Sat 10 May 2008
Dandelion, Grown and Gone To Seed
Thu 8 May 2008
Good Things: A garden ready to plant
We cleaned up the previous year’s leftover plant stems and mulching fabric along with the new year’s weeds volunteers. The latter included some catnip, which we nearly had to fight our Good Cats to remove.
We picked up some free compost from the township yard waste recycling center, and then spread it over and worked it into the ground.
All we need now is another couple of sheets of mulching fabric to layer over it all, and Pat’s garden will be ready to plant for another year…
Sun 27 Apr 2008
Green (and Yellow) and Growing: A Dandelion Defense
My sister Sandy in Michigan emailed a rebuttal to yesterday’s post:
I love many of the plants that are thought to be weeds. I learned long ago that weeds are simply plants that are growing where you don’t want them to grow.
Dandelions and plantain may be weeds to gardeners, but I remember reading that they were brought over by the American settlers for their many medical and food uses.
The leaves can be eaten cooked or raw, such as in salads or cooked up like kale or mustard greens as greens or used in soup. You can eat the young leaves raw in salads, but the older leaves should be cooked because they have a bitter taste.
Dandelion flowers can be used to make dandelion wine and jelly. Roasted and ground, the dandelion root is a coffee substitute (the same as chicory root) and is good for “spring tonics. The flowers can also be used to make dyes for fabrics.
The milky fluid that you see when you break the stems can be used as a mosquito repellent or can be applied to warts to get rid of them.
On top of all that, cats like them and they’re pretty!
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.
Sun 20 Apr 2008
Easy Like Sunday: Zoom Into Springtime
Soon-to-be maple leaves
A volunteer from last year, dried and unidentified
Blossoms on a pear tree
Thu 17 Apr 2008
Thursday Three + 1
Beautiful spring weather forecast for today, and for the next few days as well. If anyone needs me, I’ll be outside…
