Save yourself the headache and check your local invasive species list before transplanting any pretty flowers to your garden. One Massachusetts gardener unknowingly invited a super-spreader invasive that is notoriously hard to remove into their yard.
“You mention that you have lily of the valley here that you brought from your mom’s, and I love the idea, it smells great, but it’s kind of a nightmare,” Jess explained in a video on her You Can Do It Gardening (@youcandoitgardening) TikTok page. In the video, the self-described garden coach is standing near a client’s garden patch beside a short rock wall next to a forest.
“The concern here is that it won’t be contained,” Jess said. “It will probably be hard to contain here. More importantly, though, is that you’re abutting the woods, so that would easily jump over and that would be called ‘escaping cultivation.'”
Jess explained that this term refers to invasive species that have spread beyond where homeowners or gardeners are monitoring them. There, they can easily outcompete native plants for resources — like water and sunlight — and take over wetlands or conservation lands, becoming a big problem.
On the flip side, native plants are perfectly adapted to the soil, climate, and wildlife of a certain region. They are important parts of the food chain of those ecosystems, forging mutualistic relationships with insects, birds, and mammals. For example, there are some plants that attract specific pollinators in exchange for reproduction.
This means that local food webs depend on the native plants, as well. Without them, dependent insects and the birds that rely on those insects decline, creating a butterfly effect that changes the entire ecosystem, no pun intended.
Invasives are easy to avoid, though notoriously difficult to get rid of once they’ve started to run wild. So save yourself the extra time, labor, and money by upgrading to a natural lawn, or by incorporating practical rewilding steps into your landscaping plan.
“The mega point here is: know what’s in your garden and how easily it could spread to surrounding areas, including neighbors,” said Jess.
“This talk is important,” one viewer commented.
“I have it all over my garden beds and it’s completely taking over. I can’t handle it anymore & I want the toxic plant gone,” wrote one frustrated gardener.
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