Garlic Mustard

Amazing stuff--here in Northern Illinois, it is April 14th and the rotten GM already is growing upward at a rapid pace, flower buds formed and ready to do their magic. I don't think I have ever seen it growing so rapidly this early. I do take comfort in pulling it out now, and finding all the "good stuff" underneath. Today the Twinleaf and Bloodroot is in bloom, the Blue Cohosh is up, Uvularia coming up, rue anemone, geraniums, bishops hat, mayapples, etc. all pushing out of the ground and getting exposed as I yank the GM. Progress is slow, but oh so satisfying when it becomes obvious.

I loooooooooooooooooove the way Garlic Mustard rips out of the ground after a nice rain! I'm going to be ripping at the Forest Preserve Boat Launch this weekend! Oh what fun!

No matter how much we pull it out..it always is there the next year. I think maybe a little less but something we will always have :~(

AAARRRGGHHH @#$%^&*

Thank you for allowing me to let off some garlic mustard steam.

HELP!

First of all I would like to invite every one to my house to pick as many of the little white flowers that you can....

What do I do about my neighbors? Our whole neighborhood is blanketed in GM?

They think I am crazy for pulling mine.

Even though they see that my hillside is full of trillium and mayapple... and theirs is nothing but GM? They just don't care....

Put up a fence! My 3 acres has a deer fence all the way around it. GM seeds don't float or blow around, only fall close by or get dragged around by cloven hooved rats. So, new contaminatin at my place will be limited to the very edge. I can handle that. Right now, its GM heaven outside the fence, and GM-free(for the moment) inside. It IS odd to see the sea of GM growing right up to my fence. I do see some progress outside the fence though. The back of my property borders 5 other yards. One of the neighbors stopped to ask about getting rid of GM, and also borrowed my Weed Wrench to take out honeysuckles. One person at a time......

That does make me feel better. I was thinking that wind was going to clobber me.
We do have alot of squirrel traffic. But, the cloven hooved rats are not a big problem in our neighhborhood.

Even without a fence there is a noticeable difference in the hillside behind my house and the property right next door....