Learn about defenses against relentless invasive plants

SALISBURY — Tired of those nasty pricker bushes (Rosa multiflora) taking over your yard?  Come to the Academy Building on Main Street (across from Town Hall) on Saturday, May 22, at 10 a.m. for a short talk by Jessica Toro on how to recognize and start addressing the problems of nonnative invasive species in your yard, garden or forest.

Refreshments will be served, and Toro will also answer specific questions about plants and how to be rid of them.

It’s the first of several events sponsored by the Salisbury Land Trust, focusing on 12 of the most problematic nonnative invasives — “The Dirty Dozen.�

Although native invasives can be difficult enough to manage, the nonnative invasives have greater destructive power. They take over from local plants and can not only force out native creatures and insects, they also can provide a healthy habitat for undesirables such as Lyme-bearing ticks.

Spring is often the best time of year to try and eradicate the aggressive sprawl of non-native invasives, according to Toro, who was most recently with the Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts and now co-owns Native Habitat Restoration in Stockbridge, with Sari Hoy.

Some nonnative invasives can be pulled by hand, Toro said, such as garlic mustard, whose tiny white flowers bloom in yards throughout the Northwest Corner. The essential thing to remember with garlic mustard, Toro warned, is that the pulled plants (which come up easily from the soil) must be bagged and disposed of at the transfer station. If they are tossed into compost or a field, they will continue to proliferate.

The good news, though, is that an hour or two a week (especially now, early in the growing season) can significantly reduce the garlic mustard population in yards and fields.

Other plants can be much trickier, she warned, and need to be treated with an herbicide such as Roundup. At a workshop on June 5, Toro will explain how to combat larger invasives. At the May 22 event she will also explaing the benefits of the judicious use of Roundup, and the  hows and whens of herbicide use.

The 12 plants included in the Dirty Dozen are Japanese barberry, multiflora rose, bush honeysuckle, burning bush, buckthorn, privet, oriental bittersweet, garlic mustard, purple loosestrife, Japanese knotweed, common reed (or phragmites), and Norway maple.

In addition to learning how to be rid of these plants, participants in the workshops will also learn to identify the plants — which are still sold at some nurseries.

An exhibit of the Dirty Dozen runs at the Academy Building through June 25.

Also scheduled:

June 5 — Hands-on workshop on controlling invasives, with Jessica Toro

June 12 — Ron Aakjar on gardening with native plants

June 19 — Rain Garden Tour

All events begin at 10 a.m. at the Academy Building and are free of charge. Call 860-435-0566 for more information.