Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/category/grow/not-wanted/)
Since October 2019, this column has profiled some of the worst invasive plants plaguing Granby’s fields, farms, forests, and gardens, and described ways to control them. This month’s column reviews in brief the first year of NOT WANTED columns.
Many of the state’s most serious invasive plants appear in home gardens as well as the open areas they rapidly dominate. Garlic mustard, multiflora rose, Asiatic bittersweet, Japanese barberry, Japanese knotweed and mugwort pop up and should be pulled by the roots when young.
Invasive Plant Activists (IPAs) now gather monthly on the second Saturday morning to control invasive plants and allow natives to flourish.
Twelve energized volunteers from Granby and Simsbury gave native plants breathing room and a chance to thrive at two West Granby sites on March 13. The bracing winds and cool temps gradually abated through the morning and complemented the internal heat produced by cutting, uprooting, dragging and flattening invasive plants.
A colorful, apparently innocuous shrub that can grow over 10 or 15 feet tall, the winged euonymus displays wild fall color ranging from light pink to fire red. In March, before leaves sprout, it’s easily identified by unusual “wings” on side branches.
If you’re sick and tired of the pandemic era and going a little stir-crazy, break through the winter blues by joining your neighbors to take action on invasive plants.
Under clear blue skies on Nov. 7, nine intrepid Granby volunteers bravely strode into the prickers and vines at Holcomb Farm. Armed with loppers, shovels, pruners, saws and grim good humor, they hacked through multiple layers of robust invasives accustomed to frolicking freely and smothering native trees and shrubs.
This month the NOT WANTED campaign is sponsoring the first in a series of events to remove invasive plants from a visible public site in town. It will be a safe and family-friendly event with tools and expertise provided.
Over the past year, Not Wanted has identified some of Granby’s worst invasive plants, discussed control strategies, and described alternative plants. We could cover many more invasives—the state list includes almost 100.
September is the perfect time to take action on mugwort, an aggressive perennial that rapidly takes over uncultivated and disturbed areas such as streambanks and waysides.