NOT WANTED

Every other year the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG) hosts a day-long conference on invasive plants. It’s packed with presentations and workshops aimed at professionals, home gardeners and everyone in between. CIPWG is the state’s central hub on invasive plants, and the conference is a super source of up-to-date data on best practices and plant science.

Progress is Possible

Over the last century and more, we humans imported plants that do great harm to the natural balance of plants and animals—and to ourselves. Invasive species, plants and animals, are considered one of the prime causes for species extinction because of their ability to out-compete and displace native species.

Why winter is a great time to take action on invasive plants

It’s tempting to take winter out of the relentless calendar of invasive plant removal. But invasive plants have become incredibly well-established since we brought them to our shores during the last two centuries and restoring our native balance is going to take a long time.

A recap of early columns, and the next Action Day

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.

Garden-Variety Invasive Plants

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 action in town and at home

Invasive Plant Activists (IPAs) now gather monthly on the second Saturday morning to control invasive plants and allow natives to flourish.