[oakridge]

I started the annual strimming campaign today with my 4 stroke Honda.  Boy, I am getting older.  The 'productive garden' as opposed to the 'pretty garden' is set in the former livestock yard and of 1.25 acres of which I use about a third for fruit, veg., compost etc.  The rest is brambles, bracken and nettles mainly about 6ft high.  It keeps me off the streets.

[nannytroll]

A pair of goats would help!

[oakridge]

From the early 80s to the mid 90s I was milking 7 dairy goats until we converted to Angora Goats.  There are 19 young fruit trees in the area I am strimming and I know from bitter experience how goats LOVE young fruit trees.

When Christine came up to the yard this morning to pick gooseberries she found that the birds had pretty well stripped the lot.

We are backed by over 200 acres of ancient woodland - and fronted by a very busy M1 feeder road - so there are plenty of birds around to keep an eye on opportunities.  Our Flatcoated Retriever, Hugo, is also not one to miss an opportunity, but he is very wary of thorns that prickle his nose.

Malcolm