Biodiverse Polyculture (USDA 8a Zone Pasture) - sounds better than "My Acres of Weeds"

[RubelliteRose]

Also, if you don't already know about it, here is a good weed id site

https://weedid.cals.vt.edu/

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Keep dogfennel around with caution. While it supposedly has insecticidal properties and the dried stems are very useful, it is toxic to the liver so keep an eye out and make sure your goats don't change their mind about eating it. Unfortunately, my daughter's horse isn't as smart as your goats so we are working on eliminating it.
"Ingestion of dog fennel by your horse can cause him to have various issues. In a short amount of time, it can cause a dermatitis issue or diarrhea. If he ingests this plant over a longer period of time, it can cause internal bleeding tendencies you may not even realize until it is too late. " "The volatile oil produced by the dog fennel plant is what is toxic to your horse. The oil is made up of bisabolol, chamazulene, anthemic acid, and tannic acid." "there is no antidote to dog fennel poisoning"

Yes, horses are far more susceptible to it, but I'm slowly removing it.

The dried stalks without the tops do make good mulch when laid out like a rush mat to trap moisture for a raised bed, and also for my bunny's hutch.

 

[eastereggfan]

Have you tried covering the collards?

Floating row cover (it's like a thin fabric) is pretty good at keeping bugs out, as long as you put it on before any bugs actually get on the plants. Sunlight and water go right through it, so you can just leave it on all season (except for things like weeding and harvesting.)

Maybe you could turn chickens into the area to scratch and eat any existing bugs, then put in the plants, then immediately cover them.

Covering the grape vines might be an option too, depending on what shapes & sizes the plants are. The "floating row cover" comes in very wide sizes sometimes (like 10+ feet wide.)

I've recently read using tulle from the fabric store to cover your fruit trees saves them from birds and bugs. You might want to try that.

 

[MadGardener]

Have you considered comfrey? I think it grows up to zone 9 and prefers clay soils. Very nutritious but likely more palatable young (my chickens don't seem to mind it being prickly but a mammal might). Also very valuable as chop and drop mulch, compost tea, and loved by pollinators. I have a patch often visited by hummingbirds. My chickens really appreciated the green leaves this fall. I wouldn't be surprised if it would stay green all winter in your area.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

On my property, but thanks to my little dinosaurs it is not in the pasture.

Red Clover

 

[flagirl]

Neither my chickens nor my goats nor my rabbit will eat dog fennel.

We loaded tons of it under our RV, and found no bug repellent properties, either. Due to moisture content, it makes a very poor addition to deep litter - I would no t throw any significant amount into the coop in hopes of deterring little bugs.

The tall stalks, when dried, are quite stiff, thick, and brittle - they make great kindling. The plant itself does a great job of breaking up clay soils - its roots are relatively shalow, but tightly bundled. I'm using it to break up my ground, provide shade (the birds do love to dust bathe next to it), and ripping it out as more desired plants spread nearby.

TY for asking!!!!

tks, i am on the line between 9a and 9b, the dog fennel goes really well in sand here. i will stick to putting in grain bucket in pantry. my crazy hens will not eat much green except grass. i grow lots of bok choi and cabbage types and they will not touch, not even lettuce. i get eveything that will not sell at a farm stand around the corner and they mostly only eat the fruit and corn. all the rest goes in my compost pile. love this info.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I’m 9b as well.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

One of these days, we'll see bok choi seeds for sale at the right time of year AND have a place in the raised beds to plant them. This year, the "winter" bed was full of kale, arugula, leeks, and scallions. The summer bed was already loaded with white onion, purple onion, garlic, more scallion, oregano (overwinters very well here).

This week, we've pruned back some of the kale and arugula (which was bolting anyways), and am tring to get one last crop of radish, get the basil started, red chard, three varieties of tomato, two varieties of hot pepper, and the green peppers going. Summer squash, zuccini, cucumber (two varieties) and watermelon are already planted elsewhere.

Those are the "Kitchen scraps" my birds sometimes get a bite of.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I am behind on the gardening… so behind

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Have you considered comfrey? I think it grows up to zone 9 and prefers clay soils. Very nutritious but likely more palatable young (my chickens don't seem to mind it being prickly but a mammal might). Also very valuable as chop and drop mulch, compost tea, and loved by pollinators. I have a patch often visited by hummingbirds. My chickens really appreciated the green leaves this fall. I wouldn't be surprised if it would stay green all winter in your area.

I've read about it, but not tried it. We aren't really "salad" people, so greens for salads aren't high on our list of things to plant (except arugula, which is a guilty pleasure, and tomato because... if I shared my last name, it would be obvious as the nose on my face).

Large leaf greens - kale, spinach (I planted some of that this AM), chard, cabbages are all good, because I can chop them up add salt, garlic, pepper as a veggie, or steam them and use the leaves as a wrapper, or shred them into a soup with some ginger and spices, or just wilt them with some hot bacon fat, vinegar, and a pinch of sugar, or cook, squeeze dry, mix with cheese, and use to stuff pasta...