(Preliminary disclaimer: No, don't get animals you're not able to keep well)
There's this super awkward area of my site. Too steep for my lemon of a body, heavy clay, mostly shade, right out the kitchen door, and almost all you see from the living room window.
The slightly sunnier area next to it is decorative. With hosta, heuchera, ferns, lots of early spring flowers, wild garlic. Extending that towards the awkward side didn't work.
Chickens.
It's gonna be a permanent chicken run. I always wanted some chicken again anyways. The coop will be easy to reach from the kitchen. They'll scratch the hill to hell and I couldn't care less. I can throw garden scraps and hay in from the top of the hill where the main garden is, and they can go through it until it reaches the bottom where I can harvest compost/manure/seed-reduced soil.
They'll still get to help in the main garden. I still have poultry fences that can be moved around to where I want them to "weed" and loosen the soil a bit, or let them stay longer in one spot and they'll clean up a seed bed for wildflowers.
Also, chick therapy. When watching them it's so easy to forget all worries.
