Goats: 1, Kudzu: 0

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. When we moved into our new old house thirty two years ago, we had a half acre of kudzu in the side yard. I was busy with three little children and we only had a push lawnmower – so I fully expected to wake up one morning to find that the porch had been overtaken by that aggressive imported vine.    Fortunately, a friend had a brush-eating goat that had cleared out his woods and she came to spend the summer with us.   Gertie took to that kudzu like a duck to water. When fall rolled around, she had eaten that kudzu back to the ground and moved to another brush clearing assignment. The next year I used a pump-up sprayer with herbicide to treat the new sprouts of kudzu as they emerged and was able to eradicate it from our property.