I have 2 native ground covers (wild strawberry and common blue violet) that spread and filled in quickly. When these and the dandelions bloom together in Spring, it’s pretty beautiful.
However, I don’t like the look of the seed heads and I think it makes my yard look weedy and unintentional. I want people to look at my garden and think it’s beautiful and feel inspired to also plant natives.
I’ve been breaking my back digging them up one by one by hand. I probably should’ve done this before they went to seed as well but I saw various pollinators on the flowers and couldn’t!
Is my effort futile? I’m hoping they’ll be crowded out eventually. I suppose I could just snap off the seed heads.
by ydnamari3
9 Comments
Fiskars makes a [weeder](https://www.fiskars.com/en-us/gardening-and-yard-care/products/weeders/stand-up-weed-puller-4-claw-339950-1001) that is perfect for dandelions.
You could try applying corn gluten as a “pre-emergent”.
I know it would stop the dandelion seeds from germinating but not sure about how it would affect everything else.
Everyone online preaches sheet mulching. Everyone i have met in person does not recommend it.
I wanted to make dandelion jelly a few years ago. I harvested all the yellow flowers from my yard after the bees had some days with them in early spring. Wouldn’t you know it, the moment they were desirable they totally abandoned my yard? This is the first time in several years we’ve had dandelions again, and they had two rounds of flower crops. No idea why they didn’t do that the first time!
My advice is to desire to harvest them next year. Wanting them to grow will apparently cut way down on their presence, haha, but you might also get enough for some sweet springtime treat.
Unpopular opinion: I used weed fabric and mulch in my yard. My mom asked me to redo her flower bed and I was emphatic we use lots of cardboard and thick layer of mulch. Mine has been largely weed free for 4 years. Her flower bed was taken over by weeds by the end of the season. I no longer recommend it and advise everyone to just use what we know to work the best.
Dandelion seeds will sprout anywhere.
You can get the seed heads off carefully without spreading them before you pull up the plant itself, to reduce what continues to germinate. After you’ve done that you can take your time pulling them up throughout the season.
From now on, cut off the heads before they go to seed if you like the flowers.
With consistency you can reduce them significantly over time.
You ate the last dandelion!!
How did you draw that map?
Sorry. Why are you digging them up? Wait for rain (or water them a bit) and pull them up by the center. The root should pop out with the leaves. Not hard but a bit time consuming. Could be meditative.