Awesome old USDA poster

[IrishAyes]

78. As to the great dog/chicken war...

Hens are one thing, roosters another. Those damn roosters start up BEFORE daylight to summon the sun, didn't you know that? But if noise and health laws are strictly and impartially enforced (and when has that ever happened in a small town?), raising chickens can be fine. They've never been prone to attacking other pets and humans either, unlike roosters and dogs.

It would be WWIII in this town if I hadn't put up a 4-ft fence around the entire perimeter of my quarter acre - that's about the average size lot here. I have real issues about people with free range dogs, because I garden and landscape and those nasty little male dogs used to pee on my front door because I had female dogs indoors. After 2 years and several cans of pepper spray, at last I found the kind of vintage fencing I wanted to go with the house. Only one place I could find still makes it, and at that just about once a year when they get enough special orders to make a run. So I had a time of it for awhile.

Once the fence went up I could let my chows out when I couldn't take them for a walk, so that made life easier for me. Neighbors didn't like it because my property no longer served as a convenient short cut, and they didn't want to challenge the chows or me either for that matter. Anyway, with my dogs having the run of the yard I had to fence in the garden area too, but it was worth it. You can grow almost anything in raised beds. Once you get them established and collect your own seeds from heirloom varieties, gardening can be very cost effective. Most heirlooms reseed themselves w/o any help.

Strawberry plants make excellent mulch and keep down weeds so well, even creeping charlie which I encourage to grow along the fence row because I don't like to trim. No need to buy fertilizer either if you compost. Just go entirely organic and you're better off in every way.