Nature's Edge - Get a "Grip" on Garlic Mustard! - May 2005

May is the time when a sweet fragrance fills the air. The buds on the shrubs and trees begin to pop open, bulbs are up and blooming, and winter is truly over. Other things are also getting ready to bloom in our yards.

Take a quick walk around your yard and look for signs of garlic mustard. May is when garlic mustard rosettes start to send up shoots of blooms. These shoots will soon be the source of thousands and thousands of seeds that will infest your yard and the yard of everyone around you. Early intervention is key in controlling this plant.

May is a great time to get a "grip" on garlic mustard! Garlic mustard is a biennial that starts as a seed and establishes a rosette the first year of growth. The second year of growth will produce a shoot of small white flowers. These shoots will also produce the seed source. Once the shoot goes up, the plant should be pulled from the garden or woodland. This can be a simple process in the spring of the year because the ground is typically soft. However, care must be taken to remove the plant – root and all – or another plant will start and the root will be even more difficult to remove the next time.

If you are not familiar with garlic mustard and don’t know what it looks like, go to www.ipm.msu.edu/garlic FAQ.htm. This website provides great detail on how to spot garlic mustard, methods for control and explanations of why is such a problem.

It is important that each of us work to control garlic mustard on our property so that it does not continue to spread throughout the Village. Note that it takes several years of management to get the plant eradicated from your property but each year the problem will get less and less. Vigilance now will make work down the road much lighter!