# Suggestions from goat-loving gardeners?



## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

We have red tipped photinia in front of our house. I hate it, so unimaginative lol. I want to rip it up and do something different but I need suggestions.

1)zone--we fall between 8b and 9a on this scale http://www.lawn-and-gardening-tips.com/planting-zones.html
2)partial shade
3)flowering would be nice but not necessary
4)durable, I dont have a lot of time to baby plants
5)it absolutely MUST be safe for goats


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

LOL, Photinia sounds like an idea plant for that situation, plus nice year round color etc. Maybe that's why its "unimaginative" or oo common there? Sometimes plants are common for good reasons and we humans are strange about our "contempt of the familiar" and love for the exotic.

What size and texture please you?

Something like Lonicera nitida is about as opposite from Photina as you can get. There's a couple gold leaf cultivars like "Baggesen's Gold" that might be nice.


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

I guess I am just tired of it. every single house I have ever lived in since we moved back to TX from Indonesia in the early '80s has had it as the backbone of the landscaping!


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

ok, understandable.
did you take a look at the one I suggested? Its about as opposite as you can get from Photina

otherwise, what size, texture are you looking for? Evergreen or you don't care? How about a Magnolia?


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

I'd like a magnolia but where I am talking about there isnt the space. The front of the house has a sidewalk running about 10 feet in front of it and I am talking about what to put in the 10 ft between the house and the sidewalk.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Gardenias (if you dead head them, a great job for punishments  you get two bloomings a year), Bridal Veil (airy pretty with thousands of tiny white blossoms), Smoke plant (freezes back each year which is nice to cleanup the area and paint if you need to then springs back to 6 feet (the one at the old soap house is probably 3 feet today) by early summer. Pretty red sooty looking leaves. Ligustrum, airy screens full of fragrant blossoms, these can get very big around, ours are a screen and in 3 years are 12 feet tall, you can eaisly trim them to any heighth. Holly, nice for keeping boyfriends out of your daughters windows! Once again grows huge if you don't contain it with severe pruning. These are all natives so other than gardenia that works best on the south side of the house, other than pruning need little to no care. 

On your red tips, dig them out, they make excellent trees, the tops nearly are smokey as adults, they are beautiful! I will come get them if you don't want them  V


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Don't blame you for not liking the photinia. We had one in GA...I hated the way the flowers smelled. Yuck.


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## Cotton Eyed Does (Oct 26, 2007)

Here is a good list. I don't see Crepe Myrtles listed on here. Are they poisonous? I know I've given some of the limbs with leaves on it to the goats if they were broken off and as far as I know there were no problems.

http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/NR/rdonlyr...A0CD9/56152/ListPoisonousOrnamentalPlants.pdf


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

Crepe Myrtles are a fav here in fact we have several half destroyed fences where the goats stand on the wire in mass to prune them. 

What about purple lorepetalum? They are nice natural or pruned and flower at least twice a year and the trimmings can go to the goats. They will make small trees if not pruned but when clipped each year they are dense and lovely with several shades of bronzing/purpling on the leaves and electric fuchsia flowers.
We love the way they break up the rampant green here with the dark colors.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

Here are some Lorepetalum in situ with our Siloams and a variegated wiegela

[attachment deleted by admin]


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

and a close up of the foliage

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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

I love the Siloam daylilies. We have a few, somewhere.... Crape Myrtles are wonderful. I wish we could grow them here. And of course, Lee's garden is beautiful, as always.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Wow that is simply beautiful! V


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## Bella Star (Oct 27, 2007)

Above photo looks so beautiful !
I like the Red Tip Photinia and Myrtles both but have you thought about the Vitex Chaste tree for Texas ? It's not on the poison list and it makes a beautiful foundation tree with lovely blooms .


