Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Dandelions and Clover Terrorizing Lawns Nationwide!

Through a chain of gardening blogs, I found Garden Rant's rant about the inability of Scotts Chemicals to comprehend that diversity in lawns is a good thing. To Scotts, the only good clover is dead clover, the only good dandelion is a dead dandelion, and the only good lawn is one that soaks up several hundred dollars of their product every year.

Dandelion For Sale In Seoul, Korea

Does this cute yellow flower look like it should be hunted down and poisoned to make a sterile monoculture that covers half of my property? Let's bring back the lawns of granny's time, when they were a vibrant mix of grasses, clover and a few volunteer wildflowers. Bees loved those lawns, birds loved them, children loved them, and they were easier to take care of.
Dandelion In October, White Mountains, AZ

8 comments:

Benjamin Vogt said...

And they taste good fried up, too!

Musings of a Creative Writer said...

Hi Lazy Gardener,

It's night_journeyer from PinkTruth. I'm following you. Awesome blog. I personally think we shouldn't use herbicides, but that's my opinion... I'm all about dandelion salads. :)

Revon said...

I agree, lawns should always be natural heaven. not a 'chemical beauty'.

Anonymous said...

Hey there :) I just inherited an amazing garden (courtesy of the house I moved into late this summer) here in Salt Lake City. My gardening experience to date involves nothing more than a couple potted tomato plants and an aloe plant in the kitchen. This blog is a godsend! I stumbled upon it when I googled "do I have to wash the sticky stuff off my tomatillos?" Thank you for all your wisdom & great advice. Extra double bonus for me that it all pertains to desert gardening; lucky me, I must have had some good karma stored up this week :) I now have you bookmarked for future reference. Thank you & please keep it coming!

Castlerock Xeriscape said...

We're same, I prefer the old lawn than today, I love it's being pure, fresh and natural, well in our era today its not possible anymore, somehow xeriscaping can turn it possible but not that much.

Jennifer K. said...

Completely agree! I actually wish dandelions would grow in my backyard. They are so good for you (best eaten fresh or juiced, but fried will also do). Have you seen the list of illnesses / conditions this plant helps cure? Once in a while I buy the $1.99 dandelion bunches at the store, but I would really like to grow them myself.

Phoenix said...

Can you really eat dandelions?? What do i know, im just a bug guy

Lazy Gardens said...

Phoenix -
Yes, the really young leaves can be eaten as a salad green, or cooked like spinach or Chinese greens. I used to collect them for my mom and the neighbors in Montana early in spring, before the lettuce got going.

Older leaves are bitter, but technically edible.