Garden Club Topics for Field Trips or Special Programs
Will include past programs, as well as those scheduled to occur
{under construction - more to come}
Killing Invasives by Mary Ann Lawler
A couple of brief words about the use of herbicides on invasive exotic plants--those words are: "wise use." To eradicate plants your first choice should always be to try to remove them mechanically. However, sometimes growth is so invasive that mechanical removal is virtually impossible. If so, choose the least dangerous chemical and limit the application to the targeted plant. The chemicals cited in previous articles are recommended by the Plant Conservation Alliance, which includes numerous federal, State, and local government agencies. The National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nature Conservancy, and the Fairfax County Park authority use Roundup and Garlon 4 to eliminate particularly aggressive species, like Japanese stilt grass (Microstegium vimineum). You probably have seen this stilt grass in your own yard if you have a shady garden. It is an annual grass with thin, pale green, lance-shaped leaves about 3 inches in length. It is very shallow-rooted and pulls up easily. But even pulling it up can cause more seeds to sprout; therefore, mow it or "weed-whack" it in September before it sets seed. Or "wisely" use a glyphosate, like Roundup.
Two new fact sheets have been added to the Weeds Gone Wild Website - Porcelainberry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata) and English Ivy (Hedera helix). Thanks to Jil Swearingen and the Alien Plant Working Group for the work in putting their fact sheets on the web. You can see the new fact sheets at http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact.htm