Geese in the garden

[docdubz]

Its been raining a ton here so weeds/grass completely took over my garden. I read lots of people saying geese are good for weeding gardens so I thought id try to save myself as much work as possible and see how well they did. The first and second day that I let them into the garden they were going around doing their thing just kind of exploring and samping the different weeds, they werent eating as much as Id expect from them but they were doing their job.

Then, today, day 3, I go out to give them their noon feed and I found the garden completely destroyed. 3 rows of corn chewed down to stalks, 2 rows of pumpkin chewed up, 1 row of cucumbers trampled.

I need to stop listening to what I read on the internet.

 

[Goosebaby]

Well they don’t really discriminate, young corn is no different than new grass, young pumpkin leaves are delicious. Geese are good seeders if you haven’t already planted.

 

[docdubz]

Well they don’t really discriminate, young corn is no different than new grass, young pumpkin leaves are delicious. Geese are good seeders if you haven’t already planted.

Now I know. Everything that I had read said "they wont bother established vegetable plants." Honestly, I should have asked here before deferring to crap I read from google searches.

 

[Goosebaby]

Now I know. Everything that I had read said "they wont bother established vegetable plants." Honestly, I should have asked here before deferring to crap I read from google searches.

Well in some ways that isn’t necesarily a lie, Once pumpkins are full sized plants my geese don’t care for them, I think the bristles are a turn off, and adult corn is too harsh, they tend to like the younger tender leaves of both, and sprouts of anything are too tempting to not try to pull up, even if they don’t eat them.

 

[The goose girl]

It also depends on the individual goose how hard they are on your garden. I just got a new Toulouse goose, and she gnaws on EVERYTHING! I'm holding my breath to see what she'll destroy this summer - so far she's been concentrating her efforts on taking down the OSB boards of a small shed. Not nibbling at the corners, mind you; no, she seems determined to gnaw her way right through the surface. She's also taken a liking to removing the bark of my very established 20-some year old climbing hydrangea. I may have to fence that one in. She's the sweetest, most gentle little thing, but she is VERY persistent.