Garlic Mustard

Garlic Mustard

A poem  from Ella E.

The garlic mustard is not like custard

no that’s not a good rhyme, let me try one more time.

The garlic mustard forms in clusters,

no that’s a soft rhyme you see, no it won’t work for me!

The garlic mustard is quite flustered,

that doesn’t even make sense, at least it’s not a soft rhyme…

in my defense.

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Garlic Mustard Field Trip

By Elena T.

5/5/15

63˚degrees

7:17pm

On a sunny warm Monday afternoon, my class and I headed past the Cottage Hospital, through the Historic Graveyard, to a field of Garlic Mustard.  There, we broke up into teams, and searched for Garlic Mustard. Once we found a spot where there was some, we pulled it out of the ground, and put them in trash bags.

What is Garlic Mustard exactly?

To answer that question, Garlic Mustard is an invasive species of plant that is all over Nantucket. It is called Garlic Mustard, because it has a strong smell, that smells almost just like garlic.

It is an invasive species because no animals like to eat it, and it's toxic to some insects. Us humans can eat it, in fact when the Europeans brought it over, they loved to use it in cooking. But this plant is no help to any wild animals or insects, so it just spreads and spreads and spreads.

Okay, but why did  you need doing it? 

Is it that big of a deal?

First off, it is a big deal. It's getting in the way of stuff that should be there. Plus, it's no help to the animals, so it would be better if it just would go away.

We are doing it for that reason. We want to get rid of this invasive species, so it's a safe environment for everyone, not just us.

That is why, on one sunny Monday afternoon, we went on a field trip to help stop the invasive species of plant-Garlic Mustard.

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I showed up ready to kill... GARLIC MUSTARD! Garlic Mustard deserves to die because it is an invasive species. It kills all the native species and creates a monoculture. I put on rubber gloves grabbed a trash can and joined my friends Samir  and Sam. 

We went down a path and began to pull up Garlic Mustard. It smells bad because of all of the chemicals it secrets to kill other plants in the area. We talk as we pull up Garlic Mustard. I wander down another path and find lots of dandelions. I turn to they other side and see even more Garlic Mustard   

We pull Garlic Mustard for a long time and at the end we have almost a quarter of a trash bag full of it. It was fun, funny and i learned a lot.

JohnCarl M.

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My class went to a land bank property to kill an invasive plant called the garlic mustard, because they were invading place where it shouldn’t be, it take over a certain place and creates a mono culture and destroys home’s for other species.

                Garlic mustard was brought to Nantucket as a garden plant but it kills of other plant by releasing Toxin's in to the ground, so other plants can’t grow near him. Now garlic mustard is everywhere invading natural habitats for species and killing them off and the species goes extinct.

Samir B.

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On Monday, the fourth, we helped pull out of the ground an invasive species. It is called Garlic Mustard. the plant has spread to many parts of the island. there is an organization that speshiliszes in invasive species. the reason why we needed to pull these plants out is because nothing here eats it and it is killing off some of our native plants.Garlic Mustard does not belong here and we need to get rid of them. all it does is kill and spread. we should not have this on our island.

Anah B.

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 Garlic Mustard is a Europe plant that was shipped over to the United States because it is a plant that is used for cooking, so people grow it in their gardens for cooking purposes. Garlic Mustard gives off a chemical that prevents other seeds/plants from growing. Then it starts to take over. As people planted them the seeds were blown away in the wind and spread all around the Nantucket. Because this plant isn't native to Nantucket, when it starts to grow it becomes invasive. 

 For our science field trip we went to some Landbank Property, where we meet up with Emily from the Nantucket Land Council, Lenny from the U. Mass Field Station, Connie and Kelly from the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, Kim from the Maria Mitchell Association, Ernie from the Massachusetts Avdubon Society and Sarah from the Linda Loring Nature Foundation. We meet up there to pick Garlic Mustard. When we picked it we had to make sure that we got all the roots so it wouldn't grow. Overall we did a good job of picking the Garlic Mustard. One weed at a time, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! 

By,

Sophie G

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I'll set the scene for you : 

Ahhh ... the warmth, about 54 ˚ F and the wind about 5 mph. The whole 6th grade going to a land plot that was full of invasive plants...garlic mustard, we were on a mission to pull as many of these atrocious plants as we could, and boy we were not at all  alone. What happened after this was truly amazing, people with scientific backgrounds and people that simply cared such as Kelly, Ernie, Jeff, Emily, Lenny, Kim, Sarah and the whole 6th grade including Matt from all over Nantucket came together to pull this nasty weed. For about 45 minutes everyone pulled the weed and worked together. We needed to pull the garlic mustard so that it wouldn't harm any of the native plants and animals of Nantucket and so that it also doesn't over grow.

Louisa L.

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We were ready to fight against our greatest plant enemy of Nantucket? We didn't know what we were really doing when we got into that van did we? We were on probably the biggest war that we would go through. The war between Garlic Mustard Weed and Humans!  