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## txdana (Feb 26, 2010)

Crape myrtles are related to roses so I would think goats would like them. As a texas nursery prof, we have not widely recommended planting red tip photinia for 10 years or more because of a bacterial leaf spot disease they can get when planted in the wrong place. It is not curable and the chemicals to control it are very exspensive. They should be planted out in full sun with air movement all around and they should be spaced @ 10 feet apart. People plant them in their flower beds, against the house, against a fence and I've seen them planted as close as 3 feet apart. Sure, some folks have them and love them and have had no problems with them...yet. The majority of customers I work with have lost them.

The loropetalum mentioned works well and there are new ones on the market that are smaller. "Pixie" is a groundcover type and "Purple Diamond" will stay @ about 4 to 5 feet. It would be pretty mixed with "Wheelers Dwarf" Pittosporum or Dwarf Yaupon Holly. Any of the hollies would work and there are some of what are called "soft" hollies on the market now. With your flowering shrubs (gardenias, azaleas, hydrangeas etc) the lighting requirements and soil acidity are more specific. I had a customer who bought one from a big box store and the tag said for full sun. Not so in your zone. I'm still learning about plant toxicity and goats so you'd have to check. Good luck !


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

YES our vitex is blooming now and wow what a show. Lovely! Our photinia were planted in 1988 as a hedge to block dust from our road. They are 20 feet tall and bloom like mad and are a show stopper in the spring with early red tips. Just a stunning row of colors and shapes. I adore them and wish I had planted 100 instead of only 40. The goats love them too but it will make them loose. We do not allow them to eat it -even prunings because it does upset them enough to change stool texture.

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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

interesting about the photinia making their stools soft for you, I've been feeding it whenever I don't have something else handy for "live" food, and I've never had a problem with it. And in my volunteering for the zoo under the supervision of their vets etc, there was never any issue with photinia, so I'm very curious on this.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Dana have you seen any of the miniature/dwarf magnolia trees? I am going to get some and wondered if you perhaps new of any info, pros and cons or any species...very acidic soil, but sandy, and we live in the piney woods. Vicki


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

We have tried Little Gem dwarf Magnolia- does not do well in shade here. Tried 2 in different locations- they are ok but not particularly vigorous in our situation. Still have those lovely flowers and scent but we are in too much shade for them to do much.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

"Little Gem" is planted a lot around here and struggles, wants more heat and water than we have. I would think it would do great for you there IF it got enough water and at least 1/2 day sun. Our sun intensity here from dawn to dusk probably isn't 40% of yours there, LOL. Here it needs frying hot (for here) spot. Probably Buckrun's "shade" is the same amount of sun intensity it gets here in full sun and it gets diseased and doesn't do well.

There are other small-ish magnolias that seem healthier than Little Gem, but so much of that is regional. "DD Blanchard", "Saint Mary" (Margaret? sorry, I'm forgetting, pretty sure its 'Mary'), "'Edith Bouge" is another. Or for Magnolia delavayi, the Chinese Evergreen one, its small.


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

Lee is that the Vitex? beautiful!


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## txdana (Feb 26, 2010)

Vicki "Little Gem" magnolias do well here but if you have alot of sand you'd need to add some compost and bark to the soil to get them started and be sure to mulch them yearly with a good compost. They bloom at a much earlier age than the standard, they have a finer texture and because the leaves are smaller the litter when they are shedding in the spring doesn't seem to be the problem that it is with the bigger ones. They also grow much faster. They will take full sun but I think where you are they would probably appreciate some shade or dappled light at some point in the day. They will top out at @ about 20 feet but can be kept shorter for awhile with selective pruning. "Teddy Bear" is a new one that has a little wider leaf that does @ 20. "D.D. Blanchard will do 50 feet. The scent of the "Little Gem" is my favorite.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Thanks Dana! I was hoping you would see this, 20 feet, sounds like our darn dwarf plum, it has so taken over the corner of my garden just after 2 years that we are having to move our gate and trelise! It is a beauty though! I can see you now, bartering trees for goats! Hey I would even go for that! Vicki


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