Please help. My family and I live on an old Diary Farm bulit in the 1920's or so. Privit hedges used to surround the house. most of them have died out. I am looking the replace the hedges for privacy and wind protection in the winter. I do not care how tall they get. They need to be shade and sun tolerant. I would like them to be ornamental and also be something for the birds to feed on in the winter. But most of all the hedges will back up to one of my pastures and I need to be sure that if the cattle get to close or the goats get out and nibble on them that they are not posionous. I live in Weatherford, Parker County, just a mile from the famous pecan tree. Any suggestions?????

Holly?
Nandina?

I planted something the nursery called Korean Ligustrum (who knows) at the office. It's flourishing, & it's evergreen.

You might look at gardenweb, at the forums for Nature (or Wildlife, can't remember exactly) & for Texas Gardening.

I'm glad you're thinking about birds, animals, & wintertime!

Best luck!

If you are interested in feeding native birds, start with native plants!

Some to consider include:
Agarito (Berberis trifoliolata) - 4-5'tall and up to 8 feet. Sharp prickles on evergreen leaves discourage browsing but birds love the berries. You cen even make jam with them.
Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera) 6-12' evergreen shrubby tree with berries sought out by many birds. Need male and female plants.
Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica) 3-8' deciduous thicket forming with berries that birds love.
Little leaf sumac (Rhus microphylla) 4-15' deciduous and eventually gets very wide. Again, birds love the fruit.

To my knowledge, they are not harmful to livestock.

Hi Crazy Gardener,
Hope you've gotten some helpful suggestions at Garden Web. If you are still looking for a list of shrubs, let me know and I'll start poking around.

You might also find this search data base on poisonious plants helpful.

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~djw/plantox.html

Good luck,
Newt

Crazygardener-
I vote for Youpon Holly for 1 choice. They are growing wild on our 20 ac, birds love 'em & are helping to plant more. Some I'm keeping as lower bushes. Also have Sumac, I should find out what variety but they turn beautiful red in the fall, tho are not much of a privacy bush/tree.
Patty

I found this site that should be very helpful. It's Texas native shrubs. Do keep in mind that birds will use some shrubs for food and others for shelter and nesting, so the structure of the shrub can also be important. I tried clicking on the 'search' button but can't seem to get it to work. I was going to search with 'bird'.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/orna ... iveshrubs/

Found this Texas site about poisonious plants, some for animals including rangeland.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plan ... links.html

I used the Plant Answers index and put in bird + shrub and got lots of info.
http://www.plantanswers.com/search_page.htm

Hope this helps,
Newt

Newt-
Wow, great sites w/great info. Never knew some of those would be harmful to livestock. Thanks-
Patty

Patty, glad you liked them. I was so happy to find them on the Texas Extension Service site. A wealth of info there.

Newt