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.