It’s dandelion season in our neighborhood. Just like clockwork it happens every spring about this time. The yellow invasive flowers nobody intentionally planted insist on blooming. It’s a battle for some, an annoyance for others and yet some don’t care to notice. It all depends on your values and if you see this as a problem or not. Dandelions (and weeds in general) are like the wicked problems of the world; they never completely go away. Let’s face it, the dandelion is classified as a weed, but how we view the invader, like problems in our lives, drives our strategy. Let’s review nine ways to approach dandelions to see which one/s you are most likely to model.
Complainers: These folks notice the dandelions, but instead of doing anything about it, decide instead to comment on how heavy or light the crop is this year. Their strategy is perhaps related to “Deniers,” never actually developing a strategy to manage the problem. Perhaps the past experience of complainers is knowledge enough to know this cyclical problem won’t last long. Complainers, as if competing in a sport, love to complain, and seek an audience, any audience, for their performance. Once dandelion season is over, they’ll move on to gripe about the lack of rain, poor planting choices of neighbors or full gutters. We all know the complainers in our lives.
The Meadow: This was my father’s approach at one point of his life. He was not particularly fond of yard work, so as he aged and his physical abilities declined, his attitude shifted. My dad, and other followers of this solution, takes the observational approach. Instead of fighting the weeds, they tolerate them, even embrace them, reclassifying their yard as a “meadow” instead. I’m not saying his neighbors at the time in a nice south side Tampa neighborhood appreciated the meadow approach, but for him, it was the perfect solution. P.S. At his last house in Marietta, GA, my dad hired a lawn care company, so they took care of “it” and he enjoyed supervising.
Deniers: This group simply denies they have a problem. What problem? Is there actually a problem? And everyone else seems to have more dandelions than they do. They may also use the tactic of blaming their neighbors for their problem. ‘Nuf said about this group ‘cause they simply don’t have a problem.
Mow Over It: A relative of “Deniers,” the “mow over it” group is a classic, yet sneaky bunch. Their strategy is to wait until the yellow flower appears, then quickly mow their lawn (preferably when nobody is looking) to eliminate the evidence and avoid perceived public embarrassment. If the yellow flowers aren’t visible, who knows you have a problem, right? Tactical delivery of the solution requires LOTS of mowing since these pesky dandelion flowers reappear rapidly, so have plenty of gasoline on hand.
Dandelion Wine: This approach views dandelions as a resource to be protected and not eliminated. Dandelions are grown and harvested for things like wine, bouquets of flowers (kids to parents mostly) and salad greens. These entrepreneurs and innovators treat dandelions like a crop instead of a weed.
Best for the Bee: This hybrid approach is a “Dandelion Wine (an asset) meets the “Meadow” approach (let nature take its’ course). This very small and well-read group of farmers knows that the early blooming and fast growing dandelion is just what the bee needs to get buzzing in the spring. Think pollen and nutrients (ask someone in this group for details and I’m sure they’d love to convert you ‘cause it’s good for their hives and the environment). Thanks to my neighbors - whose family keeps bees - for background on this strategy. Had I become aware before I got my green lawn certificate, I could have jumped on this bandwagon or maybe planted dandelions around my garden perimeter for good measure.
War Zone: These serious neighbors are easy to spot. They mask up and equip themselves with spray canisters and spreaders to rid dandelions in an annual battle. Their approach is all offense, coming down with liquid and granular chemicals either before or after the yellow heads show themselves (hoping their shots are on target). They are not happy until all the yellow soldiers have surrendered for the season. However, in most cases, the dandelions do come back next season because the root of the problem may not have been eliminated, just the symptom. Be cognizant of your open windows when they do battle and hope the chemical run off stays in their water table.
Diggers: This strategy doesn’t target the blossoming yellow flower, but rather the root of the weed. A proficient digger is patient, knows where and when to dig (after some nice rains), zones out their yard and meticulously keeps after it. Results are slow, immediate and gratifying with resulting piles of debris rewarding manual labor. Diggers know that locating their hindquarters on a stool or sitting cross-legged on the grass are preferred positions for executing their plan. Muscle memory from past seasons of squatting or bending over may still linger for these focused folks. In my estimate, depending how carefully you dig up and pull the root, effective diggers decrease next season’s dandelion crop by about 50%. This strategy requires the most time and physical exertion and is also the least expensive, only needing to purchase a digger tool in year one.
Fertilizers: These folks take a purely defensive approach, thinking that a thick carpet of green will choke out space for weeds to grow. You’ll never see a “fertilizer” bend over to dig, but instead they mow on schedule, fertilize religiously or may contract with a lawn service to do the deed for them. The key to fertilizer strategy is consistency (application, watering and mowing).
My Strategy: After years (ok decades) of being a homeowner, here is my advice on how to manage your problems, I mean dandelions. First, analyze your lawn. If it is thin with shallow roots and lots of weeds, the best approach may be to ask for help and start over. Yes, gulp, go back to start. That thought was so distasteful that we varied our avoidance strategy for 20 years trying to make our old, weak lawn (inherited with our 1950’s house) thrive. We tried many of the above strategies and even hired a lawn service one season. Inconsistency in our approach resulted in a tired turf with nothing much to show for our efforts.
What finally worked came about as a consequence of building an addition to our house. The earth movers and construction equipment tore up our lawn and professionals re-graded and reseeded it. We followed instructions from the landscapers to get the new lawn established: water the seed frequently (2-3x daily) and deep water the young blades while clearing out the weeds. Years later, the results are finally paying off - a lush green carpet. Not perfectly all grass, but the view gets a street side nod (just don’t look too closely). I thought a sea of green would make me happy, but sometimes once you reach a goal, you start to look at the problem differently.
Critical review of our strategy would question the thousands of gallons of water this lawn consumed to get established and still demands to keep up the self-imposed standard. Instead of feeling victory on the battlefield, I feel a bit of survivor’s guilt. I start to question, “Who decided a green yard should be the standard anyway?” Grassed yards are certainly not “best” for our earth. Could it be that now that I’m a member of the green lawn club I just don’t want to consider Mother Earth’s best interest? Perhaps. After all, I just invested decades of my time and effort in a solution to my dandelion dilemma. In reflection, just when we think we have one problem solved, we realize maybe we may have been solving for the wrong problem. But that’s for another blog to explore…back to dandelions.
P.S. Dealing with Your Neighbors: What happens when neighbors who don’t subscribe to your dandelion philosophy surround you? Good question. As their yellow tops appear en mass and you nervously watch them go to seed, you secretly hope the wind blows the other way. But, inevitably, the wind blows towards your lawn and their seeds find your bare spots. After the first season of neighborly sharing, you can refine your tactics for next year’s battle, deciding to encroach on their property in many of the above strategies or combine efforts for best results.
Having just dug up a manageable and rewarding crop of dandelions, I realize my current strategy is both to be a digger and maintainer of a strong lawn (to reduce the bare spots). Minimizing space for the neighbors’ dandelions’ seeds to land and take root is now a key tactic of my battle plan. And yes, you’ll also find me digging up dandelions just over my property line to prevent weed creepage (is that a word?) into my lawn. Because your neighbors all subscribe to different strategies, guaranteed. And that’s ok because this is America, after all.
What strategy do you subscribe to for the dandelions in your life? Are you on the offense, defense, in denial, embracing nature or some combination? No doubt, life is full of weeds and there are many strategies. My recommendation is take inventory of the quality of your lawn, plan a good defensive strategy, then start digging to get to the root of the problem. Just remember it takes time and continual work…and don’t forget your gloves, digger and stool.
