure for the garden. Weeds, insects, rabbits, ground hogs and even deer are barred from entry by the double wall of fencing and the ever-diligent patrol flock. All in all, it\u2019s a clever solution to the fowl raiser\u2019s dilemma of whether to fence the birds or the garden: Fence both!<\/p>\n<p>In days gone by, rulers of kingdoms would protect themselves by ordering a few thousand serfs to build a moat around the family castle. With the current shortage of serfs, the practice has fallen out of favor. However, when faced with that classic country conundrum, \u201cDo I fence the garden or the chickens?\u201d I decided to make a modern adaptation of that medieval practice. I fenced both fowl and crops with a chicken moat.<\/p>\n<p>My moat is simply a strip of dry land, enclosed by two parallel fences, which surrounds my family\u2019s garden. Throughout the day, the hen patrol moves all around the garden (but never\u00a0<em>in<\/em>\u00a0it), munching on all those things hens love: weeds, seeds, worms, tiny pieces of stones, and (best of all) bugs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherearthnews.com\/homesteading-and-livestock\/garden-pest-control-zmaz88mjzgoe\/\">https:\/\/www.motherearthnews.com\/homesteading-and-livestock\/garden-pest-control-zmaz88mjzgoe\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This protective enclosure for the garden uses chickens as an effective garden pest control along with a moat to protect your crops. A chicken moat is not a waterway, but it does provide a protective enclosure for the garden. Weeds, insects, rabbits, ground hogs and even deer are barred from entry by the double wall &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=58134\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How to Stop Insects Eating Plant Leaves Naturally: Construct a Chicken Moat&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58136,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58134\/revisions\/58136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}