Garlic Mustard Pull Competition

Event details

  • Monday | November 4, 2024
  • All Day

Garlic Mustard-
first year rosettes

The City of Green near Akron, Ohio has issued us a challenge as to which community can pull the most garlic mustard in a day! We have accepted the challenge but need your help and lots of volunteers.

There is such a big problem with the invasive wildflower garlic mustard in Cooper’s Woods we need help! The best way to get rid of it is to hand pull it before it goes to seed. It pulls easily just after a spring rain! Identify the biennial plant from the photos here and the garlic odor.

Brendan Morgan of EnviroScience will be here May 8 at 9:00 am-2:00pm at the Cooper’s Woods parking lot to arm us with strong garbage bags. Volunteers will head into the woods after an educational session on what garlic mustard looks like and how to pull it. We will fill our bags, take them back to the parking lot for weighing before dumping into a dumpster for removal; that seeds are removed from the site. After the bag is empty, grab some water and return to the woods to refill your bag. Southgate park in the city of Green is much larger at 200 acres but the density of garlic mustard is much higher at our 30 acre Coopers Woods so with enough helping hands we could win this. Weight will be calculated as total pounds pulled and pounds per volunteer hour. The grand prize for winning this friendly competition is bragging rights and a sense of accomplishment.

Bring garden gloves to wear if you can. Some folks have had a rare allergic reaction to the strong garlic scented oils in the plant. We will have some garden gloves for those who need them still. We will also have cold drinking water in a large cooler container-please bring your own water bottle for a refill! Refillable water bottles will be available. Free t-shirts are available to the first 25 participants who pick at least 2 bags of garlic mustard. Other prizes are from The Goat, Cameo Pizza, The Forge, Reel Bar, Put-in-Bay Gazette, and the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society

And remember you can take some garlic mustard home to eat-great in chip dip, pasta, salads, etc. Just do not take it home to plant!!!

We are working with EnviroScience to remove invasive plants/trees from our Cooper’s Woods Preserve with funding from the Conservation Fund. They will be removing amur honeysuckle later this year by cutting and applying herbicide to the base. You can see their work from last fall with the piles of the cut brush left behind. This garlic mustard challenge and the Earth Day Challenge are all part of controlling the invasive plants so we can have a healthier Cooper’s Woods for the future-with native plants and trees that support native wildlife!

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