Yard repair! Duck dabbling gone wild!

[FNF]

Anyone else thinking of how to repair their duck-dabbled duck yard this spring? We have melting snow leaving all kinds of tempting swampy areas and the six ducks are having a blast dabbling muddy holes. Ducks are gonna duck, but I was thinking ahead in the hopes of making it green and grassy again come spring. Maybe put pieces of sod down this spring and block off parts of the area to let it take root, or put low hardware cloth "covers" over healing areas (we did that for one area when we put their pond in and it worked well but now we need a lot more covers!). Anything that has worked for you? I don't have a way to move them from area to area safely, only block off small parts of their existing area as needed.

 

[Jenbirdee]

does it have to be grass or do you just want something green in there to hold the dirt together so it’s not all muddy?
Because there is a certain weed that will flourish in a duck area it’s called broadleaf plantain.
My ducks started out with a yard full of grass like everyone else which turned into a mudslide yes we’re on a hill lol we added stone paths and I filled a lot of swampy areas with sand and gravel, but then nature did something amazing and these weeds called plantains started filling in the whole area and the ducks don’t eat them or dig them out.
For several years, we had these lovely green, huge plantains everywhere and then I got a few chickens in there and they destroyed the plantains now I got the chickens into a different area and I’m hoping the plantains come back into my duck pen.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Ducks pen with plantains

 

[FNF]

Interesting! I know we have plantains here, thanks for the suggestion. Interesting that they don’t eat them!