Greenery in the old chicken yard

Green manure growing in last year's chicken yard, Oct 2017

In May, the last time I updated about the old chicken yard it was full of mustard;  I let the chickens mow it down for me then before it flowered, so it wouldn't cross with my kale.  I had originally seeded this section with a winter green manure mix including mustard, rye, and red clover.  The rye and clover eventually germinated once the mustard finished, and I later sowed some alfalfa (lucerne).

Since that last planned incursion in May, chickens have been strictly forbidden from this section, and the green manure--plus some weeds--have grown strongly and covered most of the bare soil.  I'm pleased about the alfalfa in particular;  as a perennial, I hope they establish well enough to allow periodic chicken grazing, without reverting back to the scorched earth it was.