I'd like to put a hedge in along the front of our property, and possibly other areas as well as the garden fills in.
However it needs to be:
- cold tolerant (Z5a - I'm not covering it in the winter!!)
- salt tolerant
- non-poisonous but not yummy for goats! (does that exist?) - no cedars they LOVE them - it is going to be on the outside of the fence but the goats would stick their heads through and eat it
- fast growing.
I'd like for it to be evergreen if possible or at least dense enough to provide privacy in the winter as well. Dense so it will back up our existing fence to keep animals in; and I'd like a formal hedge for the look...
Oh & it has to be okay with partial shade...
Does such a plant exist?
-
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1152
- Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:26 am
- Location: North Carolina
- applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 29920
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
By formal hedge, you mean you WANT to periodically trim them to keep them in some kind of geometric shape? (trying to pick an emoticon for here....)
So, why not plant something the goats will like and benefit from, and place them just far enough that they'll keep the backside along the fence nicely trimmed?
REALLY, Nes. You spoil your animals. let them WORK for their room and board.
So, why not plant something the goats will like and benefit from, and place them just far enough that they'll keep the backside along the fence nicely trimmed?
REALLY, Nes. You spoil your animals. let them WORK for their room and board.

'Cause I don't want to encourage them to break out of the fence to go eat the delicious things on the other side
we already have that problem!!! (Ask my poor flowers trying to poke up through the ground only to be munched back down by the incredible escaping goat crew...) .
We've got enough weeds for them to keep down on other areas of the farm, the area I want to hedge is for my garden
.

We've got enough weeds for them to keep down on other areas of the farm, the area I want to hedge is for my garden

-
- Senior Member
- Posts: 266
- Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:42 pm
- Location: Lexington, KY.
Goats are nuts and smart. A bad combo. I'm not going to get too deep into this one because of the animals unpredictable nature, but good luck. I do have a strange little story about a goat I saw ten feet up a tree standing in the crotch. The strange part was that there was NO branch below this crotch and not one thing within thirty yards of this tree. I have yet to figure out how it got in that tree. Also Dad as a child had a goat as a pet. It died jumping through a plate-glass window. Very strange animals. lol