It sometimes seems impossible to make even a dent against invasives, but a dedicated bunch of volunteers are making big progress in visible public places. Property lines mean nothing to invasive plants, so every step we take at home benefits our neighbors as well.
Great leaps forward in town
It’s amazing what a dozen people can do.
In October a small team pulled out a solid mass of mugwort and other entrenched invasives as part of Community Service Day at Stony Hill Village affordable housing in the center of town.
In November and December volunteers returned to areas cleared over the last couple of years and, in a quarter of the time it originally took, re-liberated native trees and plants along “Shagbark Hickory Row” on Day St. South.
In February the group took a big bite out of the massive winged euonymus infestation along the western Red Trail, which meanders between the Kendall and Salmon Brooks at Holcomb Farm, yanking several hundred young shrubs, with several thousand to go.
Granby Invasive Action takes place on the second Saturday morning of every month. It’s open to all, free and fun. Volunteers gave a whopping 376 hours of invasive action in 2023. Find out more at Granby invasiveplants.weebly.com
Early spring invasive action at home
While every month is the perfect time to fight invasives, here are some priorities for early spring.
Fight the jumping worm epidemic
Eager gardeners often call for soil and mulch deliveries in early spring. It’s super important to only procure these products from suppliers that use heat treatment to kill invasive jumping worm cocoons, which hatch after the soil warms.
Until there is a solution to this invasion, all we can do is kill them and not spread them. Don’t buy potted plants from sources that don’t use jumping worm-free soil. Buy plants bare-root, or grow from seed. Don’t use jumping worms as fish bait. For more on this extraordinarily damaging new threat, see October’s NOT WANTED column and Connecticut Agricultural Extension Service publications.
Plan Plant Pulling Parties
Garlic mustard, dame’s rocket, narrowleaf bittercress and others are easy to pull up by the roots in early spring, while their grip on the earth is still weak. Leaving them to flower and set seeds leads to thousands more next year—and in future years as seeds linger in the soil.
Tiny Asiatic bittersweet sprouts from last fall’s seeds and young bittersweet vines are easy to pull in early spring. Young Japanese barberry, multiflora rose, and winged euonymus plants are more easily subtracted from the landscape before they become tough shrubs. Wineberry has weak roots; a gloved lethal yank stops them from sending out the arching pinkish stems that hatch more roots where they hit the ground, and cancels seed production.
Cut Cut Cut, or Plasticate
Some of the toughest invasives are hard to pull up by the roots, and can spread when root fragments get a new ground grip. Cut Japanese knotweed and mugwort to the ground soon after they emerge. Schedule two more cuttings between now and the end of summer. Nix the Knotweed, an invasive action group in Southeast Connecticut, has demonstrated success in cutting to the ground three times a year for three years, nearly eradicating them and liberating native plants that take their place. Occultation—black plastic securely weighed down for a year or more—also works, but kills everything under cover.
Take action—solo or with neighbors and don’t give up!