I love my goats but...

[here to stay]

I have a run of double fence in front of the house to keep the deer out.  I like to open it up periodically to let the goatie girls eat down the weeds.

Unfortunately I forgot that goats reach over the fences too.  I had set 3 of my potted plants out to get sun for the summer.  They WERE growing enthusiasticly.  They are now wearing crew cuts down to as far as a goat standing on the fence can reach over.  I have been working 3 years to get one meyer lemon to grow on from its half price, will it live section of the nursery where I bought it. 

It's all my own fault.  And heaven knows anyone owning goats should have a sense of humor.  And the garden philosophy of ' there's always next year'  holds true.  But the lemon is now one 8 inch twig with two leaves.

[mzgarden]

Your poor potted plants. Goats definitely require a certain amount of humor, and patience and ...well, yeah.

[princessferf]

Oh bummer! I know how frustrating that can be! I think electric fencing around the trees are a must. Maybe armed guards. And a moat with alligators. Lasers... definitely lasers.

[mogal]

The only thing worse are the (expletive deleted) rabbits that girdle my fruit trees when they are young. We have a very prolific Yellow Delicious that is about 18 years old now but the rabbits still work on its bark in winter so it gets wrapping with woven wire scraps too. DH ran out of WW so found 2 old window well forms he'd replaced and set those down around a new plum tree they'd found enticing. I've about given up trying to grow beans or peas for the rabbits.

[princessferf]

I protect young fruit trees (and even not so young trees) by using an extendable downspout. I find them at nearly any hardware store.

Take the downspout and extend it to its max length. Then, cut it lengthwise. Now wrap the sliced spout around the trunk of young trees. The nice thing is that you can adjust the size of the spout to the needed length without cutting.

[mogal]

Do you remove the downspout at the end of the season? We only have a problem with the rabbits in winter.

[princessferf]

Feb 14, 2018 20:24:36 GMT mogal said:

Do you remove the downspout at the end of the season? We only have a problem with the rabbits in winter.

Yes, basically once there's other food sources available for wildlife, I take them off.