HelpfulGardener.com

I'm curious if any members have a moat around their garden.

I have a nice heavy fence around my garden. I'm in the process of adding the lite weight inner fence. The alley all the way around the garden will be only 2ft wide. The old rabbit hutch will be converted into a night secured duck house. Two raised beds in front of the duck house will be converted into duck yard with maybe a fruit tree in the middle.

Mother Earth News has a pretty good article.

Any thoughts?
Eric
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Double%20Dog%20Farm%20Vegetable%20Garden%20plants/DuckMoat.jpg[/img]

Very nice! I would have given it a try some time ago but we cant spare the water. I am very interested as to how yours will turn out though. Good luck Eric.

pretty sure I read something like this in bill mollisons permaculture II.

yes! that is where I have read about it before, I have been raking my memory for a little wile now as to were I have read about it before. I was just starting to think it mite be bill mollison but I wasn't sure which one of his books it mite have been in. Thank you for reminding me soil.

Water?

I will only be supplying them with a water trough to bathe and drink from.

Chicken moat https://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1988-05-01/Garden-Pest-Control.aspx

Eric

oh lol I had the idea of ducks swimming around your garden.

DoubleDogFarm wrote:Water?

I will only be supplying them with a water trough to bathe and drink from.

Chicken moat https://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1988-05-01/Garden-Pest-Control.aspx

Eric

Whoopsie! right you are, sorry about that my bad, this is even better I am defiantly going to make one of these in the next few years. Rite now though my chooks just Rome free range all 360 degrees around my fenced off veggie patch.

If it were a real moat the ducks and alligators wouldn't get along.

Eric

DoubleDogFarm wrote:If it were a real moat the ducks and alligators wouldn't get along.

Eric

I think that is both funny and scary. I am glad I don't have alligators where I live, but if I did live were you live I would be to tempted to try an train the alligators.

nickolas wrote:

DoubleDogFarm wrote:If it were a real moat the ducks and alligators wouldn't get along.

Eric

I think that is both funny and scary. I am glad I don't have alligators where I live, but if I did live were you live I would be to tempted to try an train the alligators.

Not only alligators, I would have to build a castle, drawbridge and find a fair maiden. Fair maiden, hmm... now how do you train them?

Eric

find a fair maiden. Fair maiden, hmm... now how do you train them?

Eric[/quote]

I believe the training of maiden’s of any type comes under the heading of recreational impossibilities .

You guys are a riot!
I FINALLY got the chance to visit this thread and what fun!
Ducks on guard duty patrolling the perimeter!

...I'm seeing Daffy -- yeah, Eric's place is definitely a Daffy kind of a farm... Though I guess Donald Duck with the sailor hat/suit fits the island PNW image... Hmmm...?

Even though it,s not something I can do, I'm curious to hear how it all works out.

I'm poking a little fun at young Nickolas, I'm not sure if he knows there are no alligator in the Pacific Northwest. Sounds like Gumbo could stock his moat no problem.

Now I'm wondering if the fences are strong enough to keep the henway out?

Eric

plan on cutting down the size of ur garden area? the article says 6 foot moat.

its seem like a great idea. how many chickens or ducks do you have? mother earth said they planned on increasing the size of their flock to keep the grass down.

I am curious how many chickens take to ensure the insects out? cant they just fly over? or move in on sides where the chickens aren't patrolling?

I wanna try this though!!

luigonz wrote:plan on cutting down the size of your garden area? the article says 6 foot moat.

its seem like a great idea. how many chickens or ducks do you have? mother earth said they planned on increasing the size of their flock to keep the grass down.

I am curious how many chickens take to ensure the insects out? cant they just fly over? or move in on sides where the chickens aren't patrolling?

I wanna try this though!!

My moat will only be 2ft wide. This area was a mulched strip along the fences anyway, so not much garden lose. I will be loosing 3 raised beds to the duck yard. If you look at the picture, I've decided to take all of the the 3 beds instead of angling across one.

I currently have 14 ducks. 4 Acona, 6 Campbells and 4 Muscovies. I would like to up this to as many as 30 ducks. I'm thinking mostly Aconas for the duck moat.

This will be a fun project, but I don't see it making a huge difference in the insect and bug population. For me it's more a convenience setup. While out in the garden I can toss the ducks weeds, spoiled fruit / veggies, grubs, insect infested produce, etc... The moat will become a long narrow compost strip after awhile. Manure layered in hey, weeds. Maybe once a year the moat could be forked out and spread throughout the garden.

Eric

Check out this link Paul Wheaton posted elsewhere on a slug garden. Same basic premise, it was first desinged to keep slugs off the plants but is being planned to have I bleive it was ducks. Pretty good vid with good ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HirUchhRX4c

Dono,

That was a fun video. It must have been taken on a cool day. It was a bit nipply out.

I'm a member of elsewhere, but have not posted.

Here are some pictures of the duck moat in progress. Taken in the dark, sorry.
Inner fence
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Duck%20Moat%20Sept%202011/DuckMoat002.jpg[/img]
Duck yard and future duck house
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Duck%20Moat%20Sept%202011/DuckMoat003.jpg[/img]

Eric

To Eric,

Did you complete your duck moat project?

wonder how well geese would work. And they might keep the deer out? Of course for deer the mote doubles as a deer fence. That is if you keep the fences about 4' apart. Deer won't like to jump up over 4 feet and down. And they might not like jumping in the middle between the fences either. Especially if you cover them with deer netting.

I also like the idea of dividing your garden into paddocks and allowing the birds to work different areas at times. Like resting periods. Or during green manure growing periods.