Mad Gardeners and Agricultural Education Dept. HVRHS will again host a Symposium on Saturday, March 2 at the Housatonic Valley Regional HS in Falls Village, CT. This year's theme is "Cultivating Beauty and Habitat" with lectures about blending ecology and horticulture for a better and more beautiful world.
For more information and to register visit www.madgardeners.org - registration deadline is Feb. 27, 2024.
This talk by Kathleen Nelson was part of the Connecticut Invasive Working Group Symposium, November 3, 2022.
Learn to Spot M-A-M
Posted June 2020 by Kathleen Nelson
Photo by Renee Sullivan
M-A-M is a serious threat to agriculture, the economy, and the environment. It smothers fields, shrublands, and forest edges. killing most other vegetation. The vines can grow six inches a day and can climb more than 20 feet high, blanketing everything in sight.
photo by Katrina Schindledecker
The video below describes the progress we have made in 2012. Our work continues....
Update 10/27/22: This video describes our work on MAM control as of 2012. It covers MAM identification and control as well as details on the number of hours worked, the number of properties covered, and the cost of the program. From 2007 through 2013 the project worked on MAM control on approximately 200 properties each year. In 2013 we discovered extensive populations nearby. It was apparent that it was too late to contain this weed. We continue to provide homeowners with information and advice on MAM control but no longer search for funding or hire college students to work on private properties. A small group of volunteers does field control on some land trust properties.
posted 9/24/14, updated 10/27/22
Mile-a-Minute Vine (Persicaria perfoliata formerly Polygonum perfoliatum), an invasive Asian annual weed accidentally introduced into Pennsylvania, has been moving steadily northward. Until recently, the northern front of the invasion was southern New York State and southwestern Connecticut. In 2004 and 2005, two populations were discovered in New Milford and Bridgewater, CT, and, in 2007 two large populations were discovered in Newtown, CT. Since then MAM has been discovered in many parts of Connecticut. See www.mam.uconn.edu for the current map.