Cynthia wrote:

Does anyone know if there are any native animals which one can attract into
the graden which eat grass only - and not the other plants in the garden.

I'm looking for something which will keep the grass short and save me from
having to mow it myself :-)

If there is such a creature, would you know if it comes with it's own set of
problems and how to keep them under control?

Cynthia.

The only native grazing animal that I can think of would be a kangaroo
of some description. D'you *really* want a 'roo flolloping around your
back yard? The thing about grazers is that most of them have hard hooves
and most of them need to be able to roam over an extensive area. There's
little nutrition in grass and so *huge* amounts of it have to be eaten
daily. There would not be enough grass in a back yard to keep even a
small grazer alive for very long.

We-e-ll...

I s'pose you could think of a rabbit or guinea-pig, but I don't think
such an animal would eat at a quick enough rate to keep the lawn in
check... - and then there'd be the roaming cat danger... - and think of
All That Poo! - and the smell (of the animals *and* the poo)!

My sister has borrowed a friend's goat to 'mow' her grass from time to
time. After about a week of being tethered in the yard, the goat had
eaten some parts of the lawn down to bare earth and left others alone.
She managed to eat the foliage from the bottoms of four camellias,
effectively standardising them overnight. She had also eaten four and a
half pair of socks, two pair of knickers and a tennis ball! She jumped
the side fence and nearly hanged herself. Oh and she butted the milkman
and my youngest niece.

Mowing seems easier to me...
--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

g'day cynthia,

how much yard do you have?

i live in rural and the wallabies and hares visit my fruit tree areas,
i keep them out of the vegetable gardens as they would most likely eat
the cabbages and beans etc.,. they don't touch melons, pumpkins
cucumbers or tomatoes. but they do have a nibble of the sweet potatoes
at times but no prob's there.

i should imagine that they would create havoc in a normal small garden
scenerio, so guees you either put in more garden beds or get a mower,
you don't always need to have much lawn and gardens area easier to
care for.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://hub.dataline.net.au/~gardnlen/

"Cynthia" wrote in message
u...
Does anyone know if there are any native animals which one can attract
into
the graden which eat grass only - and not the other plants in the garden.

I'm looking for something which will keep the grass short and save me from
having to mow it myself :-)

If there is such a creature, would you know if it comes with it's own set
of
problems and how to keep them under control?


The only ones I can think of would be wallabies. But the lawn has to get a
little long for them to want to eat it. I doubt they would eat the whole
lawn anyway (imagining "average sized lawn"), and if they did manage it,
then you would have to wait a while for it to get long again. Also they
would probably do a fair bit of damage.
I know Indian Hawthorn is plant of choice for them at work, along with what
we call "Kangaroo" food. Not sure of real name, but they love it. The also
indulge in eating other plants.
It would really be more hassle than what it's worth.
A goat would be good, but it too would do damage elsewhere.
Along the lines of what Len said.
Get a lawnmower or reduce the size of the lawn by putting in gardens.
But putting in more gardens could mean more edges, more possible fiddly
mowing.

Good luck

Cynthia.

My sister has borrowed a friend's goat to 'mow' her grass from time to
time. After about a week of being tethered in the yard, the goat had
eaten some parts of the lawn down to bare earth and left others alone.
She managed to eat the foliage from the bottoms of four camellias,
effectively standardising them overnight. She had also eaten four and a
half pair of socks, two pair of knickers and a tennis ball! She jumped
the side fence and nearly hanged herself. Oh and she butted the milkman
and my youngest niece.

Mowing seems easier to me...
--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia


but not nearly as many laughs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Andrew G" wrote in message
...
"Cynthia" wrote in message
u...
Does anyone know if there are any native animals which one can
attract
into
the graden which eat grass only - and not the other plants in the
garden.

A goat would be good, but it too would do damage elsewhere.

A goat would not be good in any way at all.

I have lived with goats and the "cute" and "corny" stories about goats
eating just about anything (as another poster said including underpants)
are absolutely true!

Goats have substantially contributed to severe environmental degradation
in many parts of the world because they eat shrubs, herbs, vegetables
and grasses down to bare earth and kill trees by eating the lower
branches and bark.

The chances are a goat would eat everything you wanted to keep and leave
the grass alone just to be cantankerous and that is just the females -
billygoats you really don't want to know or go near at all.

David

Sat, 10 May 2003 Trish Brown wrote:

Cynthia wrote:

If there is such a creature, would you know if it comes with it's own set of
problems and how to keep them under control?

My sister has borrowed a friend's goat to 'mow' her grass from time to
time. After about a week of being tethered in the yard, the goat had
eaten some parts of the lawn down to bare earth and left others alone.
She managed to eat the foliage from the bottoms of four camellias,
effectively standardising them overnight. She had also eaten four and a
half pair of socks, two pair of knickers and a tennis ball! She jumped
the side fence and nearly hanged herself. Oh and she butted the milkman
and my youngest niece.

Loved the goat story.
To cater for a dog needing plenty of exercise a Billy Goat is a good
option. Anytime the dog ventures out of its kennel it will have to run
for its life to escape the Billy Goat.
Humans will need to learn how to run quick too. :-)

Mowing seems easier to me...

Me too.
If mowing the lawn is a real chore then local youngsters might like to
mow the lawns and earn pocket money.

A sheep is perhaps the only animal that comes close to doing what
Cynthia wanted and of course it is not a native and presents its own
set of problems. If the Local Council allows a sheep to be kept on
your property it will need to be checked by a veterinarian
periodically and sheared annually. It will have to be tethered
otherwise it will selectively eat some grass while ignoring other
grass. Tethering the sheep means you will constantly be needing to go
outside and untangle the animal.
--

Rusty.

To the best of my information your only hope is poultry, geese in
particular, and European geese at that.
Poultry eat a lot of greens between the bugs they eat.
It is my experience that only geese can be trained to prefer a particular
weed.
This type of training starts in the nursery, as, what they eat most of as
kids is what they seek out as adults.
Yes, I know, they make chooks look smart.
If the lawn is your problem, then feed the lawn grass to the young birds.
Of course you must remember that whichever poultry you may choose, ( and I
would go for the smallest Bantam Chook you can find), they will soon find
the closest door to the kitchen, and every morning you will have to clean up
their droppings.


China
Wingham
NSW