Worst New Invasive In Bloom Now!

In Bloom now is Garlic Mustard, the fastest spreading invasive plant to hit Massachusetts since Japanese Knotweed.

The good news is that it's easier to get rid of. Individual plants can be pulled up roots and all or, if there are large solid stands of them they can be easily poisoned with an herbicide such as Round-Up.

The bad news is that if you let those tiny horizontal four petaled white flowers at the very top of the one foot plants go to seed....the seeds will sprout every year for almost a decade. As Roger Swain says, "One year's seeding equals seven years weeding!"

The other reason why you must kill this plant before it goes to seed is that it changes the soil chemistry so that nothing else can grow where it grows except MORE garlic mustard. It does this by locking up the phosphorous that other plants need to grow so it is unavailable to them.

If you pull plants, dispose of them in black plastic garbage bags in the trash or lay the sealed bags in the sun for a month to fry the contents, then throw them out WITHOUT opening the bag!
Do not compost these weeds or leave them lying around in piles.

If you find one on your property you will be sure to find more.

They are biennials, which means they sprout one years (with rounded almost violet like scalloped leaves that are close to the ground) and bloom their second years with totally different looking pointed jagged leaves on one foot stalks with the flowers, which look like white sweet alysum, on top. Try to kill both the first year and second year plants.

Most important: Act now. Don't let it go to seed!