A landscape designer and cancer center "paper pusher" say chickens are a great way to till gardens -- leaving behind valuable compost and a wealth of eggs.

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Jennifer Carlson of Magnolia, Wash., and Paul Farley of Bainbridge Island, Wash., will push that message Nov. 9 in their Seattle urban gardening class, City Chickens 101.

Seattle limits chickens to three on a typical single-family lot, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

That is plenty, say Carlson and Farley, who tout a coop that lets the chickens claw gardens into fertility.

Farley said his chicken interest began as a child in San Francisco, which "lets me tell the classes I teach that I've been raising chickens for most of 50 years -- as if I was some sort of expert."

Carlson, a chicken gardener since 1979, keeps most of the eggs.

"Their eggs are so excellent, they taste like butter," Carlson said.