Hans Schin

Thanks, Jesse, for the glimmer of hope Lol.
I'm actually not sure where they originally came from. All our immediate neighbors have intact pasture grasses and I'm not really seeing goatheads in their pastures. Maybe they came in on the tractor that was used to till the soil.

Jesse, thank you so much for your reply. Unfortunately,  you are only confirming what I suspected: that our struggle with goatheads will never really end. 😔  I have been outside pulling goatheads every day, anywhere from a few minutes to an hour. I'm prioritizing the green plants that are still growing. After that I suppose before the rain arrives I'll start over and try to scoop up more of the dry seeds that are unfortunately everywhere. I might even try the flip flop method 😆
Fortunately I can be very persistent, so hopefully I can at least reduce them a bit year by year and allow the grass to start filling in little by little. As long as I can see things moving into the right direction, I will continue 👍

Thank you,  Trace, I generally agree with mowing, but in the case of goatheads that's almost impossible,  since they grow so low to the ground and I already have a crazy amount of goathead seeds just waiting to grow or to get sick in someone's foot 😪

Thanks again,  Anne, I just added some photos. I don't have a lot of the tall native grass right now,  because where the grass is intact near the house, we had to now it down due to fire hazard. I'm thinking it might be California Oatgrass. I'll try to get a better photo tomorrow morning during my walk in an area where the grass was allowed to be undisturbed.

Thanks, Anne. Our native grass is actually great for animal pastures. These hills can be great grazing land despite the dry and hot climate. I'm not sure if I could find seeds for it, though. To be honest, I don't even know exactly what the grass is called. I guess that is something I need to find out.

We recently moved on a 5 acre property in the foothills of the Central California Sierra Nevada. The previous owner tilled a large area (at least 3 acres of the land), which disrupted the native grass and caused a lot if weeds to take over. I'm assuming he did it for fire control and didn't want to keep mowing it, without realizing how tall the weeds would get. I'm very much hoping to get the native grass to grow back that is all around us in the hills and on the rest of the property. I spend the last several weeks pulling the tall weeds with my hands (to the amusement of my neighbors in sure). Now what I mainly have left is a lot of goat heads / puncturevine with some sparse grass trying to fill in here and there, but wide areas with no grass at all, mostly dirt and goatheads. I haven't started pulling the goatheads,  because doing so in this area seems overwhelming even compared to all the weed pulling I've already done, and I read is likely have to keep pulling them many times to make any difference. I read about goathead weevils with mixed reviews and can't seem to find them online anyway. Flame torch is out of the question as I don't want to burn the neighborhood down. I'd like to avoid spraying if I can, but I'd also really like to get rid of these goatheads. If I manage to get rid of the goatheads and keep the other weeds controlled, will the native grass just naturally fill back in? Any input? Thank you!
In case it's relevant, the reasons I want to get rid of them are:
- they are painful and potentially harmful to our dogs and possible other future animals
- they interfere with the native grass I'd like to restore
- I ultimately hope to leave that part of the land relatively wild with native pasture/meadow or possibly put a very small number of animals in it to graze
- they are not native and while they help with erosion control,  the native grass will do the same thing and much more.

Edit: upon Anne's suggestion, I'm adding some photos of the native grass with the tilled/weedy pasture in the background.

Thanks, that is helpful for a start. The property is located in the Piney Wood area of East Texas, hot humid climate. The whole county is heavily wooded. The trees seem pretty old; I don't know how old, but old enough that I'd prefer to leave most of them alone. The property is quite hilly, but more flat in the back I think; I wasn't actually able to walk through all the wooded area. The house is a bit elevated on a hill, and in the back there is a fairly steep slope that is already partially cleared. I'll have to look at some topographic maps for that.
I also want some fruit and nut trees, and don't want to plant them on the already small cleared area. So I may just clear another acre or so to replant fruit and nut trees, and plant around the trees on the remaining acreage after the goats clear it a bit. I'd also like to try and raise some livestock (mostly goats and chickens, possibly pigs or donkeys) in the forest, assuming they will find much of their own food there. I'm sure I have to be careful not to overstock for the animal not to kill the vegetation entirely either.

Is there a way to slowly turn an existing forest (mostly pine) into a more edible forest, besides clearing the land and replanting? I suppose some of the trees have to be thinned out eventually, and more edible plants can slowly be added. Is there a more structured approach to it? I'm buying some mostly wooded property, and would like to work as much as possible with what is already there. I was thinking of first fencing it in, and letting some goats clear the underbrush, thin out the trees a bit, and add new edible plants in the new spaces.