Strategies for keeping the goats away from your good plants

[The Egg Bandit]

My goats have eaten all my lillies, my hibiscus, marigolds and daisies, and are presently trying to kill my plum tree. I guess the bark must be as sweet as the fruit. But since they also mow the lawn and give me lots of milk, I try very hard not to complain. But I do love those plums.

If I put up a fence around the tree, then I have to buy a lawn mower.

I am thinking about getting some pigs, so I suspect I'll try the previously posted pork poo painting procedure for protecting my precious plums. If nothing else, at least the tree will get fertilizer!

 

[Mea]

I am thinking about getting some pigs, so I suspect I'll try the previously posted pork poo painting procedure for protecting my precious plums. If nothing else, at least the tree will get fertilizer!

If You don't have piggy poo... any kind of manure would do. At the time we had the pig and i wanted something Really gross to keep the goats back. It worked better than i ever dreamed it would !

 

[glenolam]

I also did a not smart thing and planted 2 apple trees. I knew the goats would be all over them so. I put a fence around them that is about 3 feet away from the trunk. One tree has all the growth at the top and is untouched and doing great, the other came to me branched and the goats could reach all the bottom leaves. Hopefully the top survives through the winter.

We planted 6 apple trees in our yard, far away from the goats, about three years ago. Last year (when I only had 2 goats!) they got out and spent THE ENTIRE DAY in the yard unsupervised while we were at work...

Gone were my strawberries, spring flowers, butterly bushes, apple trees - you name it, it was gone. I was heartbroken - got an electric fence because I was so angry...

BUT - everything grew back more full and healthier this year so they actually did me a favor! And now no one dares to attempt escaping!

 

[cmjust0]

Be careful of the plum trees...some say the wilted leaves are as poisonous as chokecherry, but some say otherwise. I don't know.. I haven't been able to find anything out for sure.

We have a young plum tree about 15' from the goats' fenceline, and it worries us.. We're strongly considering moving it just in case a branch breaks off and blows over there or something.

 

[Hykue]

If I can find it, I read on a gardening forum for how to graft on a piece of bark to "bridge" the gap from live bark at the bottom to live bark at the top. It was suggested for trees that had been ringed by rodents, not by goats, so it might not work, but if by some miracle they only ate a section about 3 or 4 inches tall all the way around, you could use it. I'll see if I can find it.

Okay, I found it. Note that you only want to use this if the tree is girdled completely - if there is one part that has bark all the way up, it's best to leave it alone and hope it can heal by itself. If it is girdled, this site will tell you how to bridge it (it's called bridge grafting, clever, no?).

http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Ipm/homegrnd/htms/28graft.htm

I hope you don't ever need this information (I hope I don't, too), but if you do, here it is.

Maybe I should put up fencing around my apple trees right now . . . or instead I could assume that the goats won't escape . . . hmm.

 

[jlbpooh]

Be careful with the piggy poo. Our piggy poo killed a large sweet gum, a cedar tree, and a large oak.