Got Weeds? Get a Goat

Google uses them. So does Yahoo! and the Vanderbilt Mansion. (See video above.) Now a growing number of eco-conscious homeowners do too to clear their landscaping of difficult to reach brush and weeds.

We're talking about goats and they eat most vegetation (including poison ivy and oak) and are good employees for navigating tricky, steep terrain, as we talk about it this WSJ story. While towns and some livestock owners have used them for years, consumers and companies angling to cut back on pesticide usage as well as their dependency on fossil-fuel powered machinery are increasingly renting goats.

Not surprisingly, there's a cottage industry of rental operations springing up to meet their needs - with names like rent-a-goat.com, rent-a-ruminant.com and the Goat Lady LLC.