A Rotation Through the Yard

It's that time of year.  Spring doesn't last very long in the south.  We enjoy it before summer hits.  Trees are budding out and, after a season of dormancy, a lot of weeds are coming up in the yard.  Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that "a weed is a plant whose virtues have never been discovered.  Our yard is primarily St. Augustine with a smattering of Bahia and Bermuda grass.  Right now, we're seeing a lot of White Dutch clover.  It's a lush beautiful plant and we see the honeybees flying to flower after flower.

When the White Dutch clover grows in patches in the yard, many people fire up their lawnmowers after a season of dormancy.  Not us.  It's time to get out the solar powered electric fence and portable step-in poles and reel of wire rope and put up temporary fencing in the yard.  We'll run the cows in the yard instead of the lawnmower and let them clean up all the weeds.

Here is LuLu excited about filling her belly with fresh grass.  In this instance, we can see what's on her menu.  In the foreground you can see that the first course is wild geranium, I think the Carolina geranium, to be specific.  

Here are all three cows, heads down, doing their best to obliterate the overgrowth of weeds.  I wish that I had taken an "after" photo to show you the before and after comparison.  The cows really did a good job knocking all this grass down.  To the right, you can see that I have a swarm trap up on top of a ladder.  I'll be baiting it probably tomorrow to try to catch a swarm.

Since I took this photo, I've moved the temporary fence and the cows to two additional areas in the yard.  By the time I cycle them back to this location in the yard, it will be grown all back up again.  Last year, due to the cows AND the drought, I only mowed the yard two times the entire year.  I'm hoping that if/when I need it this year, I'll be able to crank the lawnmower.  If not, the cows and goats are up to the task, I'm certain.