May 21st Clean-Up in Glen Echo Ravine

Sorry for the delay with a new post. Between the electrical storms (computer shut down), and a mad dash to clean for my mom’s visit Thursday, I’ve been remiss in putting anything up on the web. My apologies!

We had another very successful clean-up on May 21st in Glen Echo Ravine. Pete had nearly 30 volunteers that came to help remove honeysuckle. About 1/2 acre was cleared of approximately 100 honeysuckle bushes. Here’s what it looked like before work was started:

Before

Quite a lot of honeysuckle to be seen, choking out the native plants.

Here’s what it looked like after everyone left:

After

What a difference! This will allow more native wildflowers and plants to thrive. Pete will also now be able to plant some spice bush and a few trees in this cleared area. To really see the difference, here is a composite before and after:

You can really see how much honeysuckle was removed. We owe a big thanks to all of the volunteers from Columbus State and Ohio State, and to all the others who came to work in the ravine. We couldn’t make this happen without your help!

Slowly but surely, we are making a difference. We also have some new information about garlic mustard (another wicked invasive), which is growing voraciously in the eastern part of the ravine, just before the bridge. Pete heard that wild ginger, once established, will fend off garlic mustard. So we are going to try and establish more colonies of the wild ginger.

In case you are wondering what it looks like, here’s a picture of garlic mustard. It’s all over Columbus, even in people’s yards in Clintonville. It’s easily removed as the roots are never very deep in the soil. Unfortunately, garlic mustard is

Garlic Mustard

very good at reproducing, casting hundreds of seeds over the ground. For more information about this invasive, you can go to the Ohio Department of Natural Resource page about the plant. The scary part about this plant is how tenacious this plant is: A plant can produce seeds after it has been pulled up and seeds are viable for at least 7 years. If you see this plant, pull it out and dispose of it properly. The ODNR site has some tips.

Until next time!