Dandelions, dandelions, everywhere...

Hi all. This is my first post, but probably the first of many. Just bought a house which is great on the inside, but the once-amazing garden doesn't look like its been touched in years...!

One of the problems I've noticed now that the sun has come out, is that my lawn seems to be about 95% dandelions. I haven't mowed it yet this year (just bought a mower on eBay today!) but I'm wondering, do I need to rip it up and get new turf, or is there a (preferably non-chemical) solution?

My dad suggested I buy a rabbit :-)

 

You can eat dandelions

 

Just seen Alys Fowler's edible garden on iplayer and she made fritters with the flower heads-more like dandelion flower mini pancakes actually, I have plenty too so I will be making those in the morning to see what they are like.


Dandelions are pretty tough so if you want rid it will take more than taking the top off and returfing. I don't use herbicides either but it sounds like a job for roundup to me.

 

The most effective treatment would be by using a lawn weedkiller. It will kill the whole dandelion plant but leave the grass alone. If you try digging them out not only will it seem a never ending task but leave just a piece of root and it will re-grow.

 

Once your lawn is badly weed infested, it's an endless job to keep it looking nice. Despite cutting the lawn at least once a week to three times a week in the height of the growing season, the dandelions refuse to die off and digging them out, as NeilC says, they just regrow. Our dogs use the garden all day, so there's no chance of using weed killer on the lawn, even 'spot' weeding I feel is risky for the dogs, who will probably go round sniffing the 'new' smell.
What we need is some sort of pellets that push into the soil so leave nothing on the surface to kill the weed roots and leave the grass alone (any botanical chemists on this site ? )

 

Apply a liquid lawn weedkiller and it should be safe once it has dried but read instructions first.

Even if you "rip it up and start again" you will need to kill the grass and weeds with glyphosate first and keeping a lawn weed free is very difficult even when using the chemicals.

You can try digging them out by hand but you most take out all of the root otherwise it grows back even worse

 

I tried them today, they taste amazing, I had a few with honey but for the fun of it I tried them without..............they taste better without tbh. gorgeous.

 

The leaves make quite a nice soup, a bit like spinach, and the roots can be chopped up in a mini food processor type chopper and dried at about 90degc for an hour or so. They make quite nice tea. Ds 1 and 2 did a bit of "food for free" research over the Easter hols!

 

I take mine out by hand, I use an old breadknife and aim from about 4 inchs away fron the plant at its root, I then gather the leaves up and pull the whole thing up and usually get about 3 inchs of root. I then grab my trusty broom handle and use a lump hammer to knock it into where the heart of the dandelion was. I then fill with washed sand and grass seed. So for a couple of minutes I get rid of a weed, make a drainage hole and sew seed as a small patch!

Hope thats of use.