Comments on: Garlic Mustard – Coming to a Woodland Near You

By: AnneTanne

AnneTanne — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:25:57 +0000

I came back to read this article again, and now I watch the video.
And just like were amused about me taking care about ‘my’ garlic mustard, I was realized even more then before how different the situation on different continents can be: On the video, I identified several species that are invasive here… but (of course) not on your side of the big pond.
(I thought I saw black cherry (Prunus serotino), hated here in Belgium because it is smothering all our woods, seedlings of northern red oak ( We have removed every single black cherry from the woody part of our (large, 1.8 acre) wild garden, but because our neighbour has a tall red oak in his yard, we have to stay vigilant for its seedlings. (Other problems here are narrow-leaved ragwort (Senecio inaequidens), and Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera). But – perhaps because unfortunately Belgium/Flanders is very densely populated and we don’t have vast area’s of nature – noxious weeds never seem to reach the same level of invasiveness as their fellows do in the States. (Or perhaps, because nature has been ‘threatened’ over a longer period of time, it has become more resistant to invaders? People have been moving along the Eurasian continent over the last thousands of years, and not only the last centuries… )
I keep asking myself what should happen with our ecosystem when the most invasive species of all (yes, I mean Homo sapiens sapiens) would completely vanish… if nature wouldn’t establish a new balance? It would take a long time, it could take tens of thousands of years, but shouldn’t things find a new equilibrium?

By: Catz Edible Landscape » Native Wildflower or Invasive Pest?

Catz Edible Landscape » Native Wildflower or Invasive Pest? — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:40:15 +0000

[...] An excellent example of this is Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)- it is an edible plant but it is so aggressive in its growing habit that is totally takes over an area and no local flora can repopulate and survive its onslaught. A very serious invasive pest indeed. Please take the time to protect your local environments from plants that become noxious weeds. Please take a look at the following video: http://www.sustainablegardeningblog.com/archives/1586 [...]

By: Catz Edible Landscape » Wildflower or Invasive Pest?

Catz Edible Landscape » Wildflower or Invasive Pest? — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:40:37 +0000

[...] An excellent example of this is Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)-it is an edible plant but it is so aggressive in its growing habit that is totally takes over an area and no local fauna can repopulate or survive its onslaught. A very serious invasive pest indeed. Please take the time to protect your local envrionments from such plants. Please take a look at the following video:http://www.sustainablegardeningblog.com/archives/1586 [...]

By: LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD

LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:45:06 +0000

Definitely a serious problem in Wisconsin woodlands which is clear from the video. It’s in our gardens, too. Not too much at the moment and I keep pulling it up. Now I need to work on my neighbors who both have weedy corners in the back of their yards. I don’t care about it being weedy but garlic mustard is one of the things that I’m seeing there; so if they’re not vigilant my work is much less effective. Thanks for helping to spread the word â€” esp. as I think most of us ignore a pretty self-sown plant until its nature is pointed out to us specifically!

By: Bob Vaiden

Bob Vaiden — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:02:31 +0000

SJ…

Perhaps (I’d sure like to think so). It’s an exploding problem down here (Champaign\ Urbana area). Allerton Park is one such area where bluebells were completely overrun. Fortunately, management is being done now; it will be interesting to see if bluebells quickly return to cleared areas.

Starved Rock SP is one of my main worries; incredible displays of wildflowers (particularly bluebells in the canyons)… and right at the mouth of virtually every canyon: Garlic Mustard. So far it hasn’t invaded, but… Illinois Canyon is FANTASTIC in mid-late April; I’d hate to lose it.

I wrestled with this problem for quite a while…I hope biological controls work; we’re restoring a small savanna area, and an oak\maple woods, and I’d sure like a good solution to the problem that doesn’t involve bending over so much!!!:)

By: SJ

SJ — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:46:34 +0000

Bob,

The native woodland flowers won’t necessarily be “gone” they will in many cases (trilliums, solomon’s seal, claytonia, trout lily, etc) go dormant until the garlic mustard is removed – some wildflowers can lay dormant for decades. I’ve removed stands of buckthorn & then garlic mustard which follows once the canopy is opened up, and it’s amazing within a few years the assortment of native wildflowers which have slowly returned to populate a native stand of indigenous trees like Oaks & Hickories.

Which brings up an important point – in Northern IL the Cook Country Forest Preserve has begun removing large stands of buckthorn but they haven’t done a very good job of following up with the spraying the garlic mustard (I’m sure lack of funding has something to do with it) which follows buckthorn removal once there is light under the remaining canopy of trees. Unfortunately, the garlic mustard which has built up quite an impressive bank of seed in the soil then sprouts and then the population explodes.