Poor
Mitchell Blvd. Park...
Where weeds grow wild
Did
you know?
Aug.
22, 2005 -- Queen Anne's Lace, also
called "Wild Carrot," is a common
plant in dry fields, ditches, and open areas.
It was introduced from Europe, and edible carrots
were once cultivated from this plant.
The
bad news: Queen Anne's Lace is invasive. It
will crowd and compete with native plants.
The
good news: The taproots of Queen Anne's Lace
are carrots, and are edible.
The
bad news: Be cautious when handling this plant,
though. Skin irritation is common. Also, there
is a similar-looking plant, called Water Hemlock,
which is deadly to eat. People
have died eating what they thought was Queen
Anne's Lace. Do not attempt to eat Queen
Anne's Lace unless you have a positive identification
from an expert!
This
information provided by Stratford
Landing Elementary School in Alexandria,
Va.
Teaming
up for garlic mustard assault
Plants cleaned out, but many
remain
June
27, 2005 -- The
weekend's hot weather assault on Bluff Park
garlic mustard cleaned out thousands of the
invasive plants to prevent further seeding and
spread, but thousands of plants remain.
Bags...
The
Stadium District, the Milwaukee Brewers, Keep
Greater Milwaukee Beautiful, the Milwaukee Community
Service Corps and Story Hill residents worked
together on the effort. Ald. Michael Murphy
assisted with the arrangements; the county declined
to help.
Garlic
mustard, according to the University of Wisconsin
Extension, starts growing earlier in the season
than native plants and out-competes them.
"Garlic
mustard is a major threat to the survival of
Wisconsin's woodland plants and the wildlife
that depend on them," Kelly Kearns, DNR
plant conservationist, said in a prepared statement.
"It quickly dominates the forest floor
and can displace most native wildflower species
and tree seedlings within 5 years."
and bags...
Work
was slowed by the intense heat and by the uninviting
conditions in the northern reaches of the Stadium
District's Bluff Park, where buckthorn poked
and scratched, dead trees seemed ready to fall
at any moment, and undergrowth provided impenetrable
protection for garlic mustard patches.
and bags...
...and plenty around to spread to...
the south end of Mitchell Blvd Park and...
...the north end of Mitchell Blvd Park.
See
these pretty flowers?
Yank
'em, stomp 'em, kill 'em dead!
They ain't your mother's
morning glories
Field bindweed, which
resembles morning glories, is invading Story
Hill and other nearby neighborhoods
That's
not all: garlic
mustard is overwhelming Bluff Park
and is invading neighborhood yards
June
20, 2005-- An
plant so nasty it is specifically defined as
"noxious" in state law is finding
a home in Story Hill this year, threatening
to kill other plants in its relentless embrace.
The field bindweed plant "is one of the
most persistent and difficult-to-control weeds
in ornamentals, orchard and vine crops, and
field crops," according to the University
of California's Integrated
Pest Management Program.
Field
bindweed has popped up in the past few weeks
at Mitchell Blvd. Park, in the I-94 right-of-way
near the stadium, on Wisconsin Ave. boulevards
near Story Pkwy., on Miller Park land, on Veterans
Administration land, and on Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage District property east of the stadium.
It is even appearing in neighborhood alleys.
It
also has been spotted in Wauwatosa, West Milwaukee
and West Allis.
It's
nasty enough to be one of only three plants
specifically named in the state's noxious weed
law. (The other two are Canada thistle and leafy
spurge.)
The
law mandates that "a person owning, occupying
or controlling land shall destroy all noxious
weeds on the land. The person having immediate
charge of any public lands shall destroy all
noxious weeds on the lands."
ESPN
Outdoors says bindweed is "one of the worst
invasive weed species on earth. It causes more
harm to natural and agricultural lands and more
economic loss than almost every other weed that
man confronts."
Field
bindweed wraps itself around other plants and
drags them down. It is doing just that to the
flowers at the Mitchell Blvd. Park entrance
sign at the south end of the park.
Field
bindweed is wrapping the life out of flowers
at Mitchell Blvd. Park
The
University of California says that a dormant
seed can last up to 60 years.
Once
the plant is established, it is "almost
impossible to control with herbicides,"
according to the university.
"By
the first quarter of the twentieth century,
field bindweed was proclaimed the worst weed
in California and many of the western states,"
it said.
Readers
of the Dave's
Garden web site have these comments
about bindweed:
- "I
have been fighting this forever it seems.
I tried digging it out, but the roots seem
to go way, way deep. I have resorted to
using roundup and other chemicals on it
for the past 5 years. I've cut the amount
down, but it takes more than one application
to kill it. After the first dose, it just
looks like it has the flu, then puts out
more flowers and seeds. Nasty, nasty weed
here. I've also read that the seeds can
stay dormant in the soil for up to 100 years,
then start growing again."
- "This
is the WORST weed I have ever encountered.
It spreads it's roots underground and pops
up everywhere in my perennial bed. It has
spread into my rhodedendrums and requires
pulling out every three to four days. It
is now traveling underground towards my
vegetable garden, popping up in the lawn
enroute. When it gets there I'm moving!"
- "I
have pulled it,chopped it, poisoned it and
burned it to no avail. I burn my vegetable
garden off each fall to destroy at least
part of the seeds that drop there. Since
I won't use chemicals around my vegetables,
I just have to rely on old fashioned sweat
to keep it under control. I have a moderate
infestation, but just one season of carelessness
would have me over run by the stuff. I think
it's worse than Kudzu."
- "This
very invasive weed can raise 4 inches of
asphalt to reach the sun. Mind you the asphalt
was laid HOT over the plant and didn't kill
it. It aptly named bindweed because it binds
what ever it touches. It will crawl under
trucks waiting for harvest time and literally
invade the engines, drive lines, wheels,
It comes up where ever it pleases and doesn't
need light to do it. It chokes good plants
to death. It is next to impossible to kill
off."
- "Extremely
invasive! Runners turned up in our newly
cleared and tilled 18'x20' garden plot within
three months; pulling it out encouraged
its return in denser clumps. Clipping the
vines at their base seemed the only way
to keep it from choking out many of our
vegetables this past summer!"
Garlic
mustard is taking over Bluff Park Growing
in neighborhood yards
Garlic
mustard, a destructive invasive plant, has overwhelmed
Bluff Park and is popping up in yards.
Residents
who see it in their yards should pull and bag
it. Garlic mustard left untended will spread
rapidly in the course of a few years.
"This
plant is a major threat to the survival of Wisconsin's
woodland herbaceous flora and the wildlife that
depend on it," according to the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources. (Herbaceous
plants are those, like many flowers, that do
not have woody stems.)
"Once
introduced to an area, garlic mustard outcompetes
native plants by aggressively monopolizing light,
moisture, nutrients, soil and space," according
to the National Park Service.
Young
and blooming garlic mustard
Garlic mustard last week in Bluff Park
Garlic mustard remnants
The
DNR
web site offers the following advice for dealing
with garlic mustard.
For
small groups of mustard plants, you can control
them by hand pulling at or just before they
flower or by cutting the flower stalk as close
to the ground as possible just as flowering
begins. This keeps the plant from producing
seed, and kills the plant itself. If you cut
before this, the plant can re-sprout. If you
pull by hand, the upper half of the root must
be removed in order to stop buds at the root
crown from sending up new flower stalks. Cutting
is less destructive to neighboring plants than
pulling, but you have to time it just right.
For
large invasions, managers sometimes burn an
area in the early spring or in the fall. But
it can take 3-5 years of burning to get rid
of the plants and even then, you have to keep
your eyes open for small patches that sprout
from leftover seed.
