Goat Rental: A Budget-Friendly Landscaping Solution For An Overgrown Property

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Editor’s Note: This Canadian Budget Binder article was originally written by contributor Katrina, a horticulture graduate with more than 10 years of landscaping and greenhouse experience. We’ve updated the information about goat rental in Canada because this unusual landscaping option has changed considerably since Katrina first wrote about it. Her original landscaping project, advice, and personality have been preserved throughout the article.

Have you ever looked at an overgrown property and wondered where you would even begin?

Landscaping can become expensive quickly, especially when you start pricing plants, soil, mulch, stone and labour.

When a Canadian Budget Binder reader asked me to help give her property a facelift, the first thing I wanted to do was figure out what we could reuse.

I love landscaping, but I also love finding ways to improve a property’s appearance without unnecessary spending.

And yes, eventually we’re going to talk about goats.

Budget Landscaping Starts With What You Already Have

One mistake I often see is assuming that a landscaping project must begin at the garden centre.

Before buying anything, walk around your property.

You might be surprised by what you already own.

We found rocks scattered throughout the front and back of this property, so instead of buying decorative stone, we gathered them and brought them to the front.

Using the same rocks in one area gave the garden a more uniform appearance and cost us nothing.

If you like using stone in your landscaping, Katrina also shared how to build a rock garden with weed prevention.

Plants were another story.

I’ve lost count of how many plants I’ve moved over the years because they were originally planted in the wrong location.

Sometimes a garden doesn’t need more plants.

It needs the plants that it already has moved to better locations.

Remember that those little plants you bring home from the garden centre are going to grow.

If you stuff a garden bed full because you want it to look finished immediately, you may be digging half of it up again in a couple of years.

Give your plants room to mature.

Sometimes Moving Something Is Enough

I also noticed that the garden shed wasn’t in the most functional location.

There was nothing particularly wrong with the shed.

It was just in the wrong place.

Moving it completely changed the feel of the backyard.

There was only one small problem.

We had to move it!

I knocked on the neighbour’s door and asked their teenage son whether he could give us an extra set of hands.

Five minutes later, the shed was moved.

Cost: nothing.

Sometimes, improving your yard has less to do with buying new things and more to do with looking at what you already own differently.

Before replacing something, ask yourself whether it could be moved.

Reuse Soil When You Can

The lawn needed overseeding and topdressing.

Instead of buying a large amount of topsoil, we reused suitable soil from an area that had been dug out for the front patio.

We only needed to buy five smaller bags of soil to finish the job.

Obviously, you want to make sure any soil you reuse is appropriate for what you’re doing.

But if perfectly usable material is already sitting on your property, it doesn’t make much sense to pay someone to haul it away and then pay again to replace it.

Mulch Can Save Work Later

Mulching is one of my favourite ways to make a flower garden look finished while also reducing some of the maintenance.

A good layer of mulch can help retain moisture and suppress weeds.

It can also give a garden bed a much cleaner appearance.

The question is whether you should buy mulch in bulk or in bags.

There isn’t one answer that works for everyone.

If you have a pickup truck or trailer and need a large amount of bulk mulch, it may be the economical choice.

But don’t forget to consider delivery fees if you can’t pick it up yourself.

For our project, we didn’t have access to a truck.

Bagged mulch made more sense.

It was also easier to move the bags around the property than to unload a large pile of loose mulch into wheelbarrows.

The lesson here applies to mulch, soil, gravel, sand, and other landscaping materials:

Do the math based on your situation.

A bulk price isn’t a bargain if transportation wipes out the savings.

Check Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji Before Buying New

One of the easiest ways to save money on landscaping is to look for materials that other homeowners no longer want. You can also check out my guide to finding free landscaping supplies for more ideas.

Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, and neighbourhood groups can be great places to find:

• Patio stones
• Interlocking bricks
• Lumber
• Garden edging
• Planters
• Rocks
• Soil
• Perennial plants
• Shrubs
• Garden tools

The homeowner wanted a small seating area at the front of the property.

Luckily, I found a pile of interlocking bricks for only $30.

Those bricks gave us enough material to build a roughly 50-square-foot patio.

That was one of my favourite finds from the project.

There is something satisfying about turning someone else’s unwanted landscaping materials into something useful.

Be Careful With Free Plants

We also found free and inexpensive plants through online listings.

Free plants can be fantastic for a landscaping budget, but don’t grab everything simply because it costs nothing.

More plants aren’t always better.

Think about the mature size of anything you bring home.

You also want to inspect plants and soil before bringing them onto your property to avoid introducing pests, diseases, or unwanted weeds into your garden.

A bargain isn’t much of a bargain if it creates another problem.

Now About That Goat Rental…

I originally started thinking about renting a goat after Mr. CBB joked in another article about renting one to keep the lawn under control.

I had to laugh.

Then I discovered that renting goats for vegetation control was actually a real thing.

At the time I wrote this article, I struggled to find Canadian companies offering the service.

Well, things have changed.

CBB UPDATE: YES, YOU CAN RENT GOATS IN CANADA

Goat rental is now available in parts of Canada.

You may also see the service described as:

• Goatscaping
• Targeted grazing
• Prescribed grazing
• Goat grazing
• Vegetation management

This isn’t usually the case of someone dropping off one goat in your backyard and returning a week later.

