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We have about a half acre of Wild Garlic Mustard growing in our back yard. <\/span>We have been told that it is a nasty weed that is hard to eradicate. <\/span>And that we need to get rid of it because it chokes out native wild flowers.<\/p>\n We have tried over that past four years to get rid of the stuff but have failed in our attempts. <\/span>We have chopped it, and pulled it but it just seems to keep coming back. <\/span><\/p>\n Someone suggested that we use Round Up on it, which isn\u2019t an all bad idea. <\/span>With Round Up, we could easily spray the stuff in just one Saturday afternoon. <\/span>The only thing is that we would put the other good plants in jeopardy. <\/span>In particular, we could damage our beautiful crop of wild Wood Phlox.<\/p>\n Every May, our back yard is awash in purple from the blossoms on these beautiful wild flowers. <\/span>And while the aroma may be a little over powering at times, it only lasts for a few weeks so we can live with that.<\/p>\n The problem at hand is getting rid of the Wild Garlic Mustard without harming the Phlox. <\/span>While selective chopping doesn\u2019t seem to work and pull by hand poses an unacceptable consumption of time, Round Up might work but it would need to be sprayed very carefully.<\/p>\n While we knew that the Wild Garlic Mustard is a biannual, which stays green year round, we did not know just exactly what a Phlox is. <\/span>So, I went out on the internet to check them out.<\/p>\n What I learned is that Phlox are a perennial and that they have a five petal, purple blossom. <\/span>Well, while our Phlox mainly have purple blossoms, they also have some that are pink and some that are white. <\/span>But wait, our Phlox must be some variant from the norm as they only have four petals on the blossoms.<\/p>\n Upon further research on Phlox on the Internet, I learned that we do not have Phlox at all. <\/span>Instead, the plants that we have enjoyed for the past 20 years are Dames Rockets.<\/p>\n This would explain why we have not been able to identify our plants in the native wild flowers books. <\/span><\/p>\n Dames Rockets are not indigenous to Now, we have a dilemma. <\/span>It appears that we have a backyard that is full of weeds. <\/span>And by rights, we should eradicate them all. <\/span>But, for the sake of principle, do we eliminate the beautiful flowers in our back yard because they immigrated to this country many years ago? <\/span>Some how, it doesn\u2019t seem right.<\/p>\n Could we say the same for illegal immigrant workers?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We have about a half acre of Wild Garlic Mustard growing in our back yard. We have been told that it is a nasty weed that is hard to eradicate. And that we need to get rid of it … Continue reading