Looks like mustard, smells like garlic, and grows like an invader: Coralville offers drop-off site for invasive plant

The City of Coralville offers a site to safely dispose of garlic mustard, an invasive plant species that can be difficult to eradicate once it is established. 

Beginning Friday, April 10, drop off pulled garlic mustard plants in the dumpster marked “Garlic Mustard” just south of the corner of 10th Street and Hillcrest Drive, near the Coralville Community Gardens, until mid-June. Get directions

Garlic mustard can only be eradicated by pulling it out of the ground, and it should not be placed in yard waste bags or composted. Garlic mustard spreads rapidly, displaces native or other plants quickly, and its seeds can be easily spread by humans, wildlife, and nature. Because a single plant can produce hundreds to thousands of seeds, removing plants prior to seed production helps to manage this invasive plant. 

For more information about garlic mustard, including what it looks like and how to control it, see "Garlic Mustard: A Serious Threat to Iowa’s Woodlands" from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources at www.iowadnr.gov/portals/idnr/uploads/forestry/garlicmustard.pdf (PDF).