Maine business offers goats as landscapers
Herd comes to home, eats shrubs
A Kennebunk-based company will come to a home and clear invasive plants from the property.
Owner Heather Lombard's seven goats do the work. They eat everything green and strip away bark on shrubs and trees.
"I like to tell people that they're not lawn mowers," Lombard said.
It will take the herd about three days to clean about an eighth of an acre. They won't eat everything, but they'll eat a lot.
"Basically, any kind of overgrowth that people would use machinery or chemicals to get rid of. They go in, and they eat all of it," Lombard said. "Maybe they have an understanding that the goal is to stay there until the food is gone."
The goats also leave behind manure that helps to fertilize the soil.
Lombard said she started the business because of two passions.
"I'm doing something where I can be around animals that I love, and I can also help the environment in the meantime."
The herd costs $575 to rent for the week. They're kept in place with an electric fence, and they sleep at the job site, too.
"They're affectionate like dogs. They know their names. There's a bond there," Lombard said of her goats.
Since her business launched, Lombard said there's been a lot of interest. She's booked through the fall.