Info: Garlic Mustard is a plant on Nantucket that is invasive. No animal wants to eat it so we had to go to a little spot of land by the hospital. The Nantucket Land Bank own the land.

 I was all for destroying a weed that was everywhere! So when we arrived at the battle field we got into groups. John Carl, Samir and I were one of them and we were ready. Our group ran down a path and ripped up a big patch of them. Soon we had a big bag full of them. We searched for more victims around the area that we were in and saw one. We had to help save Nantucket from these evil weeds, so we did. We ran over to the second patch and tore up a clump of them. Soon it was time to go. We did are job, the time was up. No human got heart on the mission accept for a little scratch on my arm from a pricker bush. 

We got into the van and talked until we made it back. 

Samuel H.

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When we went to the old cemetery I wasn't completely sure what we were going to do there. It turns out we were helping Lenny, Emily, Kim, Connie, Jeff, Kelly, Ernie, Matt and Sarah pick Garlic Mustard because it is an invasive species from Europe that formed a mono culture that nothing wanted to eat. Also because it has chemical warfare with other plants which kills the other plants. It is native to Europe, western and central Asia, and northwestern Africa. Its scientific name is Alliaria Petiolata.

-Jake T.

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As I step out of my spaceship I see a group of kids and adults picking my favorite food that I thought was only on Mars. GARLIC MUSTARD!!!!!!!  I wondered why they would be pulling this garlic mustard. I heard that it was an envasive spices or something but who cares. They stay that it will take the space up but everyone now that space is never ending. Then they say pair up and pick some garlic mustard. As they start picking it I start to eat it.

Orion D.

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On Monday we went and pulled the invasive species, the Garlic Mustard plant. 

An invasive species is a species that did not originate here but was brought here by other people a long time ago. How the Garlic Mustard plant got here was people used to use it in food. Some people would make a pesto out of it. An invasive species also means that our animals are not familiar to it and they don't like to eat it so it just keeps growing without any disturbance. Some butterflies lay their eggs on it thinking it is like Milkweed and the butterfly larva eats the plant and they get

poisoned by the chemicals it gives off.

Why it was so important to do this is because Garlic Mustard would just keep growing with it being an invasive species. We had to grab it by its roots so we could pull it up and get the whole plant out. If we left any root or any part of the plant in the ground the plant would just grow back. 

Garlic Mustard is taking over our land and will just keep growing and doing this until we pick it and stop this plant from expanding and taking over Nantucket's beautiful land.

                                                          - Isobel C.

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We went on a fieldtrip because of an important cause that needs more awareness. Invasive plants are a problem for many reasons. They form monocultures, meaning they are the only plant growing in an environment. This creates zero competition for energy and food. Invasive species can also be harmful to other species. For example if a butterfly were to eat a plant that was exotic, they might not recognize it, wouldn't eat, and the plant would continue to grow. This doesn't sound so bad right? But the butterfly might also react to it in another way, and be poisoned from the plant. As you can see invasive species can affect ecosystems in some negative ways. To help with this natural occurrence, the 6th grade went and pulled up Garlic Mustard, a type of invasive weed. If you pull it up by the roots, it kills that one plant. We found areas filled with garlic mustard, which can be used for culinary purposes, and pulled them up, to prevent it from spreading more. The fieldtrip was not only educational, but helped our environment. 

-Ella:)

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On Monday, we picked garlic mustard. We picked garlic mustard because it is an invasive  species and it is harmful to other plants and animals. Garlic mustard sends out a chemical warfare in the soil which can kill off other plants and if animals eat it, they can die.

Alden T 

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On Monday, May 3rd, my class and I went to a historic cemetery that is owned by the Land Bank. We met up with several people to weed an invasive species, known as Garlic Mustard. An invasive specie is a plant or animal that is not native to our island. An example of an invasive specie is a squirrel. The squirrel was brought over to our island from the mainland. We weeded this plant because some invasive species let off chemicals in the soil allowing other plants to have a hard time growing. There were lots and lots of Garlic Mustard plants there, so it took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to weed most of the area.Each weed I pulled out of the ground made me feel amazing. It was good to know that I was helping the island and other plants. I really enjoyed this process and hope to help the environment again soon.

Katie G.

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On Monday May 4 it was partly cloudy, 54 degrees and it was a bit windy. We went to  a grassy field owned by the Nantucket Land Bank. We went to pick garlic mustard an invasive species that was brought here from Europe.Garlic mustard is an species that will shoot out a toxin from its roots to prevent any animals from eating it and that means it does not have any predator's. When you pick the garlic mustard you have to wiggle it from its roots and then slowly pull it out from the ground. If you did not get the root out then it was no use to even try to pull it out of the ground. Once we were done pulling the most that we could get we packed up and heading back to the cars. I had a really great time and hope we can do this again in the future!

-Avaline W.