World domination dandelions

The big bastids in our garden are still at the flower stage. Very soon we'll be choking on their airborne fluff

they're very clever plants which is why they're so prevalent - they change their shape in relation to threat - mow that patch of grass they'll grow back with the leaves spread out flat on the ground and shorter stalks so next time round the mower misses them.

My garden us full of them (even though I fill a bins with the ones I pull up)  but its really interesting to see how they adapt all around the garden as to whether the grass is long or short, whether the ground is walked on and so on.

Given that its a reliable and bountiful harvest what I should do really is eat them

Seems to have been a good year for them

I kinda welcome them too, not least because ever since they started flowering I've had dozens of Goldfinch in my garden.

mow that patch of grass they’ll grow back with the leaves spread out flat on the ground and shorter stalks so next time round the mower misses them.

Didn't know this, but I do like the fact that my mower goes straight over the top of them without taking the heads off. Means I get some colour + wildlife while still having the grass at a useable length for children to play on.
(The front garden is left much more wild and unmown before anyone takes offence at the fact I cut some of my grass).

A friend who is a beekeeper loves them as they are a good early food source.

I now look on them more kindly, Got to support our bees.

Cut them off below the surface and it slows them down for a year or so.

We inherited a dandelion patch instead of a front lawn at the last house and I spent an hour one sunny afternoon with an old carving knife cutting out loads of dandelions about 1/2 inch below the ground. Stab the blade into the lawn, slide it sideways through the main tap root and then all the foliage just lifts out. It is quite satisfying. Repeat a few times of the following weeks to get the ones you miss and after 2-3 sessions the lawn is almost clear. Repeated the following and we almost had a grass lawn back.

Yeah sorry everyone my 5 year old daughter's current favourite thing to do is find every single dandelion she can and blow the seeds around as much as possible because it makes the world 'beautiful'.

Stab the blade into the lawn, slide it sideways through the main tap root and then all the foliage just lifts out. It is quite satisfying.

😟 You hate bees don't you?

I decided to have a go at filling in all the patches in my lawn this year, starting by removing the (what felt like) several thousand dandelions in about 5 sqm of 'lawn'. Sliced them out per WCA, top dressed, overseeded, and within a week there were possibly several thousand more to replace them! Needless to say the new grass seed has either not grown, or feed several now rather fat birds.

We leave them for the bees. The birds will eat the seeds too, this ends up as bird droppings which land back on a lawn, meaning one can't escape. But this season it has been noticeable that there are many, many more.

I grow them, but the elderly neighbour is out with his weed killer spraying away, he probably loathes me.

Dandelion wine? When homebrew was the fashion my parents made gallons of the stuff. Win win surely?

(Unless it tastes like p and makes you p)

Unless it tastes like p and makes you p

If you like the stuff, that's also a win-win, surely? Just recycle it 😂

...sorry. 🤢

Anyway, dandelions make a nice snack. If you don't like the bitter leaves (though better when young) then the flowers are nice - just munch off the yellow bit avoiding the base (white is tasteless fluff, green is horrid). Inspect it briefly first, unless you like eating insects. Extra protein I guess.

Plenty here too, and daisies. Unfortunately the estate (scheme, not grounds) "gardeners" Jane just been and demolished the lot. Makes me sad - I'm campaigning for a minimum no mow May, preferably unmowed patches.

I'm not sure about no mow may, not for dandelions anyway. Surely by cutting the grass every week or two it encourages more flowers and a longer period of flowering? We have quite a few plants for bees in our garden, pulmonaria and the apple trees have been popular but theres also perennial wallflower which flowers almost year round. Geums, chives and ceanothus will be next. We also have a sorbus cashmiriana which is too wee just now but I saw one today which was popular.

I'd much rather it was dandelions than alexanders dominating the off road sections of my commute.

We seem to alternate weekly between dandelions , daisies or long stem white mushrooms ( pull those buggers up and dispose asap before the dog feasts on them). He also likes the growl at the bees when they are on the dandelions. We have a raised bed with a seat built into the middle that we sow with wild flowers. Hours of relaxation in the summer watching the bees do their thing. Can get pretty noisy though