Have you seen those Facebook post...Don't kill your dandelions, they are the Bee's first food in the spring? Save the Bee's, keep the Dandelions. I have seen them and I didn't kill the Dandelions in my lawn. My lawn is now 1% grass and 99% Dandelion.
This spring my lawn had so many Dandelions in bloom it was so yellow that when you looked out at my lawn it was like looking out at the sun. It was a giant Dandelion infestation. I thought well I'm feeding the Bee's. The thing is there were about two Bee's to my hundreds of Dandelions.
When the Dandelions are blooming it's actually not so bad. Having the only yellow lawn in the neighborhood is interesting. I look out my kitchen window some days and watch the children walk by and pick them, a present for their mom maybe. One child even stopped one day and asked how I got so many of them. I'm sure their lawn at home was dandelion free. I told them they just spread really fast.
The real problem is when you get the big white dandelion seed puffs. This stage of dandelion life does not feed the bee's. It does feed some birds. But again only two birds came to eat the seeds. It was a feast for them, I kept hoping they would tell their bird friends about this seed feast but they didn't. The children who walk by the house have fun at this stage too. They stop and blow the seeds off the dandelion heads. They run through the lawn kicking the heads off. I have the most entertaining lawn. They asked me, how many plants do you think you have. I think I have a million.
There are a million wishes on this lawn. What would you wish for?
My Husband is done with this Bee feeding disaster that my green thumb has created. He wants to spread chemicals on the lawn and be done with this mess. I keep saying, you can't do that. I have ladybugs living in the lawn, and spiders and preying mantis. I have this living environment.. If we spray chemicals on the lawn it will kill them, it will poison the birds. So I went and bought this Friska's Dandelion removal tool. The ad says it's so easy to use, it claims when you are done with your lawn you will want to do all the neighbors lawns too. Of course the man in the ad has 3 dandelion plants in his yard. Not the hundreds we have.
This is one hour of Dandelion removal from my lawn. Two gallons of Dandelion plants removed. You can't really tell that I have done anything. But I have all summer to work at removing them. Dandelion plants are kinda smart. When you go to mow these puff balls down, they somehow know and shrink down below the mower. The lawn looks good for a day and then they all pop up again. That's what annoys my husband. The nice thing is the Dandelions pretty much won't bloom again until fall. So hopefully I can remove the majority of them before fall. I will let you know how that goes.
Do you remember being a child and blowing on Dandelions and making wishes? Oh if only my lawn was a lawn of a million wishes. I'd wish my dear friends battling cancer would win their battles. I'd make all one million wishes that.
This summer attacking those Dandelions with my Dandelion removal tool will be good quiet therapy. A good few hours a day or week of being outside, quietly contemplating life. I'm thankful for the Gospel and to know that Families are forever. That those who pass on are not gone, they are not even that far away. That knowledge and that belief is helping me to stay strong during these months of what I'm afraid will end with great sadness. If only I could get those one million wishes.
What would you wish for if you had one million wishes growing on your lawn?
G.G
Friskas Dandelion weeder ad from Amazon.com
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