In the month of March, our Team for Healthy Parks works to mitigate garlic mustard and poison hemlock to keep it from spreading further into our natural areas. Garlic mustard treatment is a success story in our parks as it has been continually treated for over a decade with the help of dedicated Park Stewards.
You may still see it along Beargrass Creek, as seeds are constantly brought downstream, or in new canopy gaps created from fallen trees that disturb viable seeds in the soil. Poison hemlock treatment also occurs largely along the riparian buffer zones, as well as edges of managed turf.
Hemlock seeds remain viable for less than 3 years, in contrast to garlic mustards’ 5+ years, but each Hemlock plant produces upwards of 40,000 seeds! If you are dealing with these plants in your own landscaping, there are a few tips that make your efforts more effective!
To get rid of garlic mustard, you may hand-pull the plants before they flower and set seed, ensuring you remove as much of the taproot as possible, and then dispose of them properly in a sealed bag with your trash (do not compost).
It is important to take precautions when removing poison hemlock! Protective clothing, like long sleeved shirts and gloves, are a must. When pulling the plants, the entire taproot must be removed or this tenacious plant can regenerate. Like garlic mustard, poison hemlock should go in the trash!
Both plants are biennial, meaning they have a two-year life cycle, and it is important to be able to identify both stages. The first year the plants focus on vegetative growth, only producing low-growing rosettes of leaves, before sending up a central stem with flowers the next year.
The work that our Team for Healthy Parks does in early spring sets up favorable conditions for natural flora to thrive!
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