Garlic Mustard

One the problems we have in the midwest is the presence of a number of invasive non-native species. These plants compete with - and often crowd out - our natives plants.

Many of our cultivated garden flowers are non-native, but they generally stay put in the garden. It's only when they make the leap from the garden to the woodlands and open fields and they start crowding out native species that the trouble begins.

One of these species is Garlic Mustard, Alliaria petiolata. It's one of the first plants to start growing in the spring. This fact makes it easier to identify and remove at this time of year.



The photo above shows two garlic mustard plants growing amongst some viburnum bushes in the back of our garden. As you can see, they are easy to spot. This makes it easy to wander around the garden and pull them up. They have a medium size tap root anchoring them in the soil, but if you twist as you pull they come out nicely. They make a fine addition to the compost heap.

Technorati Tags: garden, invasive, ohio