Professional targeted-grazing operations may include a managed herd, temporary fencing, transportation, monitoring, and experienced handlers.

For example, Ontario-based Goats at Work offers goat rental and targeted grazing in Simcoe County and surrounding areas.

The company says its service can be used for overgrown residential properties, fence lines, invasive vegetation, steep slopes, and areas that may be difficult for conventional machinery to reach.

So yes, Canadian goats are officially employed.

I hope they get good benefits.

What Is Goatscaping?

Goatscaping is a catchy name for using goats to manage unwanted vegetation.

The more formal terms are targeted grazing or prescribed grazing.

Goats are browsers, meaning they will eat many types of leaves, weeds, woody plants, and brush.

That can make them particularly useful in areas where running a lawnmower isn’t practical.

Depending on the property and the operator, goats may be used to help control vegetation such as:

• Buckthorn
• Wild parsnip
• Garlic mustard
• Phragmites
• Poison ivy
• Thistles
• Brush
• Woody vegetation

A professional operator should assess the property first because goats don’t necessarily know which plants you paid $80 for at the garden centre.

If you want to keep it, make sure the goats can’t eat it.

Even Canadian Cities Are Using Goats

This isn’t only something being done on private farms.

Canadian municipalities are using targeted goat grazing as another vegetation-management tool.

The City of Toronto began prescribed goat grazing at Don Valley Brick Works Park in 2024.

Following the initial project, Toronto moved to a yearly rotational grazing model.

The City says prescribed grazing can help control invasive or incompatible plants and woody vegetation while offering potential benefits such as reduced reliance on mechanical equipment, lower noise, and less soil disturbance.

Calgary has also been using goats for vegetation management at Nose Hill Park.

In 2026, approximately 600 goats were scheduled to graze a defined section of the park to help manage invasive plants and excess vegetation.

Six hundred goats.

Now THAT would get the neighbours talking.

How Much Does Goat Rental Cost In Canada?

There is no standard goat-rental price across Canada.

The cost depends on the property and the company providing the service.

Factors may include:

• Property size
• Amount of vegetation
• Type of vegetation
• Terrain
• Accessibility
• Temporary fencing requirements
• Travel distance
• Number of goats required
• Length of the project
• Supervision and animal-care requirements

One Ontario company currently lists smaller residential projects starting around $700, with larger acreage projects priced on an individual basis.

Treat that only as an example.

It is not an average Canadian goat-rental price.

If you’re interested, contact an operator in your area to request an assessment and a written quote.

Is Goat Rental Really Budget-Friendly?

This is where the budget part becomes interesting.

Renting goats won’t automatically be cheaper than doing the job yourself.

If you’ve got a little patch of weeds that you can pull yourself in an hour, I’m not sending you out to hire a herd of goats.

But imagine a property covered in dense brush, invasive vegetation, or slope growth, where equipment is difficult to use.

Now you have to compare the complete cost.

That might include:

• Landscaping labour
• Equipment rental
• Fuel
• Brush cutting
• Herbicides
• Transportation
• Waste removal
• Disposal costs

That is where targeted grazing may be worth investigating.

Get more than one quote and compare the total cost of each option.

Sometimes the frugal solution isn’t the one with the lowest advertised price.

It’s the solution that gets the entire job done for the best overall value.

Should You Buy A Goat?

The original version of this article joked that perhaps you could find a goat for sale and skip the rental fee.

We’re going to leave that one in the CBB history books.

A goat isn’t a landscaping tool that you park in the garage when the weeds are gone.

Owning livestock means ongoing responsibility for appropriate food, water, shelter, fencing, veterinary care, and animal welfare.

Municipal rules may also restrict livestock on residential properties.

Unless you’ve genuinely planned to own and care for goats, buying one just because the backyard is overgrown probably isn’t a budgeting strategy.

It’s a new member of the family.

Going Green Paid Off

If you’re working on the front of your property, these budget curb appeal landscaping ideas may also help.

In the end, we didn’t need goats for this particular landscaping job.

I did the hard work myself.

What made the biggest difference wasn’t spending a pile of money.

It was being creative.

• We reused rocks.
• We moved existing plants.
• We relocated the shed.
• We reused soil.
• We searched for second-hand landscaping materials.
• We found interlocking bricks for $30.
• We used free and inexpensive plants where they made sense.

The homeowner wasn’t interested in making the property look like something from the pages of a landscaping magazine.

She wanted it to look tidy, welcoming, and affordable.

That’s what we achieved.

Landscaping doesn’t have to destroy your budget.

Start with what you have, reuse what you can, look for second-hand materials, and spend money only where it makes a meaningful difference.

And if the property really is out of control?

Apparently, calling in the goats is now an option in Canada, too.

Would you rent goats to clear an overgrown property if the price was competitive with traditional landscaping?

I’d love to know what you think.

Post Contribution

Katrina is a Canadian Budget Binder contributor who is as passionate about personal finance as she is about gardening. Katrina is a horticulture graduate with more than 10 years of experience in landscaping and greenhouse production.

• Is Parenting easier when you are considered rich?
• How To Plan A No-Spend Month Challenge
• Lemon-Lime Cheesecake Brownies
• How To Build A Rock Garden With Weed Prevention
• How The Inflation Rate Affects Canadians: June 2022 Budget Update