Re: GWL groundhogs, rats and city slickers & garlic mustard

**C* B* <c*@augusthome.com>**

Betty, 

Before it was considered an invasive (back in the 80s and 90s), there were just a few plants in my landlady's Long Island 12-acre woodland. I couldn't wait for the garlic mustard. Love its flavorful bit - it's perfectly named. I use it in salads and with any pork dish - from a ham sandwich to a hot dog (chop it up with the onions or relish) or rolled up in a tenderloin roast. I add it to salsa, guacamole, potato salad...lots of dishes.  The flowers (like the edible flowers of most herbs) have a slightly milder and sweeter taste. Good flavor and a pretty garnish. Maybe that's why we had so few plants...we ate most of the flowers, so it didn't set many seeds.  I wonder how many other invasives are edible?

Cheers,
Cathy

-----Original Message-----
From: B. K. Earl [b*@xnet.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 2:15 PM
To: gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [GWL] GWL groundhogs, rats and city slickers

Cathy,

All the four legged critters were here long before I moved to this 
address, so I've always felt I was the intruder.  Consequently, though I 
get riled  when I find blossoms nipped and discarded or bulbs dug up, I 
figure they are doing what their make-up dictates, thus grousing to 
myself while grudgingly making allowances for their actions.

However, the absolutely "worst" garden pest I ever encountered in my 
garden was...my neighbor!  When we went away for a week-end just before 
a bumper crop of tomatoes, cantaloupe, beets and other vittles were 
prime for the picking, he helped himself to everything in the huge 
vegetable patch because "they would have spoiled" in the two days we 
were gone.  In other days, weeks and years if he needed a tomato for the 
salad, or cucumbers for pickling...well, there was this patch right next 
door for the taking.

My newly planted currant bushes were ripped out of the ground because he 
"was allergic" to them.  And when the hazelnuts started to produce nuts, 
hey, if he didn't pick them, the squirrels would have gotten them first.

And finally, to add insult to injury, when he first encountered garlic 
mustard, he couldn't pull it up fast enough from the roadside ditches 
and plant beds of it throughout his 2 acres because the plants "reminded 
him of home" (in Eastern Europe).

And as to bloomers, especially dahlias and glads, let's just say he had 
more bouquets in his kitchen than I did.

So what did I do to deter/control/eliminate the pest?  Did I stand by 
quietly and idly while all this went on?  Of course not.  But a certain 
peace between neighbors is far better than outright hostility.

Unfortunately with this type of "pest", there still are no deterrents 
that one can buy on the market for use in this pest control.  However, 
as luck would have it....he finally moved away.  And problem solved -- 
except for the garlic mustard which I'll be battling for as long as I 
garden at this address!

Betty

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