Recognizing & Removing Invasive Species From Your Garden

Many people love to buy new species of plants to add something new to their garden but have no idea that they could be introducing an invasive species to their landscape. One of the most common ways of introducing invasive species to your yard is by purchasing firewood. An unsuspecting homeowner can very well introduce such species as the emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis, which has been devastating the ash tree population of North America. This is now a major crisis in the Eastern United States and Canada, as 15-20% of the tree population is ash, genus: Fraxinus spp. (baseball bats are made from ash).

When home owners seek exotic plants and import goods from Asia or buy plants from mail order catalogs, nurseries, online plant sites, etc. such invasive species as honeysuckle, Lythrum (purple loosestrife), English ivy, burning bush, Bradford pears, etc. can quickly take over . So what options do you have in order to prevent your beautiful landscape from becoming a biological desert?

In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, host, June Stoyer will speak to Horticultural expert, John Peter Thompson, who is President of the National Agricultural Research Alliance (http://www.NARA-B.org ). John Peter will talk about how to recognize and remove some of the most common invasive species.  Stay tuned!