Wow. That is a lot of Garlic Mustard. It looks like a good candidate for a string trimmer. If there are spring ephemerals - woodland plants like trilliums, jack-in-the-pulpit. may apples, etc. then be sure not to cut them off or you may kill them. Other plants like asters, goldenrods, grasses, etc. will not be killed by weed wacking, but the Garlic Mustard will - if the reports I have read are correct. Your goal is to stop the Garlic Mustard from setting seed. If you can prevent seed this year, then in 2008 you should see far fewer plants than you had this year. If you can stop the 2007 crop of seeds too, you'll cut down on 2009 plants, and you should be able to get the whole mess under control. You will still have plants popping up for the next four or five years, but not nearly as many as you have now, and you should be able to just pull out the ones you see.

Tat looks just like several wooded areas that I walked through last weekend... it seems overwhelming doesn't it...

Ever hear that story about the guy saving the starfish on the beach, who says "I many not me able to save all of them, but I can save this one!" (Or somethign like that)

Well, I feel about the same about garlic mustard in the reverse sense, "I can't kill them all, but at least I can kill this one!"

I see it as a spiritual mission to kill invasive species, kind of like a buddhist monk might arrange every pebble in a rock garden by hand. It isn't about completing the task, but rather the spiritual enlightenment gained through ripping the nasty little things out. ; )

I know - since I started (I've got 3 huge bags full) - everytime I see it on the side of the road I get the urge to jump out of my car and rip it up!!

oh, my goodness. good luck.

about the whacking - spring ephemerals can get cut off prematurely and still survive. I have mayapple spreading on the edge of my property in spite of being eaten by deer only a few weeks after it comes up. Seeds can ripen even after being cut off so don't leave the whacking too long.

another way to treat garlic mustard is to spray it with Round-Up - strong Round-up, don't dilute it so much - before anything else emerges and the g.m. is still in low rosettes. seedlings wil stil come up and they can set seed the first year.

One thing that's helped me is to divide the area and deal strictly with limited areas and do what I can with the others.

I believe a deer fence would help. I think deer and people track in the seeds, and the deer eat everything else and leave the garlic mustard.

Oh my! The good thing is, is that it pulls up real easily, if you want to go that route. Put it in black plastic bags and dispose of it, if you pull it up and leave it lay..it will still go to seed. if you go out in early spring, with Round-up, you can kill off most of it before your natives wake up.

Thanks for all the advice! I'm kind of scared to whack it, I'm just sure I'll fling the tops here and there, miss them and make the problem worse!

I have begun clearing out in selected areas - I found a patch of wild leeks and figured that was as good a place as any to start! Of course, as I cleared I found Jacks around them too and then cleared around them. Also, where I work the owner of the property is taking down a huge hill that once was a woodland area. There are ferns, Jacks, trout lillies, wild Geraniums and I don't know what else that are slowly being bulldozed out and over! So - I'm getting as many of those as I can and planting them in the cleared places! Alot of work - but hey! Soon it'll be a beautiful woodland garden!

I got tired just looking at your picture. I cleared a large area, not as big as yours though, last year. This year I've only pulled a handful. Just keep at it. Please post an after picture, it will serve as inspiration.

I have a wooded edge to my property and am in the process (my second year) of pulling out the garlic mustard . I see Virginia creeper and a lot of poison ivy out there. The virginia creeper is native I believe so it will stay. I thought mayapple was a native too isn't it?

My question is does anyone have suggestions for plantings that may be able to compete with the mustard as I keep pulling it out over the years?

As far as I know, Garlic Mustard spreads mainly by seeds dropping a relatively short distance from the plant that prodcued them. Occasionally seeds are carried on boots, by water, or similar means, but that is a relatively small amount of seeds. Large infestations come only from seeds growns very nearby. So, once you stop the plants in your woods from setting seeds, you will eventually stop having lots of plants to pull and finding something to out compete them won't be such a big concern. I don't think there is any woodland plant that can outcompete garlic mustard when there are millions of seeds in the ground waiting to sprout. Any healthy woodland floor plant community can temporarily compete with Garlic Mustard when only a few plants are present, but physical disturbance or the presence of tons of seed is too much for most communities and the Garlic Mustard takes over.

I see, well thank you; hopefully as I rid my yard of this plant, other plants may fill in. Is poison ivy a native? i know it feeds the birds and as it is the woods where we don't walk I'm inclined to leave it.

Sorry, if there is a better place to ask this but I've seen references in replies to 'looking at your picture' I'm not seeing it or a link to it. I do get pics on some posts (none on this thread) Any thoughts on what is up.

I've similar issues it sounds with acres of Poison Ivy. We're getting some goats to help us out with getting rid of the stuff.

Poison ivy is native, so is virginia creeper and may apple. Jewel Weed is surprising durable in the presence of GM. I don't know if I'd say it actually outcompetes it. May apple might be something to try since it creates a shady area under the "umbrella" but there will be no substitute for repeatedly removing the GM. May apple and blood root tend to be aggressive which is good when you have a lot of area to deal with and not as good in a small backyard garden. You might try a mix of different natives and maybe one or more of them will help with holding your area. GM spreads soleley by seed and not vegetatively (thank goodness!).