As much as I love the cheery yellow brightness of dandelions in bloom, I hate the stems poking up all over the yard the day after you mow. The dandelions are multiplying quite rapidly, so we determined that this year we'd resort to poison (aka, fertilizer and weed-killer). One dose. Maybe two. Not dousing the yard monthly in all the smelly stuff some of the neighbors use.
Now I wonder. I headed outside well before chapel this morning, while the dew still lay on the lawn. The hummingbird that came to check out my tulips and lilac flitted away. The taste of the poison was strong in my mouth; I had to keep spitting. (I wasn't licking the stuff. Honest! But it sure tasted in my mouth like I was. Blech!) The kitties were not allowed outside until this evening, much to their chagrin. This evening I'm exhausted and feel sick to my stomach. It may be coincidence, but I'm wondering whether it might be better to live with a yard chock-full of dandelions than to use the Scott's.
And then there's always that nervous feeling that, someday soon, I may be glad to have [chemically-untreated] foods to forage in my yard. Dandelion, clover, lambs-quarter, and pigweed are edible. Grass, not so much.
Monday, May 02, 2011
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When I was a child, I loved to gather lambs- quarter and it was one of my favorite meals-cooked with cheese on top! I would never let my boys do that as even though we don't treat our lawn, our neighbors do and I'm not sure it hasn't gotten onto our lawn. I'm sad that the boys can't have that memory/meal. Half the fun was hunting through the yard for the lambs-quarters.
ReplyDeleteMy aunt was from Vietnam and one year when she came to visit my mom said she was sorry that we didn't have a garden that year. My aunt went out to the overgrown old garden patch and found tons of edible plants out there.
I noticed a yard full of the stalks today. Certainly not pretty like the flowers!!!
ReplyDeleteWe just had our very first blooms yesterday. There wasn't even one flower yesterday morning when I was spreading the Scott's, but by noon there were a few out there.
ReplyDeleteI've sprayed the whole lawn in the past for dandelions, but now I just go out every two or three weeks with a hand sprayer and Weed-Be-Gone and shoot the individual plants. If you keep up with it, it doesn't take too long, and you don't use very much weed killer. It also takes care of clover and pretty much any other broad-leaf weeds, although for some stubborn ones, a couple of applications are necessary.
ReplyDeleteRobert, how many times did you have to do the whole lawn? Kantor told me that he did the spring and fall applications for two or three years before he got his lawn under control and could "downsize" to getting rid of individual plants.
ReplyDeleteDad used Scott's 4-Step most every year until about 4 years ago. Always had a beautiful lawn. I haven't kept up like he did and we now have dandelions, violets, clover, nimblewill, creeping charlie, etc. Seems the thick stand of grass keeps the weeds out.
ReplyDeleteI think I did the whole lawn the first year, or maybe the first two. I guess I didn't have a severe problem then, but it was getting worse due to the vacant lot behind the house at the time.
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