Lessons of Garlic Mustard

I spent a couple of pleasant hours in the park this morning, in the middle of the spring explosion, pulling garlic mustard.  Garlic mustard is a non-native plant that thrives in this climate, spreads quickly, and pushes out native plants.  Deer don't like to eat it, having evolved to eat the native plants.
 
I've worked at this every spring for the past 10 years.  There is much less garlic mustard than there was when we started, but there is always more than I expect, based on how thorough I think we've been in the preceding years.  Lesson 1:  You can make a difference, if you're persistent.  And Lesson 2:  You don't "win," and walk away. You manage the problem, and stay ahead of it.

Garlic mustard is easy enough to identify.   It doesn't look much like any other plant, and this time of year has distinctive small white flowers.  But it is still easy to miss plants as you move through the woods. You'll pass an area, thinking it is empty, then turn around, and in a different light, see a plant you walked right past.  Lesson 3:  You always need to look more closely, more carefully.

There are many little pleasures from spending time in the woods.  Dappled sunshine filtering through the trees, water running in the stream, robins and woodpeckers flittering around the shrubs and trees, forest plants, like Spring Beauty, blooming.  The task at hand, pulling garlic mustard, can be tedious and frustrating.  The goal of eradicating it from the park is impossible to achieve.  There will always be more to do next week, and more to do next year.  Lesson 4:  Enjoy the moment, wherever you are, whatever you are doing.