posted 3 years ago
I see a bunch of issues here:
1. I wouldn't want to plant anything toxic to geese "just in case", so that means that whatever I do plant, will need some sort of protection while it's getting established.
2. Density will be critical - the balance between how fast the geese will nibble something vs how fast it can grow. This can change through the season - things really do grow faster in spring, and often have more nutrition as well.
3. In the wild, birds keep moving so they aren't targeted by things that think birds are yummy. In a homestead situation, the plants may never get a break. This is where "rotational grazing" or "paddock shift" concepts come in. Several small ponds might be better than one large ponds along with field areas so that any one pond gets a break to regrow for multiple weeks.
4. More work, but I happen to have a small ornamental pond made by former owners which I've allowed to naturalize (it grows my frog work-force in the spring with no interference from me!) It happens to grow Lemna - duckweed - really well, so I made up a simple scoop out of a scrap of hardware cloth and I scoop up part of the lemna mat and take it to the field for my Khaki Campbell ducks. It nutritious and delicious, but I've got to make the decisions of how much to harvest, how often, and I have to carry it to the field.