# Are goats useful for controlling ivy on a hill of periwinkle?



## Jsto72 (May 14, 2014)

...or will they also eat the periwinkle?  

We are thinking of getting a goat to control the ivy, as we live in the woods and it's everywhere.  We have a hill behind the house that's covered in periwinkle, and every year it gets overgrown with the ivy.  Is it unreasonable for us to think that the goats will only eat the ivy and leave the periwinkle alone?

Never owned a goat...forgive my ignorance


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## elevan (May 16, 2014)

Welcome to the forum @Jsto72 !  Goats will eat the ivy, but they'll also consider the periwinkle just as edible.  If you want to keep the periwinkle and get rid of the ivy, I'd suggest either pulling the ivy by hand or you can get some stuff (forgive me I don't know it's name) that you "paint" onto the ivy's leaves and it'll kill the plant...but you'll likely have to repeat that a few years in a row.  Goats are great to have around but they don't discriminate between the plants you want to keep and what you want them to eat unless you are able to fence off what you don't want them to eat and it doesn't sound feasible in this case.  Best of luck to ya!


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