2020 has been an awful year for garlic mustard in SE Wisconsin (maybe all over). Within Lapham Peak, we try to pull the Garlic Mustard (in selected various locations) when it's flowering, and at times we also spray some of it with herbicides. Most of this work is headed up by Holly S. This year, with COVID-19, we were not able to use crews of volunteers to work on the plants when they were growing fast, so a lot of it got away from us, and then with the weather, it also grew incredibly well, and in some places, it was 3-4 feet tall!
One of our Park Rangers began clearing the front of the Park by cutting the Garlic Mustard, and then raked it into piles, which then some of our volunteers then added to in early July. We also moved some of the piles to a remote location and burned them. We will soon herbicide the areas that we cut, in hopes to keep it from returning and flowering again this year.
Garlic Mustard seeds can survive in the soil about 7 years, so we'll need to keep coming back to these areas repeatedly to keep after them.
