Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm Blog

This May has been incredibly busy, crazy spring season for us. Here's some highlights from the past week or so. May 23rd, I bought 3 Pekin ducklings to grow out for meat. When I got rid of my Muscovy flock last year, I knew at some point I'd try Pekin, since they have much faster growth rate. Even though the meat is totally different than Muscovy, I thought it'd be worth a try. Plus, who can resist cute little ducklings? I had bought two sets of 3 stacked cages recently, for the purpose of growing out chicks or when customers came to buy chickens, it'd be easy to separate them. And since ducklings are notorious for being messy, I thought raising them in one of the cages would be a much cleaner alternative. And once they're a little older, they'll go out of grass. So, don't worry, they're not going to spend their whole life in a rabbit cage! Even though I have a trio of turkeys, for some unknown reason, I'm having a very hard time...

The vegetable and flower garden - based off the Back to Eden gardening method, which uses wood mulch (some visible in the 1st photo), plus some "companion planting" and intensive gardening. Basically, the majority of the 5ft wide garden beds and 3 ft wide walkways are mulched, and plants are closely spaced to shade the soil & conserve moisture. We also don't pull all the "weeds", as some are beneficial, some are edible and some help provide shade for the cool-season plants that are still growing.  Baby butternut squash, carrots & beets, with red clover. "bush" beans that are turned out to be pole beans, Husdon Valley Seed Library "Breed Your Own Squash" project, cosmos, clover, carrots, turnips, beets, etc (L)Amaranth, basil, Swiss chard, carrots, clover;  (R) "chicken forage bed" - planted with amaranth, oats, wheat, sunflowers, vetch, etc - I'll harvest later, so they can get some green "forage...