Got Garden Weeds? Rent a Goat from a Goat Farm!
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Nobody likes weeding. Garden weeds are a menace. Instead of using a toxic pesticide like Roundup weed killer, why not try a more natural approach and go with organic lawn care? This small goat farm in Tennessee has a solution: rent a goat to do your weeding for you!
Here’s what they say on their website:
Goats are a natural approach to land clearing. Using goats to clear away unwanted weeds and brush is better then using chemicals or physical labor for several reasons:
Hand clearing is time-consuming, physically draining, and if you have to hire men to do the work it can be expensive.
Chemicals, if not used properly, can do more harm then good and can be dangerous to the environment and animals.
Goats work cheap, leave natural fertilizers, and eat what other animals won’t.
Goats don’t need workers compensation, insurance, or lunch breaks.
Hidden Springs Farm’s “Rent a Goat program” is the cost effective way to get the job done. We set up solar-powered electric mesh fencing around the area you want cleared. We provide a guardian dog to keep other dogs and coyotes away. And, we bring and care for the goats on your property.
What do goats like to eat? Here is a small list:
Thistle
Blackberries
Poison Oak and Ivy
Kudzu
Vines such as trumpet vine
Sage brush
Sapling trees (such as pine, cedar, oak)
Broom Sage
I don’t know about you but I LOVE this idea! I wish we could rent goats in Los Angeles. I just hate the sound of weedeaters and leaf blowers. I’d love to have some goats eat some of our overgrown ivy. Plus you get the added bonus of free natural fertilizer.
Way to go, Hidden Springs Farms! What a great idea!
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23/02/2009 at 1:55 pm Permalink
My husband would totally do this! When our oldest son was 13 months old, he ate a snail in the backyard. My husband didn’t want to do the usual chemical poison with 2 little kids running around out there. A few days later he came home from the park/petting zoo with the 2 kids and 2 ducks. They were $5 for the pair and he knew they would eat all the snails. They both flew away about 3 weeks later…but after they had eaten all the snails!!! We didn’t have to use any chemicals in the yard, the kids got to chase ducks for 3 weeks and it was very cost effective!
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23/02/2009 at 2:00 pm Permalink
Oh man. I need some ducks. I have snails on my lettuce — I hate it!
Maybe I should just send Kate out there to eat the snails. Actually I think they are slugs.
What’s the difference between slugs and snails?
23/02/2009 at 2:25 pm Permalink
Slugs, huh? I had them all over my cabbages once – ick!
You could always do what my Swedish MIL does: go out with the scissors and snip ‘em all in half! Then they won’t be able to eat lettuce any more.
Laura N.’s last blog post..Superheroes
23/02/2009 at 2:29 pm Permalink
LOL! That’s hilarious. I have heard of other people who go out at night and pinch the slugs.
I like the duck idea better.
23/02/2009 at 2:50 pm Permalink
If they’re slugs there is a natural way to deal with them. Put a small container in the soil fill it with beer. They slugs crawl in to beer and drown. This actually works!
23/02/2009 at 3:02 pm Permalink
This is exactly how we are reclaiming much of our overgrown land. But we are using hair sheep. They eat very much like goats. While we still must haul in feed, at least we are growing food while restoring the land.
23/02/2009 at 3:24 pm Permalink
Kristin, that is so cool!
And Nancy, I had heard of that but forgot about it. Next time I open a beer I can try it. Do you think wine works, too, or do they only like beer?
23/02/2009 at 3:35 pm Permalink
LOL – I have two bunnies to rent out! They will eat organic grass of any kind and love “weeds” (dandelions). It might take more than two of them to get any decent clearing though. =)
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23/02/2009 at 5:28 pm Permalink
Good news!! I have goats and ducks!! Now pigs…pigs will turn over your dirt quick and fertilize as well. But they are as smart as dogs and prone to escape. Wait, goats are pretty slippery too. But goats only like brushy stuff and don’t eat much grass (or tomatoes).
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23/02/2009 at 7:16 pm Permalink
Snails have shells, slugs don’t.
I’ve used the beer trap thing, don’t know if wine will do the same trick tho. You can also put grapefruit halves cut-side down in the garden (after you’ve eat the grapefruit) overnight – the slugs will collect inside them. Or try sprinkling diatomaceous earth around your lettuces – slugs don’t like rough terrrain. (You have to replace the diatomaceous earth after a rain).
I love the weeding goat brigade…when we traveled in Ireland, we though ti would be great to have a few sheep around to keep the lawn tidy. Even thought it could be a small business, a la Gary Larson-style humor: man standing on a porch, with a sheep tucked under his arm : “sheep eat your lawn, Ma’am? Sheep eat your lawn?”
Sorry for the bad jokes – staying up too late here waiting for bread to come out of the oven…
24/02/2009 at 4:41 am Permalink
Goats are cute. We had two goats growing up-Rebo and Sack. It’s true they like to eat weeds, and we found out that they also can devour young fruit trees, so be careful where you put them!
24/02/2009 at 5:46 am Permalink
If you put a goat in your garden you can kiss your garden GOOD BYE! Goats will eat EVERYTHING not just ‘weeds’!! My goat doesn’t get anywhere NEAR my garden! Lots of other ways to stop weeds that are natural and easy.
25/02/2009 at 1:53 am Permalink
My grassfed beef farmer uses goats to clear brush on his farm and they leave all the grass for the cows! Isn’t that amazing??!?
The Thrifty Oreganic’s last blog post..Jonathan’s Story: How Real Food Healed My Son
25/02/2009 at 10:23 am Permalink
I was such a city girl when I moved from Southern California to Oregon. I saw a roaming bunch of goats by a roadside one day and pulled over to ask the goatherd why they weren’t inside a fence somewhere. He said, “Oh, honey, I love my goats and take them for field trips sometimes. It helps their education immensely.” When we both stopped laughing, he told me his goats were part of the city’s weed abatement program. I saw him all over that part of Oregon for the three years I was blessed to live there and would always wave at him and his well-educated goats as I drove past.
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25/02/2009 at 2:51 pm Permalink
I am fairly sure you can rent goats in LA. I grew up in Southern California and everyone would rent them to clear out canyon land (unmowable) before the fire department came to certify them brush cleared.
I have no idea why, but I feel like one found them in the Penny Saver. Does that still exist?