Sat 26 Apr 2008
Green and Growing: The Dandelion Dilemma
Pretty picture, isn’t it? Bright green grass, bright yellow flowers. I remember being told a long time ago that “If you brush a dandelion on your chin and it turns yellow, it means you like butter.”
Now, I can still feel that they’re pretty and colorful, but also need to have the grown-up reaction that they’re weeds that most all the neighbors consider undesirable.
I looked up information on commerical weed killers, and while they’re effective, they consist of powerful poisonous chemicals, so Diana and our Good Cats shouldn’t be walking around on the lawn after it’s been treated. Besides, the headquarters of Rodale are nearby, and we’ve learned about the drawbacks of the usual herbicides from the publishers of Organic Gardening magazine.
There’s also a combination of vinegar, salt, and Dawn dish soap, but that would kill everything, not just weeds. I’d rather have the yellow flowers than lots and lots and LOTS of brown spots on the lawn.
The kid in me loves the idea of using a flamethrower on the suckers, but what I wound up doing was mowing the lawn and cutting off as many of the yellow heads as possible before they turn into seed factories.
Angus Mhor said,
Sat 26 Apr 2008 at 12:20
Here, in the land of brown, we have dandelions AND sandspurs..or stickerburrs, or whatever you call’em, but they hurt when you step on them..in other words, they’re EVIL! We’ve found that frequent mowing does a great job of keeping them under control!
David said,
Sat 26 Apr 2008 at 15:15
Travelin’ the dandelion path again!
Our peach tree is full of blossoms again. If we can get through the next two nights with overnight temps in the 28-30 deg range, we’ll have a bumper crop. (And, “no, save your money on shipping” may not be accepted as an answer.)
Goldie said,
Sat 26 Apr 2008 at 15:19
We haven’t seen any of those yet. The wee ones are always picking them to give bouquets to the PM so that’s about all that gets done with them here but we are way out in the woods.
Fiona Bun said,
Sat 26 Apr 2008 at 19:33
Please send dandelions here…
Hendrix said,
Sat 26 Apr 2008 at 21:03
my daddy grumbles about the dandy-lions and clover all growing season long. what is nice about our dandy-lions is that our 2 groundhogs eat the heads off them inbetween mowing!
we don’t use any killing stuff outside cause mommy feeds the birds (and that means the racoons, the squirrels, the opossums…) she doesn’t want them hurt.