A Day With My Weed Whacker

Do you remember the old commercial that said....Morning backache..ache! Well after working in the yard yesterday...that's my theme song. I used the weed whacker in the little woods...tried to get rid of that pesky garlic mustard.Garlic mustard is an noxious weed introduced from Europe supposedly by early settlers for its supposed medicinal properties and for use in cooking. Garlic mustard is a cool-season biennial herb that ranges from 12 to 48 inches in height as an adult flowering plant. Leaves and stems emit the distinctive odor of onion or garlic when crushed and help distinguish the plant from all other woodland mustard plants. Garlic Mustard is a rapidly spreading woodland weed that is displacing native woodland wildflowers. It dominates the forest floor and can displace most native herbaceous species within ten years. I like to use the weed whacker to cut the flower stalk as close to the soil surface as possible just as flowering begins. If I had to bend over and pull this pest....my back would break. I have a good handle on getting rid of this pest every Spring, but every year there is more to deal with. Just to the north of my garden is a wild area that is owned by Commonwealth Edison. This space is full of it. Our wooded neighborhood is full of it, as well....so it's a never ending battle to deal with each Spring. So, with this in mind, I put on my gardening garb...grab the whacker and head out to the woods. I have mastered this tool...it is heavy and powerful. I can trim around a rose and not damage it. It's my favorite power tool :) When I am finished...I smell like garlic, have little bits of it all over my jeans... in my mouth... on my glasses...on my shoes...you name it. They say that it is spread by animals walking through the woods and then moving on to another area. What about me...am I spreading it around? They say each plant has about 100 seeds...Wow...if I could only sell this plant, I'd be a billionaire.
Balisha