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Goats to visit Chimborazo this Wednesday
From John Sydnor, Executive Director of Enrichmond Foundation:
As you may know, baby goats are called kids. As you may also know, The Martin Agency has partnered with Enrichmond to raise funds for an urban orchard in Chimborazo Park– a Earth Day Richmond Community Impact Project. So, to keep the momentum of the Chimborazo Urban Orchard going we are bringing in the Kids!
November 27th in Chimborazo Park (near the Church Hill Dog Park) from 11am to 2pm come see the Kids (and mommy’s- only female goats are used for goatscaping- learn why when you come).
This is a family friendly event in one of the crown jewels of the City of Richmond park system- Chimborazo Park. Please with your family, bring your lawn chairs, maybe an umbrella if it rains, and enjoy watching on of the most environmentally friendly landscaping methods possible- Goatscaping.
So excited!!
Congratulations Mr. Sydnor! You just informed regular park users of your plans and now you storm ahead before anyone can say anything to the contrary. Well done!
Great Job and Thank you!
PG- This is the demonstration portion of our orchard plans. Our hope is to build momentum for the kickstarter campaign, give everyone a chance to see and pet goats, and demonstrate goatscaping.
Few important facts we should emphasis:
– FoCP held an open meeting last year for our good partners The Tree Stewards and Enrichmond to discuss our proposals. Janet discussed the trees and shrubs along the hill and I talked about the kudzu field and our educational orchard.
– The small piece of land we are reclaiming for public use is located on the outer edge of the park, just above the railroad tracks, near the dog park. It has been overgrown with Kudzu and not enjoyed by park attendees for about 30+ years according to the City.
– Our site is one of the main sources of kudzu killing trees along the southern portion of Chimborazo and spreading through the park.
– The goats coming Wednesday will remove a lot of kudzu- especially the root systems. This will make next years goat scaping much easier and effective.
– No trees will be planted until next Spring.
– With or without the orchard- the goats will help remove a large portion of the kudzu, possibly begin opening another portion of the park that has been unused for over 30+ years, help save trees along the southern portion of the park, and demonstrate an environmentally friendly landscaping method for the City, surrounding localities, and businesses.
We are scheduling a second meeting with FoCP (open to everyone) at Chimborazo Park House to discuss the orchard. More on that to come.
Don’t hesitate to email me directly with any questions or concerns.
Jsydnor@enrichmond.org
Please forgive the typos as I’m on my phone visiting family for Thanksgiving.
John
Great project. Keep plugging along. Kudzu is the worst kind of invasive plant.
Very excited about this. Can’t wait to see the baby goats. Prairiegirl – get a grip.
On the topic of goatscaping, do goats eat English Ivy?
Hey Bill, I had dropped by the fireplace post yesterday to see if you had an update. Several of us in the neighborhood are undertaking this project over the winter, and I’d love to know where you netted out.
Does this plan involve the use or restriction of any park land other than the kudzu patch near the railroad tracks?
FoCP held an open meeting last year for our good partners The Tree Stewards and Enrichmond to discuss our proposals. Janet discussed the trees and shrubs along the hill and I talked about the kudzu field and our educational orchard.
I’m glad to hear someone is using goats in the City to clear weeds. Can’t wait to check out the results.
Using goats is an appealing method of “landscaping,” with significant public relations value, but viewing the results of Wednesday’s effort, it’s obvious that machinery and human labor will be required to properly clear the kudzu for an apple orchard. Still, the goats provide some degree of clearing, and I imagine they will be effective in getting at the vines in the tighter spaces among the trees.
Wednesdays goat effort was simply a demonstration. A press event. My understanding is that donations are still needed to fund the true effort. Then, in the spring, the goats will be in Chimborazo for about a week eating the kudzu field. Then they will move to two other sites in Richmond to demonstrate their usefulness. So, if you are at all interested, visit the goat kickstarter campaign and donate.
per the question above, Goats can eat English Ivy but it is not their favorite. some sources report that it is toxic to Goats. my experience using goats (i have 9) to clear weeds and brush is that they can eat it in small amounts (they have rumens which reduce the impact of ivy) if they are also able to forage on other plant sources. however do not allow goats to eat Hedera (ivy) and wisteria together. that is reported (by animal science laboratories) to be quite toxic (fatal).
nice thing about goats also is that they can eat (and love to eat) poison ivy. additionally they can eat poison oak and poison sumac although those are rarely found around here. yes, they do leave the woody parts so there is still a lot of cleanup and removal to do of vines and woody material after the goats browse the green stuff. i wonder if pigs would make a good follow-up animal to root up some of the remainders?
@guFrodin. Where and when was an open meeting with Friends of Chimborazo Park? I don’t remember hearing anything about an open meeting. How was this communicated and how will future meetings be communicated?