This beautiful mild weather has led to a speedy increase in the number of slugs in the garden - there are so many that they have even stopped hiding - or perhaps all the hiding places are already full - and seedlings are being munched off at the ground in daylight.
When I had a smaller garden I used to go around with a torch and then stamp on the bodies but here it just isn't practical - here we need to get ducks. We had ducks a year or so ago but they were eaten by a fox and are a great miss. They tootled around as a little group and ate up all the slugs without doing as much damage as the chickens.
Today Euan began to make a new duckhouse out of part of Drymen Panto group's old stage, some old sweetpea frames and some corrugated iron donated by Jane and Craig. It is going really well and, fingers crossed, we may well have ducks by the weekend.
3 comments:
Jane
I like the new look on the blog.
I didn't realise that ducks would harvest up the slugs. My issue is snails - don't seem to have many slugs at all, but everywhere is a pesky snail - why would that be? Would ducks go for them too?
I would love ducks but I wouldn't be sure about how I could trust the German pointer - the foxes might not get a look in!!
How will you manage the water issue? I am bothered that my ducks would take to the brook and they'd end up in the River Eye off to Melton Mowbray.
Good luck with house building
Heather
Jane
I like the new look on the blog.
I didn't realise that ducks would harvest up the slugs. My issue is snails - don't seem to have many slugs at all, but everywhere is a pesky snail - why would that be? Would ducks go for them too?
I would love ducks but I wouldn't be sure about how I could trust the German pointer - the foxes might not get a look in!!
How will you manage the water issue? I am bothered that my ducks would take to the brook and they'd end up in the River Eye off to Melton Mowbray.
Good luck with house building
Heather
We have a VERY ATTRACTIVE peach corner bath sunk into the field and the last ducks seemed very happy with that - there is a stream at the bottom of the garden but it is a bit of a hike and the last ducks seemed happy enough to poddle about near the house.
Eventually we will of course have a proper duck pond with its own fox proof island . . . .
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