You don’t often see goats in the middle of a city, so it’s unexpected to find a herd munching contentedly in a park or a neighbor’s yard. When someone hires goats as a landscaping service, people can’t help but wander over and watch them with delight. You may be so charmed by the scruffy grazers that you’d like them to pay your overgrown yard a visit as well. Naturally, you wonder: Is it worth hiring goats to help maintain your lawn?
We spoke with Kristi Orcutt, owner and manager of RVA Goats and Honey, a beekeeping and goatscaping farm serving the Greater Richmond Region in Virginia. She uses rescued goats and sheep for her landscaping services.
“Some people want the animals to come because they need a pick-me-up,” Orcutt says. “It draws in a lot of neighbors, so it’s a very community gathering kind of activity.” But she says goats aren’t going to be a cost-effective choice for maintaining a lawn. They do a great job at clearing brush and fighting invasive plants, though. Read on to find out whether you should hire a herd of goats for your landscaping needs.
Kristi Orcutt is owner and manager of RVA Goats and Honey, a beekeeping and goatscaping farm that serves much of the Greater Richmond Region in Virginia.
Goats Aren’t The Best Lawn Mowers
“Some people will want to hire us when their lawn is a little long. Sure, that’s fine—we’ll do that with sheep,” Orcutt says. “But financially, it doesn’t make sense. Mowing is so much cheaper, especially if you use a battery-operated mower.”
Orcutt says that while sheep will nibble the grass, goats tend to reach up for leaves. Plus, her fees run about $450 a day, with a typical 1/4 acre lot taking three days to clear. Once you factor in delivery, setup, and teardown, goatscaping can become quite expensive.
“We get great results, but if it’s just a few clover and dandelions, it doesn’t make sense,” Orcutt explains.
Goats Are Great At Clearing Land
This is what goats are great at: Clearing a tangled mass of vines that is smothering and killing your shrubs and trees, stripping all the leaves off a mosquito-ridden bed of English ivy, munching down a thicket of blackberries, and making it possible to get into areas of your property that were neglected for years, without stepping on snakes or falling into holes that you can’t see.
Also, goats love poison ivy and can eat it without problem.
“When it really makes sense is when the yard is full of poison ivy,” Orcutt says, adding that weed wackers do a terrible job with poison ivy and simply splatter the sap everywhere. “A lot of landscaping companies won’t do it.”
Goats Gobble Up Invasive Plants
Orcutt, a former environmental educator, enjoys using goats to help fight invasive plants and save trees from stranglers like kudzu. While the goats won’t kill the plants, they provide “a really good haircut” that weakens invasives and makes them easier to remove. You could also have the goats return every year or two to continue beating down invasive plants. This gives more desirable plants a chance to sprout and grow.
“We can’t control nature, but we can manage it,” Orcutt says. “I would say these guys are one tool in the toolbox. It takes a multipronged approach to solve the problem of invasives in our landscapes.”
Here are some of the invasive plants that goats will gobble up:
Autumn oliveEnglish ivyHoneysuckleKnotweedKudzuMultiflora roseRose of SharonStilt grassTree of heavenWinter creeperWisteria
Goats Can’t Eat Everything
While goats will devour many invasive plants, there are some things goats won’t or can’t eat. Goats can’t reach above 6 or 7 feet high. They defoliate plants, but don’t usually eat woody vines and stems. A human needs to follow up and cut them.
Also, some plants are extremely toxic to goats. A goatscaper will need to fence off those plants and may decide your property isn’t suited to grazing by goats. Here are some common garden plants that will make goats sick:
AzaleasBoxwoodsCherry laurelLily of the valleyMountain laurelPierisRhododendronsYews
Goats also can’t eat noxious weeds like nightshade and vinca, so you’ll have to remove those yourself. Orcutt adds that native black cherry trees are safer some times of year but toxic in fall. When the leaves start to wither and break down, they produce cyanide.
If you’re not sure if your landscaping job is right for goats, it never hurts to ask a goatscaper. If you don’t know of a local service, Orcutt recommends starting with hiregoats.com.
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