Garlic Mustard

I am a Weed Warrior.

Shortly after moving here in 2004, we grew interested in working in Sligo Creek park near our house. We went to a county training session about non-native invasive plants, and left with a green Weed Warrior wallet card.

Every spring we spend a couple of months removing garlic mustard plants before they go to seed.  It's unrealistic to think we could eradicate the plants from the park, but the work has made a big difference, and there is much less now.

Today was the first day we'd been out.  The long, cold winter has delayed development of the plants, which may give us a slightly longer season to work.  After a couple of hours, we each had a large bag of plants and an idea of where to work next.

Garlic mustard is a very adaptable plant, brought from Europe for its edible leaves.  It loves sunshine, but can also grow in the shadiest parts of the park.  It tolerates a wide range of soil types.   The only habitat that it does poorly in is areas that are wet almost all the time, but even there, spindly, unhealthy looking plants can develop and go to seed.  

It was a lovely spring day - cool at first, but warming up.  The water ran clear in the creek.  The woods are bursting with green as the plants hurry to make up for the late start.  The shadow of a butterfly flitted by along the ground in front of me.  The air was thick with the energy of life.  It was good to be out in the middle of it.