By Andrew Haupt
I’ve been attempting an alternative gardening approach since we’ve run out of room in the beds -- I call it the plant shit anywhere there’s a slim to reasonable chance of finding water method... I direct seeded Carol Deppe’s homestead sweetmeat winter squash in hills spread several feet apart in the meadow, and planted that and butternuts in various spots near graywater basins and the top swale of the orchard. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if the orchard squash takes, given the proclivity of the ducks for digging up everything.
I’ve been thinking we should be more active about re-vegetating the orchard. There’s access to the graywater and duck pond water, so we should be using it. We may need to section off part of it to let things grow without the ducks ruining it, but it seems like a shame to just keep it mulched with trees and shrubs spread pretty far apart.
One of the ducks has potentially gone broody on a couple eggs laid in the side of the coop. She made a strange breathy noise when I got close, and I’m not sure if it was aggression or fear. Going to leave these for a few weeks and see if anything happens.
