A thing I heard somewhere, I think on an episode of the Permaculture Podcast [1], was to stop thinking of it as "invasive" plants. Plants aren't "invading", they're filling a niche that is under-served. The way to keep those plants from growing is to supplant them with other (potentially native) plants filling the same niche, or modify the environment to fix whatever deficiencies the unwanted plant is gaining it's advantage from.

They also tied it into the immigration debate, which I thought was interesting. They mainly played off the fact that the same people who are pro-immigration are often pro-native plants. Is it really the best idea to eradicate species from regions, when we could just learn how to live together more effectively?

I feel like I probably did a very poor job reiterating all of that. We've really enjoyed listening to that podcast though.

[1] https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/

In Beyond the War on Invasive Species By Tao Orion, the author gives facts and numbers to back this up.

People are destroying native plant habitats, and creating the perfect conditions for invasives. In fact 90+% of native species aren't threatened by invasives. The invasives actually help heal the soil for native plants.

The author then asks, why then is there a war on invasives? And that's where the book gets good imo.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25782048-beyond-the-war-...

Would you mind expanding on why there is a war on invasives?

Invasive plants displace native ones; in the mid-Atlantic where I live, Chinese tree of heaven are everywhere. They crowd out walnut and other hardwoods, they aren't as tall and attractive, and the wood isn't clean burning. Our problem is also deer over-population-- the deer devastate the native trees and bushes but not the invasives.

>Chinese tree of heaven are everywhere.

Ghetto palm also attracts the latest chinese hell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_lanternfly

In New Hampshire fields with poor soil are sometimes colonized by the invasive Autumn Olive (Japanese silverberry). I knew they fixed nitrogen, so I figured I would cut them down later, and I created a chicken coop next to one to shade it until I replaced it with something else.

It turns out not only does it fix nitrogen, it improves the yields of nearby plants (in this case blueberries) and its fruit is edible to both me and the chickens. So it gets to stay after all. I'm glad I looked it up.

I was suprised at how difficult it was to get the "invasive" autumn olive going. I've tried from seed a handful of times and I've never had them germinate. Did you do anything special? I tried cold stratifying for a couple months with no difference.

dig a small one up from the forest and plant it at your house, or just wait for it to show up. Dig up a 1-2 foot specimen. Take a few so you have a couple chances.

I have 5 shrubs at my house and I'd identified at least 10 different stands of this plant in my locale. Birds spread the seed which love to take over space after humans destory the ecosystem.

They grow about 9-15 feet high, the berries are delicious but a bit astringent, meaning they make your mouth feel dry.

Unfortunately I cannot help, I did nothing special as they were here since I bought the property

Whats heinous about mustard garlic?

It exudes anti-fungals into the soils and damages the ability of the soil ecosystem to support other plants.