I Don't want to poison my livestock...

... but I want to scatter some cottage garden types of flowering annuals under my orchard, but want to also let my sheep in to graze now and again. Are there any plants I must blacklist? I'm thinking cornflowers, poppies, stock, nasturtiums, larkspurs. Too much to hope that they know better than to munch on nasty stuff.[xx(]

Larkspur is a poisonous one. Toxicity varies, depending on variety, but all can cause death. That's the only one I know of from my lists of plants poisonous to goats.

Borage should be ok in an orchard. Humans eat the flowers, so should be ok for sheep and if they flower can help to attract bees into the orchard. It will also spread quite effectively. Nasturtiums also pretty hardy and can be trained up a tree if you wish.

I doubt that it will work. Grass and clover under trees is far less tasty to herbivores, because the shading causes less sugar to be made in the pasture. Thus the flowers are going to be more tasty, because flowers have nectar in them.

Thanks Andrea, Larkspur OFF the list.

Comfrey is good

Comfrey is good, but only if it's got limited access. The alkaloids in the plant CAN build up in the liver of the animals as I believe it takes a long time for the liver to process. I give it to my goats when they're aren't well, but only in small amounts, and I'd never make it available to them ad lib.

Rosey the escaping goat LOVES nasturtiums maybe even more than the roses & the sunflowers.. not sure about the sheep... their main choice is the aggies they can reach, they also cleaned up the rest of the sunflowers the goat missed..... the heifers ate my pumpkins, squash, melons & the dying potato tops(bad I know) & the yams that were recovering from the goats