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Garlic Mustard 2014, Morris Park, Philadelphia

Are you tired of seeing Garlic Mustard? If so please visit our stewardship area of scope in Morris Park, Philadelphia, where you will see no Garlic Mustard. If we are around we will gladly give you a tour. If not, just walk along the trail starting at the end of Morris Park Road  and you will not see any Garlic Mustard. Enjoy your walk and appreciate the wonderful variety of native, localized species of trees, herbaceous plants and shrubs in this once degraded patch of urban Forest! It’s been since 2006 that we started working on the infestations of Garlic Mustard in Morris Park. We have kept up with the efforts, yearly pulling in the same sites that we started at and expanding our area of scope to the point where we are satisfied with our  progress, ever mindful of our limitations.

Next: the alternate opening to this 2014 Garlic Mustard update:

Garlic Mustard: You cannot just pull one. Once you start it, you cannot stop year after year, area by area, and if you do not pull it out one year you will be canceling out the many hours of  your work during the previous years.  This is the reality of the seed bank depletion method of invasive control.  Harsh as this may sound, this is a biological reality in the world of managing and controlling plants.

This is Alliaria petiolata, the Garlic Mustard.

Garlic mustard in Morris park, Philadelphia www.thesanguineroot.com
Garlic mustard in Morris park, Philadelphia www.thesanguineroot.com

So it’s been a long nine years removing Garlic Mustard from this site. What is our motivation? Why do we do it? What has changed and evolved on the site and will we keep doing it? How many hours have we spent?

Garlic mustard in Morris park, Philadelphia www.thesanguineroot.com
Garlic mustard in Morris park, Philadelphia www.thesanguineroot.com

Our motivation is experimental and hopeful at the same time. We started out believing that removing Garlic Mustard was  the thing to do. We continue to do it as we see the fantastic results. It really makes a difference.

Garlic mustard in Morris park, Philadelphia www.thesanguineroot.com
Garlic mustard in Morris park, Philadelphia www.thesanguineroot.com

The Oaks (note the one above) and other trees are seeding themselves in and have enough of an advantage to continue to grow.  More and more herbaceous native plants are growing in once invaded areas. There is less and less Garlic Mustard to pull every year, freeing ourselves up to do other things like visit other places or work on the garden. This year we pulled and trashed 31 bags, Last year we did 78 bags. This year about 30 hours of time spent.

We hope to inspire anyone out there with Garlic Mustard to keep up the work, and be realistic in your area of scope so you can continue to go back year after year and follow through on depleting the seed bank. If anything you will learn your area and the habits of this plant quite well and have fun doing it!

Garlic mustard in Morris park, Philadelphia www.thesanguineroot.com
Garlic mustard in Morris park, Philadelphia www.thesanguineroot.com
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THE SCHUYLKILL CENTER BLOOMS

THE SANGUINE ROOT VISITS THE SCHUYLKILL CENTER FOR ENVRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Trillium grandiflorum, Schuylkill Center For Environmental Education
Trillium grandiflorum, Schuylkill Center For Environmental Education

 

We sat down on the narrow trail to admire the Phlox and the bluebells in the early afternoon sunlight. Up the south facing hill we could see Trillium grandiflorum , Spring Beauty and Mayapple blooming away, their white and pink flowers glowing in the precious spring light. The Beech, Oak, Sycamore and Maples had not fully leafed out yet, creating a magnificent filtered light, a bathing light, a light the flowers soaked up, ripening their delicate petals until they filled to maturity until the last hour of total vibrance, the height of their full bloom.

To see these flowers at their peak is to see Spring, our recognition of this moment is our initiation into the rite of our personal passage into the season, with each flower we perceive, our sense of spring is that much more matured, we appreciate Spring and we begin to understand it .  Once we have reached the awareness of Spring and its splendid beauty, it is ever so easy to see the decline: even the slightest wilt of the flowers is ours to behold, The Trilliums get an edge of brown around the edges, the bluebells lose their bluest of flowers to the sky ultimately, and we are left with our desire to see the newest and freshest bloom.

Spring is tulmultuous. Even seeing flowers we never got to see bloom withering away is unsettling; we were not there, Spring is moving too fast-its as if our own aspirations become tied to the blooms-What if we will never experience the true Spring, the Spring of all the flowers, the one Spring that will give us all that we need to be completely connected to the spring.

Spring will do that to us- an awakening that is vigorous and fresh, yet so full of uncertainties. There is something to be said for a Spring break.

Stop and see the flowers!

Your moment to become part of Spring is when you see the blooms and feel the air and recognize that a new time is here.

 

We were pleased to see that the invasive Garlic mustard had been removed from the area.  Last year it was a disturbing presence among the trilliums and the bluebells. We found out that the 3rd saturday of every month is an invasive removal workday! What a great way to be a part of spring; volunteer your time doing environmental restoration in your local natural area! Now that the Garlic mustard has been removed for this year, the acorns can germinate, and the Beeches, Oaks, Maples and Sycamores can become the seedlings for the next generation of forest. This will be the forest that will maintain the biodiversity we have seen today.  With all of the invasive species problems in the world today, the forests need us to come out and give a hand.  It was truly heart-warming for us to see that the schuylkill environmental education center is making a concerted effort to restore their magnificent forest. We had a magical walk through the enchanting Ravine loop, and we would love to come out one day when we can and volunteer and to tell our own story of Morris Park.