Garlic Mustard blooming in southeastern PA

[whatnow?]

This is the alien/invasive species of the week for this area. It is starting to flower, making it an easy target for control. Check the following National Park Service website for photographs and control recommendations.

http://www.nps.gov/plants/ALIEN/fact/alpe1.htm

I'd like it if others would point out the invasives in their region at the appropriate time to control them. I feel that we would have a better chance if more people were educated. For instance, some of my neighbors have lawns made up of Japanese stilt grass (Nepalese browntop) which spreads like wildfire around here. I swear it is the dominant vegetation along any woodland road around here, after the garlic mustard ripens and browns up. (If you have this, keep checking the nps site, they suspect it is an alternate host for a rare/uncommon butterfly.) Somehow, even with regular mowing, they've been unable to accidentally control this stuff.

Have fun and remember, use PESTICIDES wisely.

 

[patandchickens]

That's a really great website, I am going to have to spend some time poking around looking at things! Thanks for posting the link!

FWIW, 'pesticide' actually includes herbicides (as well as insecticides, fungicides, etcetera). This comes up from time to time in discussions of community bans on lawn pesticides, i.e. people get confused about what exactly is/isn't being banned. Just sayin'


Pat, in a local area mercifully almost free of garlic mustard (although MAN OH MAN is there a lot of it in the natural areas down at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton ON, not that there's a lot they can *do* about hundreds of acres of it) -- our biggest local issues at the moment is probably dog-strangling vine, still absent from my property so far

 

[whatnow?]

Seriously? Pesticides is an umbrella over herbicides? How about that. Taking your word for gospel, I'll eat my post and spit it back out in a more flattering form.

 

[pjkobulnicky]

Just a quick story about Garlic Mustard ... My wife and I were in our local magnificent wildflower reserve (The Poland Forest) the past few days doing a garlic mustard pull. My wife is on the board so me and the dog get enlisted. The story is that while we were pulling away at tons of the stuff I was reminded of Michael Pollan and immediately believed that the garlic mustard had convinced my wife and I to thin the crop for the greater vigor of the remaining plants ... a never-ending struggle for truth, justice and the garlic mustard way.

Paul

 

[patandchickens]

Seriously? Pesticides is an umbrella over herbicides? How about that. Taking your word for gospel, I'll eat my post and spit it back out in a more flattering form.

I doublechecked, and yes (not 'yes my word is gospel' but 'yes pesticide is the higher-level umbrella term'):

http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/about/

And I stand corrected by *you* on the feasibility of your rainwater holding and distribution system, in your other post. So there, we're even


Pat

 

[whatnow?]

Just a quick story about Garlic Mustard ... My wife and I were in our local magnificent wildflower reserve (The Poland Forest) the past few days doing a garlic mustard pull. My wife is on the board so me and the dog get enlisted. The story is that while we were pulling away at tons of the stuff I was reminded of Michael Pollan and immediately believed that the garlic mustard had convinced my wife and I to thin the crop for the greater vigor of the remaining plants ... a never-ending struggle for truth, justice and the garlic mustard way.

Paul

There some truth in that, for sure. In my case, the "remaining" plants are the unsprouted seeds of the next invasive I have to deal with...coming in late May which catches me by surprise EVERY time!

 

[whatnow?]

Seriously? Pesticides is an umbrella over herbicides? How about that. Taking your word for gospel, I'll eat my post and spit it back out in a more flattering form.

I doublechecked, and yes (not 'yes my word is gospel' but 'yes pesticide is the higher-level umbrella term'):

http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/about/

And I stand corrected by *you* on the feasibility of your rainwater holding and distribution system, in your other post. So there, we're even


Pat

That reminds me... I was wrong about that. I'll have to remember to go back and fix it.

 

[aquarose]

Thanks whatnow. Now I have a name to put to my second most hated weed in my yard, which is ground zero for the introduction of this weed (Long Island according to the link). I have been hand pulling this stuff since we bought our house 6 years ago. Its everywhere. It is so disheartening to see neighbors' back yards and local parks full of it, waiting to send seed over to my yard. When my next door neighbors aren't home, I reach over the fence and pull up theirs too. My most hated weed is field bind weed.

 

[whatnow?]

I know what you mean about pulling the neighbors weeds. A single plant adorns my neighbors mailbox planter. I would love to walk into the neighbors' yards and just start pulling- but I have my own weeds to work on.

My mothers friend gave her a plant a few years ago and she noticed that another plant was growing along side of it. When she came to my house, she saw me pulling the garlic mustard which really confused her. When she realized what kind of volunteer she had received, she was mortified and amused... she had been treating it like a bonus. The seeds weren't viable yet, so no harm, no foul.

 

[Reinbeau]

I am in the process of pulling garlic mustard in my yard - it is utterly amazing how many seedlings those things will drop, and I've heard the seeds are viable for five years. I'm pulling it all and putting it into contractor bags to haul to my transfer station, they'll be burned for energy, never to darken anyones' yard again