As it starts to get warmer out, we need to get ready for spring planting. It was yeoman’s work keeping the weeds up last spring and summer, but Shelly got the idea of putting raised beds in the garden and simplifying the problem of maintenance.
I cleaned up the design and added additional support across the tops of the beds. This reduced the cost per unit but also, hopefully will make them stronger.
Seven new boxes will create lots of planting space, that we think will be perhaps more efficient than planting at ground level, but also easier to maintain and manage.
We are keeping the teepees for the beans and the tomatillos. We may do tomatillos differently this coming year though and use the teepees for nasturtiums or climbing black-eyed susans.
For the Birds
I’ve wanted to keep some ducks for years, but it’s been difficult with the dogs. Now that Nina is a bit slower than she used to be – and without Trevor, our dearly-departed, athletic wonder-dog, I am starting to feel like it might be a good time to try raising a few mallards.
They don’t need much, just a safe place to sleep and a bit of water to splash around in are the big things. I don’t want a huge population of them either at this point, but I’d love to keep maybe four or so. At any rate, I was in the middle of building some raised beds and I decided to set aside some lumber for housing.
I’ve read that they only need to be about three feet high and I’ve read anywhere from two to 6 square feet per duck. Mine are going to have to live with about 3 square feet each because that’s the lumber I had left over.
I added a roof made of cedar decking to keep it light and easy to work with. It it is successful, I could expand it by creating a second module and tacking it to the back of this unit. It would only require that I create a new roof, or extend this one, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
I love projects like this, but I tend to spend more time on them than is reasonable. There are a lot of dangers for ducks around here, with Nina the huntress and the great danes next door I want to start kind of small and see how things go.