Wanda and Neutron get to work.

March is a busy garden month. There are seedlings to transplant, seeds to sow, weeds to pull, fences to mend, and compost to spread. Of course, spreading that homemade compost is a lot more rewarding if you aren't attacked by fire ants crawling up the shovel handle. It's also best if your compost doesn't carry hundreds of seedling-eating pillbugs into your freshly made garden beds. To root out the insects that are inevitable in the compost bin but aren't so welcome in the veggie plot, I turn to my on-site specialists: Neutron and Wanda.

While the hens are perfectly happy to hop into the big compost piles to scratch for snacks, I find they do a more thorough debugging if I put a few shovelfuls of compost into shallow plastic bins and let them get to work. The plastic bins minimize compost lost to kicking and are easy for me to carry around the garden once the chickens have picked out all the "good stuff," which usually only takes a few minutes.

It's suburban symbiosis at its best. The bugs help break down the compost. The chickens keep the bugs from damaging the vegetable plants, and fuller bellies make the hens less inclined to scratch up the garden beds. End result? Healthier soil, healthier vegetables and some excellent fresh eggs.

What's growing in your garden?

Photo: author's personal collection

Casey Kelly Barton writes, wrangles chickens, grows vegetables and tries to live green in Austin. She blogs at Redneck Mother.