A compass planting plan for over-wintered biennial Garlic Mustard
(Thats the phase of it's life cycle where it vertically bolted (flowered) for an Orange-tip life cycle, rather than, just a big green leaf, for something else.
One of the reasons this plant was often found by a hedge on a shady side, north or north west facing aspect (west facing, cooler morning sunshine) was not just for butterfly life cycle grazing reasons, but it needed moisture retention in it's leaves, as it lost much there in full sun, needing very damp conditions to thrive (bottom of bank, near water course like cuckoo flower).
- 1.2m high (4 foot) close board fence plus 10cm kick board
Old English 6 foot long X 3 foot high (1m high) fence panels, might provide enough good shade for flowers to rise into the sun above fence.
Bespoke Garden or your own garden (the picture was not inside a garden).
Garlic mustard seed collection, if not aesthetically distasteful in garden tidy-up, was in about July, might be dried then stored dry, for sowing, end of January-February, before last cold frosty snap. Most seed collected germinated like that,
on prepared, raked, bare ground.
Plug planted over-wintered Garlic Mustard in March and very early April before it bolted, for flowering success. It had a long tap root (don't uproot a plant in the wild, I didn't). Try to keep as much tap root as possible for well watered re-establishment success, if transplanted then.
Footnote Compass facing orientation
Imagine yourself in a square property and looking out a window, towards the midday sun. That would be a south facing aspect. Concept was important for landscape design in sun and shady areas, around a house.
If it was a hedge line or fence, same principle, but imagine yourself sitting on the fence and facing one way, or the other (North facing, would be facing north, from position on the fence, running from west to east).
