Garlic mustard is actually a rather pretty plant—and a useful one, too, in that, in spring, the leaves, shoots, flowers, and roots are nicely edible. Indeed, they should be eaten, and en masse, because they're all too plentiful: Alliaria petiolata is one of the area's worst invasive species. Brought to this country from Europe some 150 years ago as a food plant, it has effectively left the gardens and the plowed fields and spread across the land with a vengeance. It makes copious amounts of seed and it may do something even more insidious: it not only outcompetes and outgrows most other plants in its neighborhood, it apparently also secretes chemicals that prevent the seeds of other species from germinating. This tendency towards allelopathy is somewhat controversial and may be overblown, but suffice it to say that Garlic Mustard can overrun an area. Be an ecological hero; make an A. petiolata salad. Mange.