PreK-2

Garlic Mustard is an invasive plant. That means that it's a bad plant that takes over and doesn’t let other plants grow. It takes all of the sunlight, water, and space from other beautiful plants we love.

Garlic mustard is one type of invasive plant. Garlic mustard plants have kidney shaped leaves with scalloped edges. When you crush garlic mustard it has a “garlic” like smell. Second year garlic mustard plants will develop a white flower from late April to early June.

Help wanted! We need invasive plant detectives to find where this bad plant is hiding. Click on this link with a parent to see pictures of this bad plant, garlic mustard, and to learn more about what it looks like. So put on your “detective glasses” and head outside with a parent to see if you have any garlic mustard hiding in your yard or local park. If you find this plant intruder, draw a map of where you notice this plant hiding.

Your backyard can be a safe place for many animals. Do you think your backyard is a place where animals would like to live? A healthy habitat, or home, has food, water, cover, and space available to animals. Use the habitat checklist link below to make sure your habitat has all of the things animals need to survive.

Habitat Checklist Link

Superheroes needed! We need superheros to help protect nature from these evil plants! To help save the other plants in your backyard it is helpful to detect and get rid of garlic mustard. Using the garlic mustard map you made, head to your backyard with an adult and pull out the garlic mustard you find by its roots. After pulling the garlic mustard by its roots, place it in a garbage bag. (Do not compost! This does not kill the plant’s seeds.) If you or a parent is interested in learning more about controlling garlic mustard, follow this link to read more.

Did you know trash is along almost every road side and can be very harmful for plants, animals, and people? Cleaning up trash helps protect plants and animals and also helps our community look its best. We challenge you to get together with your family to clean up the trash around your house and neighborhood. Everything you do can have a positive effect on plants, animals, and your community. Look around your yard, neighborhood, or local park for trash that you could clean up with a parent.

Grab your habitat checklist from the activity above. Which items on the checklist were missing or could use improvement? Animals need all of the things on your checklist in order to survive. You can be an animal hero by checking in on your habitat to make sure there is always enough food, water, shelter, and space for animals.

Check to see if your bird feeder needs more seed. You might also check to see if your backyard has water available for animals. If not, put out a birdbath or make your own. Maybe you decided to do our toad abode activity, check on your toad abode to see if any toads are living in it.