I didn't realize when I got farm animals it meant I couldn't have landscape plants unless we put up fences everywhere.  I'm not really opposed to attractive fencing, but JR hates fences and weed whacking around them.  And digging post holes.  And not being able to walk through areas without opening a gate.  Or going anywhere he wants on the four wheeler.

I have to bring up the idea of additional fencing very carefully.  A little hint here and there, possibly a sign of frustration when the chickens eat yet another cantaloupe or cucumber from the garden. Granted, I didn't plant cantaloupes and they were volunteers, but I would rather we ate the melons and not the chickens.

I say things like, "When you have time, could you... " "Not right now, but..." "I know you have a lot going on, but..." I want to make sure he doesn't think I am riding him to do yet one more thing for me, but I am not a patient person. When I get an idea, I want to do it RIGHT now!

My donkeys have a 1 acre pen they share with the chickens.

The chickens free range during the day, returning to the pen and their coop to grab some grub or lay an egg. At dusk they put themselves back in the coop, me encouraging the dawdlers with scratch, and we close them in for the night for safety.  The donkeys stay in the pen until I let them out.  Typically they are free during the day to graze around the property because they have eaten the grass in their pen down to nothing.  This is when they get into trouble.

The donkeys tear at our peach or citrus trees, eat all the leaves off my rose bushes, rip plants out of pots, or eat my bird seed from my hanging feeders, sometimes all of those. It drives me nuts, but I don't like them out of sight, so any time they are a little too far away from me, I haul them back to the house, where they get in trouble, where I need fences. Here is one of the many fences surrounding our trees. They are staked to the ground, which isn't always a deterrent for the donkeys.

I researched diligently before I purchased any bushes or flowers for around the cabin.  I know how these donkeys are, if they can get to it, they will chew on it.  Azaleas, no.  Oleanders, no.  Junipers, Yew, Ivy, Avocado, the list goes on of plants to keep away from equines.  I stood in Home Depot Garden Center scanning the stocked plants and checking them against the list of poisonous plants online, a little perturbed at how many there were.

I settled on Variegated Pittosporum and Mexican Heather.  We planted them in front of the cabin and immediately blocked them with an open topped, metal, dog play yard on one side of the steps and electrical fencing, minus electricity, on the other. 

Not pretty, but that's okay because this lasted 2 minutes before the donkeys figured out how to get in there and rip half the plants out of the ground. 

Plan B.  I decided having bushes in front of the cabin was overrated.  I mean, snakes could hide behind them and stuff, right?  So JR and I moved the remaining tiny bushes up to the front entrance, on either side of the gate, by my rose bushes and poisonous Azaleas. Give it time, in 10 years, it will look smashing.   

I have decided I am going to make my fenced backyard my flower garden and not let the donkeys back there anymore.  We have also talked about possibly saving cedar trunks and making a fence to go around the pomegranate, citrus and bird feeders I have on the side yard. I removed all the lower bird feeders because Cletus kept knocking them down.  Everything else is surrounded by wire fencing.  Poor little plants are in prison. 

We have a fence around the outside of the property:

A fence around the backyard:

A fence around my garden:

A fence to keep the donkeys in:

So yes, we have animals and with animals we have fencing. I have not given up on my landscaping ideas, but I might need to revise them a little.  I mean, what would I do without the boys? ;)  They will be here as long as I am, so might as well make it donkey friendly around here even if it means a few less flowers around the place.