Planting trouble in your garden

If you thought composting your organic waste and planting greenery in your garden were enough to earn you a gold star in environmental responsibility, think again. Those sweet-smelling blooms in your backyard patch may brighten the yard, but they could actually be doing much more harm than good to the local ecosystem.

Known as invasive non-indigenous species, such garden mainstays as garlic mustard or Japanese barberry are often cultivated for their beauty and hardiness. Green-thumbed Americans spend $9 billion a year on plants, flowers and trees, but what so many avid gardeners don't know is that by introducing an unfamiliar species to their local topography, they could be triggering a domino effect of significant environmental damage. Though most of the thousands of non-indigenous plants on the market are harmless, the few varieties that cause trouble have sprouted in every corner of the U.S. landscape.

Kudzu is a flowering, ropelike vine, first introduced from Asia in 1876. The U.S. Soil Conservation Service once paid farmers to plant it to stop erosion; now kudzu rampages across large swaths of the South, strangling and killing trees and all other plant life in its wake.

Popular for providing shade in yards across the Northeast, the Norway maple grows up to 30 ft. high in 23 U.S. states. New Hampshire classifies it as a noxious weed. The result is a sicker, less beautiful forest (the leaves of the Norway maple, for example, don't turn brilliant colors in the fall, like other types of native maples) that alters the diversity of the natural food chain and harms local wildlife.

Individual gardeners need to become educated consumers. Landscape architect Smith suggests that you begin by checking the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture website for state-by-state listings of invasives. He also recommends that you do your research before you buy: "If you ask trained horticultural staff about local alternatives to invasive species and they can't answer your questions, go elsewhere."

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7.2. Write an essay devoted to one of the following topics:

a) The plant kingdom must not lose its diversity.

b) Invasive plants are the consequence of globalization.

c) Forest protection means future life on the planet.