Garden Thugs - garlic mustard

**"* K* E* <b*@xnet.com>**

Andrew,

Here in Naperville, IL (35 miles west of Chicago) garlic mustard is a 
serious problem.

I garden on 2 acres, the back 0.5 acre undisturbed, heavily wooded 
land.  Additionally, the adjoining 2 acres on one side is vacant, also 
heavily wooded land.  Though properties closer to the river have serious 
deer issues, we have never seen one here in the 30 years we've lived at 
this address.  All sorts of wild critters, yes; deer, no.

Eight years ago garlic mustard was introduced into my garden by my 
neighbor, who thought the flowers reminded him of a plant in his native 
Estonia.  He proceeded to dig up the mustard from the ditches along 
rural roads and plant it extensively throughout his property.  No amount 
of coaxing, pleading or begging could persuade him from his task.

Because of the high concentration of plants next door, my garden became 
invaded by the pest and I spend at least half of every gardening day 
pulling the darn stuff out.  On a typical day, I'll pull up 3 to 4 
wheelbarrows of the nuisance. 

Here, I find it to be just as aggressive in my beds and borders as it is 
in the undisturbed, dense underbrush out back and next door.  Since it 
pops out very early in the spring, I hit it in the underbrush with 
Roundup every spring.  That includes the back half acre as well as about 
30 feet of the vacant property next door.  It's way too dense during the 
rest of the growing season to do much about the plants that germinate 
later in the year.  Unfortunately, I'm sure I'm killing some native 
plants as well as the pest.  And I don't see it getting that much better 
year after year.

In my beds and borders,  however, I'm slowly winning the battle.  By 
constantly hand pulling the thug in its early stages of growth, I'm 
making progress, but it is a slow, laborious, time consuming job.

Whether he's solely responsible for introducing it into this specific 
neighborhood, we'll never know.  There are some lucky pockets of land 
that are clear of this nuisance, but for the most part, everyone here is 
fighting the battle. 

Possibly an anomaly, but one of my friends, who lives right on the river 
and has deer peeking in her windows during the winter months, has yet to 
find one mustard plant on her land. Figure that!

Oh, and if you're wondering, my neighbor sold the property, moved to 
South Carolina, taking some of his "precious" plants with him.  Wish I 
knew where.

Betty
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