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Sheep as Lawn Mowers

I ended up buying two of Betty's sheep. My lawn, Betty assured me, would feed Goliath and Francis until late fall, with perhaps a little grain or hay as the lawn slowed down. Then, as they were both yearling rams, I could have them butchered, freezer wrapped, and have a small supply of organic meats for the winter.

Sheep, do indeed, work as lawnmowers. I had two Jacobs sheep, sort of the Model T's of sheep- more like goats than sheep. Very basic, good eaters, but not very cuddly. Goliath, a teenager with an attitude, tried to butt me if I turned my back on him when I entered their space to bring water or extra munchies.

My borrowed fencing allowed me to move the sheep's space easily, which I did about every third day. It enclosed an area about about 100 feet on a side. When I first put them inside they went right to work on the grass. Great, I thought. They'll leave my decorative plants alone. Bad assumption.

I learned the hard way what plants they will eat, and what they will not. If I left the charger off, they would stick their noses through the fence and eat what they could reach.

I have a Dr. Merrill magnolia in the middle of their primary penned-in area. To be on the safe side, I surrounded it with some four-foot cyclone fencing I had. Good thing I did, as weeks later they decided that the magnolia was going to be breakfast. And lunch. They tried to push the loosely fixed fencing so that they could get at the leaves. They got a few, but did not do major damage.

Vines of any sort appealed to my sheep. They stripped all the leaves off the scarlet runner beans growing up a pergola that was enclosed in their pen. I used the barn as part of their enclosure, and they went after the climbing hydrangea. But in both cases, they left the stems, so they didn't kill the plants. But I've talked to folks who said sheep are good for poison ivy control.

Bee balm had no interest to these guys, but phlox and evening primroses are, apparently, quite tasty. Pink Mallow, that wonderful blowzy garden thug that pops up uninvited in my flower beds, was another plant my sheep appreciated. And I didn't mind if they munched on it. Daylilies were also sheep fodder when they could get to them.

My sheep were not perfect lawnmowers. We have lots of creeping Jenny, a round-leaved weed that lives in the lawn and sneaks into flower beds, but my sheep sneered at it unless most everything else was chewed down. In fact, weeds in general were less palatable than flowers and tender grasses. But they added free fertilizer to my grassy places, I never mowed the lawn after I bought them

As fall progressed my old apple trees started dropping fruit, most of which was not fit for human consumption. So my sheep rendered an important service: cleaning up the "drops". According to one of our regional apple authorities, Michael Phillips (author of The Apple Grower: A Guide for the Organic Orchardist), one of the best things you can do to prevent apple scab is to clean up fallen apples. Goliath and Francis worked hard at helping me do that. And when they were not near the trees, I gathered up apples each morning and shared a few with them.

My sheep were sneaky. They pretended not to be interested in a young apple tree that was in the center of a section of lawn. I watched them for a couple of hours one morning as I worked near by. Then, after I'd left, they ate the leaves and some of the bark. The tree did not survive the winter. But then again, neither did they. They couldn't convince me to make them pets, so they did end up in the freezer, as planned.

Would I do it again? No. It was an interesting no-mow experiment, but it took a lot of time and energy. It was back to mowing again this year.

Henry Homeyer is the author of "Notes from the Garden: Reflections and Observations of an Organic Gardener." Write him at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, N.H. 03746; send e-mail to gardening.guy@valley.net; his Web site is gardening-guy.com