Harpswell Garden Club volunteers worked with volunteers from Harpswell Invasive Plant Partnership (HIPP) to remove a small forest of burning bush plants at Centennial Hall. Many years ago, two Euonymus Alatus (burning bush) were planted on the south side of the lawn. When our gardeners learned that this plant is considered to be severely invasive, we dug those plants out. Six years later, the seeds dispersed by those plants are still germinating on the south edge of the gardens.
In 2019, a group of volunteers from our club and HIPP worked to remove the infant invasives. Now, in 2025, we again partnered with HIPP to conquer those persistent plants. Leslie Spieth, garden club member and HIPP volunteer, led the effort on Saturday. More than a dozen volunteers worked to dig out the small plants. One section was cut to the ground and covered with heavy black plastic. We hope this will smother the plant into submission as we plan to leave the cover in place through 2026. (We will report on the success of this method next year.)
And as fall and winter approach, Leslie will work with our gardeners to plan what native shrubs could be planted in the area. As she reminds us: when working with invasive plants, Recognize the plant, Remove the plant, Replace the invasive plant with native plants, then monitor and Repeat!
