How to Paradise-Homestead?

Hello fellow Permies,

We have the critters - a bunch of chicken, soon only 3 small (Ouessant) sheep, 2 dogs and horse.
Ideally we'd want them roaming freely within our homestead... BUT we ALSO would like to be saving our fruit trees and vegetable garden (mostly) to ourselves.

So far I've figured out that plants don't have to roam and can therefore be fenced in (vegetable garden, greenhouse), but the sheep and horse are still 'on the other side of the fence' where half of the our fruit trees and almost all of the nut trees are, and they're eating the leaves and fruit, ripe or not. Also, the sheep jumped over the fence of our potato patch and destroyed the plants.

Has anyone come up with a nifty solution that they'd like to share?

It seems I might want more than is possible, but a girl can always dream, right?

If you invest in fruit trees and the major part of this investment is the time of your life, I would recommend installing a proper fencing that can not be cleared by animals. Sheep will eventually start chewing the bark of the tree leading to diseases and death. Chickens seem to be beneficial to roam around the trees and eat the pests but they may also climb them and eat the fruits (I experience it with my unprotected olive tree).
The garden area should also be fenced against chickens. They completely destroy my crops.

For your garden fence, add a 2- to 3-foot pole at each corner above the current fence..
Use a non-barbed wire and run around the new poles near the top.
Tie ribbons on the wire to keep the sheep from jumping or crawling over the fence.

Your fruit and nut trees need individual fences to keep the ruminants from debarking or simply over pruning all the new growth.

As those trees get taller, it will become less of a problem.

I don’t keep animals but I have observations from cow pastures in the area. Oftentimes when there are semi-forested or unkempt pastures, you will see multiflora roses, or big thick blackberry or other prickly bramble canes, that come up and form nasty, prickly thickets. In the midst of these thickets, trees begin to take hold and thrive in the lack of being chomped.

In another cow pasture I know, it is full of apple trees. One of these is a “weird apple” that I have heard is getting to be rare these days. Weird apples look like a trimmed hedge at the base, and they stay hedgy wherever the browsing animals can reach. But once they gain sufficient girth that their central area is protected from browsing, they send up a shoot and make regular apple growth, unbothered by the reach of grazing animals. This particular tree has apples bigger than any I have seen elsewhere, whether in an orchard or a supermarket or the wild hedges, and they are sweet and slightly lemony, delicious; they are a yellowish and pinkish sort of apple, and one half leans over the cattle’s drinking pond.

I think also, that once a tree is big enough they become less susceptible to browsing.

Hopefully this provides some inspiration!

Chickens will go after plants they can reach.

I have not observed the eating habits of sheep other than grass.

The dogs mostly leave plants alone unless they dig somewhere.

The horse wil eat the leave it can reach on trees, etc.

Fences are doable and a good idea.

Anne Miller wrote:I have not observed the eating habits of sheep other than grass.

My hairy sheep will destroy a young tree in no time. They will eat all leaves they can reach. They love eucalyptus, olive and grape leaves. They don't care about eating toxic prunus leaves. They will break the branches and strip the bark. Also, in dry season they seem to be even more attracted to green trees to break monotonous diet of dried grasses.

Thank you all for your input!

Thomas, that is a great idea with the anti-jumping wire&ribbons on higher poles!

I realise in hindsight that fotos are helpful in order to describe the situation.
Our place is 3000m2 in total, and the pasture for the sheep only recently "got invaded" by horsey, who normally would be in the pasture of our neighbors together with his buddy, the donkey, but our horse had some health issues and has been recovering at home.

Our place is an old orchard, so most of the fruit trees are mature, high and some are partially dying of old age.
I've planted a some new trees, they are safe from the beasties behind fencing...for now. If we'd allow grazing all over the place, we'd need to fence those trees in as well. On the pasture I've used wire fencing, but the ram (relocated now) rammed the fencing with poles and all against the trees. The tree trunks are safe from the sheep thanks to the wire fence.  However, the horse reaches much higher than the sheep. At the moment I'm letting things happen as 'natural pruning', but for the next season things need to change.

I'm now thinking perhaps triangular plank fence around each tree - that's a lot of triangles, but then they could roam around I guess. Do chime in with your thoughts, creative thinking is very welcome!

What you see in the photos, taken from our roof terrace, is from left to right the L- or U-shaped sheep pasture with a greenhouse in it (and a pond needing more plants, but sheep). The  sheep pasture extends behind the middle part, right up to the back right corner of the property (orientation as in photos).

In the middle is the fenced-in vegetable garden and to the right is actually a path leading to the back of the property, lined with more fruit trees.
The sheep are at the back of the pasture when I took the photos, so 'in hiding'.

The sheep (& the horse every now and then) graze in the pasture. It has been hot and dry for about two months now.
The chicken can roam everywhere except in the vegetable garden.

So the "Paradise Homestead" situation for us would be:  vegetable garden, greenhouse and fruit trees are off limits for the animals. For the rest they could roam and mingle as they please.

Cristobal Cristo wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:I have not observed the eating habits of sheep other than grass.

My hairy sheep will destroy a young tree in no time. They will eat all leaves they can reach. They love eucalyptus, olive and grape leaves. They don't care about eating toxic prunus leaves. They will break the branches and strip the bark. Also, in dry season they seem to be even more attracted to green trees to break monotonous diet of dried grasses.

That is good to know.  The sheep I have observed do leave the prickly pear cactus and the agarita alone.  Though the might eat the fruit .... as our deer do.