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woodland invasives/restoration/elimination

Meghan (southern VT, 5b)
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago

Hi. We bought a house with woodlands that had been neglected and overgrown with invasives. It's like an invasive horror movie: buckthorn, bittersweet, garlic mustard, dame's rocket. My number one target right now is the super invasive Herb Robert, stinky bob, geraniumrobertianum because it is invading spots of the woods where natives now have a foothold (lots of ferns, some doll's eye baneberries, partridge berries, false Solomon's seal, etc).

(I still plan to go after the stands of garlic mustard, loosestrife, bittersweet, dame's rocket as they emerge but the woodland is my first priority since I feel I can save it. Also the garlic mustard I'll prob go after with chemicals whereas the geranium is still intermingled in some areas w good native plants.)

I have been pulling these stinky plants since last summer and have used these freak warm days to do some weeding. I have read that I should not plant natives till I get rid of the geranium--but also that it takes years to do so.

My idea is to get rid of as much geranium as I can, plant woodland grasses appropriate for the zone and ecosystem and keep after the geranium. I know these plants are allelopathic and that all of my plantings won't make it, but I figure even if I spent $100 on seeds and 100 clumps of woodland grasses come up and get a foothold that's cheaper than buying plants. I'm hoping the grasses can kind of choke out emerging geranium.

Any thoughts from anyone who has attempted woodland restoration?

THanks!!

* I am planting silky rye and some other A type germinating woodland grasses native to our area. :)

** I also planted some viburnums where I yanked/poisoned buckthorn. Most of the rest of the understory is chokeberry and native dogwood.

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