Gail Anderson's Answer to Barbara O's Question

Barbara's question was how to rid your garden of garlic mustard and wild garlic?

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), wild garlic (Allium vineale), and wild onion (Allium canadense) are very difficult to eradicate. At Long Hill, we have tried many things without great success.

Garlic mustard is a biennial. It forms basal leaves the first year, winters over, then blooms and sets seed the second year. The only way I know to control is by mechanical means. Scuffle hoe the very small first-year seedlings. Larger plants have long tap roots and must be pulled by hand. It's CRUCIAL to pull before the plants set seed. A single plant can produce thousands of seeds that can remain viable in the soil for up to five years!

Wild garlic and wild onion both have "stringy" chive-like leaves which smell like onions if crushed. The wild garlic leaf is round and hollow. The wild onion leaf is flat. Both produce underground bulblets. Wild garlic also produces aerial bulblets. At Long Hill, we have researched how to eradicate. We have tried hand digging, baking under clear plastic, and Roundup. Internet research reveals that there is a very brief window during the season to use herbicides on wild garlic and that the only herbicides that are effective are now banned in Massachusetts. At Long Hill we are talking about removing the soil, small plot by small plot, and trying to shift the soil to remove the bulblets. Although we haven't discussed this, we may even have to replace some soil entirely. So....the short answer, keep digging bulblets by hand, being sure you dig deep enough, probably 12 inches or more.

--Gail Anderson