Depending on the breed of duck, no you don't have to go forraging, they will leave them in consistent nesting areas. Indian Runners, however, are adorable idiots, and are liable to drop eggs as they walk around without stopping to see what they just did. You can get a pond for them. I have one of those $5 walmart kiddie pools. They prefer to bathe in it, it doubles as their drinking water, and they poop in it (which again, is fertilizer) so when I pour out the water to change it the grass loves me. However, you have to have a pond. Just any time of drinking water will do. They do make a mess so keep the water away from anywhere you'd prefer to keep clean. The difference between a duck coop and a chicken coop is that ducks don't need a "coop" per se. I built one and haven't used it in about a year. I used to put them in there at night to keep them safe from predators. Hawks and owls decimated my duck population until I got my two geese who have protected them -- and the rest of my yard -- since. Now they free range in my back yard and I just change their water and feed them as needed. As a general rule for coops, ducks require roughly 4-6 sq ft per duck for sleeping space at night. I built their coop with an old dog house I found on craigslist, turned a pallet into another *house* and then fenced around it. Cheap, quick, it works. I've never noticed anything with disease. I feed them chicken pellets I get from the local tractor supply now that theyre grown, when they're babies you give them the baby chicken feed. They eat same thing chickens do, plus grubs. If they run out of food, don't worry, they'll find it in your yard. A lot fewer snakes around here now that they ate all the beatles, which the frogs came for, and then ate the frogs too. BackyardChickens is a good resource for you, as is the place I bought the ducks and the geese, metzer farms
Yeah I would STRONGLY recommend getting a pair of geese to fend off predators. I tried everything. Then I got two of these guys (a male and female) and everything was fine. Well, a hawk took the female before she was big enough, but the male is perfect protection for my ducks dogs and the rest of the place. And he adores my son. And yes, ducks are cool, there's no discernable difference in behavior between males and females. Just make sure to handle them a lot when they're young and they'll imprint on you, which means they think you're their mother. They play nice with other animals like dogs. Geese are the same way, if you decide to go that route, despite their reputation as assholes. Roosters are assholes though. Those fuckers are just mean. Buy a few if you want shotgun practice. **edit** and as I was typing that, half a dozen wood ducks flew into my yard and are now chilling with the ducks and geese.
Chicken shit is not toxic to the soil. Fresh chicken manure is very rich in phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen and because of that, it will create enough heat during decomposition to scorch young plant roots. It's a rather good fertilizer, however you need to compost it for 3-6 months before using it. Those chicken tractors are meant to move the chickens around so they fertilize the entire area. if there's no vegetation under it, it's because the owner needs to move it daily. An article from HGTV: The Straight Poop on Using Chicken Manure as Fertilizer For sale on Google Chicken "tractors" from 1940's England. Image from wikipedia:
I was reading at the Backyard Chickens site and the consensus on chickens among the garden was net negative. They are prone to eating small plants, will eat some of your produce, and may scratch roots up. It looks like it is generally recommended to compost their waste to kill salmonella. I'm sure it's generally OK if you give it time in the sun but I won't play with disease like that. I don't have reliable testing methods so I'd rather just keep it clean and not worry about possible pathogens in my food. I have to use all sorts of tricks and home mixed chemicals to keep bugs off my plants. Sounds like ducks are win-win-win: Compost, eggs, and bug killers. My biggest nonstarter right now is that my male dog fucking loves live fowl. He was a stray for some unknown amount of time in Hawaii before we adopted him and there are a lot of feral chickens out there. He gets so excited that he shakes uncontrollably and salivates if he sees or hears a chicken or we pass a duck/goose at the park.... between that and the feral cats, I think those were his protein sources. Luckily our dogs are mostly inside dogs and are only out for extended periods when we are outside. Buddy had a double coat and will go inside after awhile because he's hot--- maybe they can live together in harmony some how. I'm sure we could train him if he were a young pup but this is a trait that runs deep. I don't think we will be able to break him of his thirst for live meat but maybe they can be kept separate.
I got a full sprout out of my last seeds of the season, a little starter of peppers. I had never used the little starters, but it did very well.
200 Count- Jiffy 7 Peat Soil 42mm Pellets Seeds Starting Plugs: Indoor Seed Starter- Start Planting Indoors for Transplanting to Garden or Planter Pot https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000EHJN7K?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf
I am using both this year. They both have their pros and cons but the good thing about the ones I linked is that they are significantly cheaper. I am only using the other degradable pots because I was able to get a good price on them.
Yes, the Jiffy mini greenhouse bit. Less than $5, only requiring my seed and water. First time that I have used one, but it's hard to not like the ease of use and the high germination rate. Granted, 1 is a very small sample size, ymmv.
So, my outside garden plot is roughly 800 square feet. I am normally a shovel, rake and manual clear sort, but this year I got super tired of the grass clearing. So, I grabbed a tiller, pounded it all out today. Very happy to have the garden prep complete.
Seedlings are making progress while I wait for the temps to get above freezing. Not pictured are some sunflowers I've kicked off... 4 days in and they're already an inch out of the soil.
I think you have brighter lights than me! My tomato seedlings are growing slow compared to that. I am attempting hydroponic melons, Kratky noncirculating method. I am also a dummy. I had no idea how much a cantaloupe can vine and sprouted way too many. So, melons everywhere I guess.
I've done vegetables and flowers from seeds, but never bothered with tomatoes from seeds, since the plants seem to do so much better. Why'd y'all decide to do seeds instead for those? Yeah, well not lately . . . https://www.theidiotboard.com/threads/nsfw-the-tib-members-boobie-thread.84/
Personally, I wanted to try specific varieties that I knew would do better in the heat and humidity where I live, purple Cherokee to be specific. I had already purchased an inside grow light, so the initial investment was already sunk. I am completely redoing the yard and I sit on an acre, unless I want to sink a lot of money into plants I had to figure out a more cost-effective way to do it. Seeds are pretty cheap. The local botanical gardens here has local sales on tomatoes that I have purchased before, but they have extremely limited varieties and are pretty expensive. This is a way for me to try a lot of different varieties. The second round of tomatoes are looking a lot more healthy than the first. I think that it takes a certain touch to germinate specific seed sometimes, but once you get the hang of it it's almost like muscle memory and very easy to do. I get a certain amount of satisfaction out of germinating seeds anyway, so it is sort of a win-win for me.
Starting tomatoes from seeds is dead fucking easy and you only really need a light fixture with some shop lights. Just need room when you pot up. I do it for the same reason bewildered does. There are a whole lot of varieties you’ll never find locally and are too cost prohibitive to ship as plants. I’m slacking ass getting started this year. I haven’t started anything. It might be the last year I have access to my grandfathers farm. I shudder thinking about moving to one of those community gardens with how much your stuff supposedly gets taken.
For someone who has personally sunk so much time, sweat, and both mental and physical effort into her gardening projects, I think that I would cry tears of blood if someone started yoinking stuff out of my community garden bed. F that. That sounds like a nightmare.
Nothing is available yet, and we're still far away from planting season still. Last year my tomatoes took forever to get going and were not ready until near the end of the summer, so I wanted to get a bit of a jump start on it in the hopes of getting a faster usable yield. Also the varietal reason. Cherry tomatoes were almost instantaneous from the plants, but not the full-sized tomatoes.
Today I had to pot up the jalapeños from that Jiffy start kit, they had already outgrown the starter soil. The bell peppers progress well, but move just a bit slower....which is super. The bright lights will straighten the japs right up.