I love wandering around the open meadows in places like California with large oak trees growing in a sea of grass and wildflowers. Well, but that's not here. In Vermont any meadow or field sooner or later wants to become a forest.
Unfortunately the first shrubs to move into open areas are not the ones we want. Invasive shrubs and trees crowd out native species and are not beneficial to birds and other wildlife. Here are three of the worst.
While burning bushes have a reputation as an invasive, honeysuckles are just as bad. These red or orange berries shrubs pop up everywhere in the landscape. First, you have to know if your honeysuckle in an invasive or native. It's simple, cut the stem and if it's hollow, then it's an invasive.
Roses are beautiful plants in the landscape, however, one is becoming a problem. Multiflora roses have fragrant white turning to pale pink flowers in early summer followed by clusters of small, red, rose hips. This bushy rose fills an area spreading by seed and also by rooting along its stem.
My hedgerow provides a visual block of the road. However, it's filled with buckthorn. This small tree has characteristic thorns, U-shaped veins in the leaves and black berries. The black berries are favorites of birds, but unfortunately, the birds can't digest them. They have no nutritional value and cause the birds to have diarrhea.
It's the birds that spread the undigested seeds of all of these invasives into new areas. As with purple loosestrife and other invasive flowers, cut these shrubs back now so they don't mature their fruit. Kill these plants by cutting them to the ground repeatedly or digging them out.
And now for this week's tip: It's time to plant fall veggies such as lettuce, spinach, broccoli, kale, beets and carrots. Select quick maturing varieties, plant in compost amended beds, keep the seeds and transplants well watered and protect them from insects. You'll be enjoying the feast come September.
Next week on the Vermont Garden Journal, I'll be talking about some southern greens. Until then, I'll be seeing you in the garden.
Broadcast on Friday, August 1, 2014 at 5:57 p.m. and Sunday, August 3, 2014 at 9:35 a.m.
The Vermont Garden Journal with Charlie Nardozzi is made possible by Gardener's Supply, offering environmental solutions for gardens and landscapes. In Burlington, Williston and Gardeners.com
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Vermont Invasives
