Get Ready For Japanese Knotweed!

If you brush away leaf cover around last year's stalks you can see that Japanese knotweed is just starting to sprout in Glastonbury. This extremely invasive plant is considered to be the number one or two threat (depending on which expert you ask) in Connecticut. It spreads by seeds as well as rhizomes that grow very deep and spread many feet from the original plant. Once it takes hold it shades out everything else. There are a number of areas in town where you can see large thickets of Japanese knotweed that has killed every other form of vegetation in the area. Here's what it looks like as of mid-April:

Last year's cut stalks and new shoot developing, April 18, 2014

Unfortunately there's not a lot you can do about Japanese knotweed right now. The new growth needs to develop then in late spring you can start your eradication strategy. CLICK HERE for an excellent article with tips on how to eradicate this invasive plan from your property. It won't be easy but it will be worth the effort.

April: Here Comes Garlic Mustard

April is a good time to look for garlic mustard and pull up any emerging plants. Garlic mustard is an aggressive invasive plant brought into the Unites States in the 1860's. It smothers native plants and can kill trees and shrubs. It also crowds out butterfly host plants. The sale of garlic mustard is banned in Connecticut. Look for more information to be published soon in Glastonbury Life. In the meantime, here's what garlic mustard looks like as of mid-April:

Garlic mustard as of mid-April. Plant will get much larger as spring progresses
In the second year plants become taller (1-2 feet), flowers, and goes to seed..

Garlic mustard is a biennial flowering plant that produces seed in its second year, so be sure to pull up plants before they flower and go to seed.