Garlic Mustard, Honeysuckle & Buckthorn
Posted on 05/06/2008 7:31:17 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Hundreds of Americorps members will join forces with the Natural Resources Foundation and the state DNR to attack invasive plant species in Sauk County on Wednesday, May 14.
"From what we can tell, this is going to be the largest single largest one-day volunteer event to combat invasive species in Wisconsin history," said Kelly Kearns, plant conservation manager for the Department of Natural Resources.
"Invasive species don't just threaten the beauty of Wisconsin's lands and waters, they also cost us millions of dollars each year," she said.
The invasive plants to be combated on May 14 include garlic mustard, buckthorn and honeysuckle. There are high costs to removing these and other species, and buckthorn and honeysuckle also prevent regeneration of young trees, hurting forests and the forest industry.
A total of 450 Americorps members will be working on public land sites in Sauk County, including Devil's Lake State Park, Parfey's Glen State Natural Area, the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant and 15 other sites. the volunteers will meet at Devil's Lake at 9 a.m. and move to various sites after a welcome by DNR Secretary Matt Frank.
Physical labor will include pulling, bagging and removing plants to prevent any seeds from escaping to return next year.
This is the first year that Americorps has focused its day service on the environment.
"We were thrilled when the Natural Resources Foundation suggested a conservation theme for this year's service project," said Tom Devine, executive director of Serve Wisconsin, the state's Americorps program.
Gardening-related Ping!
I was SO proud of one of my customers today. She was ready to tackle the garlic mustard on her land and she wanted my advice.
It was such a RELIEF to be able to suggest she use (evil) Round-Up to do it in because most days I’m talking to Hippies that think the use of Corn Gluten is the ONLY answer to all of their “organic” problems, LOL!
For some reason “Corporate” sent me four Buckthorns. They’ll never make it into the yard; trust me on that. ;)
We do sell Honeysuckle (vines & shrubs) but I pooh-pooh it to any customer that will listen. Nine times out of ten, a customer tells me that they just tore OUT their honeysuckle and want to put in something else.
Garlic mustard? Sounds like a pretzel flavor.
Hope they have better luck than the south has had eradicating Kudzu ... despicable plant.
Would they like to come to my yard?
I’m fighting garlic mustard and stilt grass. If you get rid of everything for five years running or so, you’ll mostly exhaust the seed bank. Unfortunately, something comes up every few years and I lose ground.
The stilt grass is worse because it roots at every node and spreads much better and less conspicuously than garlic mustard.
We don’t see buckthorn here, but I’d like to put Norway maple on the list. There’s a vicious Norway maple-deer synergy taking over the woods and my only consolation is that once the browse line is higher than five feet and the understory is nothing but stilt grass and garlic mustard, the cervid rats will all starve.
Garlic Mustard, Honeysuckle & Buckthorn
Wow! You certainly know your plants! :)
I grow the Goldflame honeysuckle (L. heckrottii) and three colors of coral honeysuckle (L. sempervirens) for the hummingbirds and so far they are behaving themselves. If the coral wanted to seed I think that would be all right as it is a native.
The Japanese honeysuckle (I didn’t plant it!) is duking it out in the hinterlands of the yard with the stilt grass, garlic mustard, Indian strawberry, multiflora rose and ground ivy, foreign invasives all. The only native that has been standing up to them is Virginia creeper but I’m beginning to have some hopes for the ostrich fern - it took off amazingly this year.
I think we plow through a CASE of these at work each week. The Jalapeno ones are really good, too!
I tease the Cashiers that they're eating "Pretzel Factory Floor Sweepings" but I buy them because the manufacturer is BRILLIANT to find a way to market and sell broken pretzels.
Capitalism Rocks! :)
“Nice to see the wackos of Madistan have a bit of capitalistic drive!”
Trust me; they’re totally unaware of it, LOL!
I bet in five years people will be begging to get Americorps out of the Honeysuckle quagmire.
I LOVE Ostrich Fern. It’s so “Jurassic Park.” ;) I have a very neglected North side of my house that’s soon going to get the Hosta, Fern and other ‘Shady Ladies’ treatment. I’m looking forward to designing that. :)
We sell the “Goldflame” and “Scarlet Dropmore.” (I manage a Garden Center.) http://www.jungseed.com (Shameless Plug!)
Eh. We all have our place in the world. We can always serve as a Bad Example to others.
(Signing off for the evening; lightening striking right about now; big thunderstorms here tonight!)
Nice chatting with you! Ask Gabz to add you to our Gardening Ping List. :)
“I bet in five years people will be begging to get Americorps out of the Honeysuckle quagmire.”
LOL! My FIRST belly-laugh of the day...and it’s 10pm! :)
No way, those broken bits have rougher sides that hold more seasoning! YUMMY!!! LOL
my garden pests besides the deer are St.Johns Wart and what I think is morning glory....
Garlic Mustard gets after the mycorihzal fungi that enable much tree growth.
It should be eliminated.
Taking jobs away from illegal aliens.....or, are illegal aliens taking over Americorps?
If the deer ate your honeysuckle, maybe it wasn’t one of the problem honeysuckles.
Japanese honeysuckle is the worst in NJ - in the sun it has white and yellow flowers, the ones that children suck the nectar from, and has the most delicious scent. In the shade it’s just leaves and deer don’t touch it. It seeds and creeps everywhere, very invasive.
Here is coral honeysuckle, a native. Hummingbirds love it. The deer have not touched it in my yard either.
Goats will eat kudzu right back to buh-bye. A person could make a fortune taking a small herd of goats around, setting up temporary fencing and babysitting them while they spend the day munching.
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