Smells like garlic and grows like an invader: Coralville offers a place to get rid of pulled garlic mustard plants to help prevent them from spreading. 

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 Monday, May 1, 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. Get directions

Garlic mustard can only be eradicated by pulling it out of the ground. 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. 

Do not place garlic mustard plants, or any other invasive species, in backyard compost piles since they do not reach high enough temperatures. However, garlic mustard can be placed in your Coralville curbside yard waste collection since Iowa City Landfill's Compost Facility can reach high enough temperatures. Coralville's garlic mustard dumpster, available each spring to get rid of the invasive plant, offers a free way to dispose of garlic mustard without taking up space in your trash cart or buying yard waste bags.

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" (PDF) from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.