Third season keeping laying hens and every spring plays out the same way. I put in a small herb bed close to the coop thinking they'd leave it alone, and within two weeks it looks like something exploded in there. Dust bathing, scratching, pecking at anything green. The whole bed is just dirt now

Tried fencing it off with scrap wire but they squeezed under it faster than I expected. Someone told me to plant things they naturally avoid, but that hasn't held up in practice at all. They ate the rue. They ate the lavender. They ate a pepper plant I put in as a test.

What I'm actually trying to figure out is whether anyone has found a layout that works long term. Something that keeps a productive garden patch close enough to be convenient without getting wrecked every few days. Not a full separate garden far from the coop, just something functional right there in that zone.

The chickens themselves are great, good layers, easy to manage, but this one thing is driving me up the wall. Feels like I reinvent the wheel on it every single year.

My property is home to a network of old rock walls (likely 200+ years old). I know it's hard to see them in the pictures, because they are under ferns, raspberries, and various trees. Does anyone have any advice for clearing them out? I intend to leave most of the trees, but would love to reduce the raspberries to a manageable level (hah-if that's even possible for raspberries.) I'd rather not use fire or chemicals, as there's lots of critters living in the rock walls.

Does anyone have any magical solutions, or am I looking at a massive amount of sheer physical labor?