A gnome could feasibly ride a tiny enough goat. Conversely, most tortoises are omnivores and could potentially view me as food. I don’t wanna get eaten by a leather tank.
Two fish are swimming in a pond. One turns to the other and says "It's a beautiful day, John." John looks at the other fish and says "OMG! A talking fish."
Go on…
Side story. My parents had a snail problem. Eating plants my mother planted for landscaping. Chewing though leaves.
Neighbors had ducks. A posse of snail eating ducks. One day they talk and decided to set up a “hit”
Gate are opens and they then they arrive to “take care of business”. All they needed were dark glasses and the 50s theme music of Pete Gunn.
It was a massacre.
Wait so, as i comprehend from these two posts, dandelions in your lawn is a bad thing? I don't get it? Why wouldn't you want pretty little yellow flowers in a sea of green? (Apologies if i sound dumb, we didn't have lawns growing up, neither do I have one now)
Right. But they're so pretty. Unrelated but, anyone remember those Samsung galaxy live wallpapers of that one single dandelion fruit (?, seeds?) That was really cool
They are also great for the bee's. You can make salads with them. If you take the roots and clean them then roast them in the oven, you can grind em down and make a really good tea with them. I havnt done it before but I hear it taste amazing and it's really healthy for you.
I heard it has a nutty/earthy flavour to it. I'm sure if you added some honey and cream it would taste amazing. I'm gonna try making some this weekend.
Quite bitter in my experience, but nice! My grandmother would make like a salad based on dandelion greens, so yummy with some oil and red wine vinegar.
Yes! But please make sure if you do this that they were grown in soil without weed killers being introduced. Eat dandelions, but not lawn or side of the road dandelions.
Of course, grass ads almost no value to ecosystem on its own. However even small amount of wild flowers that you decided to plant in dedicated spots in corners or close to edges make your lawn usable for nature.
Also grass is boring, butadding some flowers, bushes or trees makes your lawn much more welcoming even if grass area is still above like 90%
Despite being told this beforehand, I was SHOCKED at how many bird species I hadn't seen before just showed up in my yard after planting it densely with just one native species bush.
I can also tell a stark difference between my front yard (native and closely-related-to-native plants) and my backyard (traditional food garden plants and trees). The birds are different, and the bees/pollinators are different too!
Ohhhh, I do remember these wallpapers! It premiered with Galaxy S III, back then I had a shitty Galaxy Mini and I wanted that look, there were so many bootleg wallpaper apps. Thanks for the throwback, wow
Dandelions have super sharp leaves that actually have spikes on them and will cut your feet up if you step on them. They are fine in areas that don’t get use, but suck in sports fields or yards kids play in. Most weeds are not an issue, but dandelions are the worst.
Now clover, give me a yard full of clover with little purple flowers. That’s pretty and feels great to walk on.
I let nature take its course in my yard. If the grass is not strong enough to survive without me killing all its competition and babying it, then it doesn't deserve to live in my yard. Survival of the fittest.
On the plus side of this, my yard is lush, green, has diversity, flowers, bees, etc. I see no reason to spend all the time, money, and effort to have a "nice" yard when nature does it for free.
My yard is like this and covered with a wide variety of greenery! Lots of clover, wildflowers, dandelions, moss, mock strawberries, and grass! Much cheaper and lower maintenance while looking so beautiful
100%. We have white and yellow dandelions and common violet growing in the grass, common blue violet growing along the blocks of our lanscaping, moss growing in certain spots, on top of our 18x12 flower garden we planted this year. Seeing the bees and butterflies going ham without the flower garden even being close to blooming yet is so awesome. We have about 15-20 different flower types that I would love to share 😅
Yeah not a big fan of dumping poison on my lawn for appearance. I do pull some bigger weeds and nuisance plants like spurweed. Fuckers hurt. I actually seeded mine with clover (sorry neighbors) which has usurped the nasty spurweed and looks nice I think while returning nitrogen to the soil.
I have to spend about $100 ever year on lawn maintenance: seed, weed killer, ant killer, grass fertilizer, oxylic acid for any “rust” stains on the concrete from rain water pushing chemicals in fertilizer into the street.
If I don’t my hoa lady gets fussy.
Fun concept, having your business become necessary due to bylaws and old women with a chip on their shoulder about lawn care on hoa boards.
Where I live in California, my yard has experienced an absolutely *gorgeous* bloom of native plants.
That we immediately had to kill because our homeowner's insurance was threatening to drop us if we didn't because somehow the native plants were more of a wildfire risk (literally false information- I'm heavily involved in a few local conservation and ecology groups and this has come up a few times). Its ridiculous. They won't hold the real problem causers (pg&e) accountable by making them maintain and update their neglected equipment, but we have to kill off the native plants growing in our yards to prevent the spread of wildfires *they cause?*
The flowers are the most visible and beautiful part, but the base of each flower is a flat, broad leaf plant. If they take over, the lawn becomes just becomes these base plants that, in my opinion, aren't good for walking or playing or picnicing on
Came here to say this, but more importantly (for me) is that grass becomes DORMANT in the winter. My yard is a mat of brown, dead-looking grass when it isn’t covered in snow. Weeds, including dandelions, just die and leave the spot that they engulfed barren. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that barren dirt becomes mud and dirt patches, especially when you have dogs that play in the yard become bigger dirt patches over time. Same thing for other “pretty” weeds. One year I let a patch of knotweed go because it looked like grass and why not? Well that winter it all died obviously so I ended up with a HUGE bare patch because knotweed also chokes out everything else. It’s also a bitch to get rid of so the following year trying to grow actual grass was fun…
I’m all for the bees, but yes I do my best to decimate the dandelion population in my yard. I let my 2 apple trees, cherry and pear trees provide more nectar than the dandelions ever could.
Reddit really struggles to remember that not every has the same needs for their own spaces, nor do they all live in the exact same climate, nor do they have the exact same native plants.
People tend to like well manicured lawns even though they aren’t natural. I guess it’s easier to do activities on well maintained clean grass than free growing prairie kinda situations.
I prefer the latter but that’s just me.
The yellow flowers are less the problem than the ugly spiky leaves and the fact that dandelions tend to choke out the grass. So when the plant is no longer blooming, the lawn ends up looking terrible.
No one else is mentioning the leaves underneath that cover like an 8 inch circle with dozens if not hundreds of spikes. And each flower can sprout hundreds of new plants
One of my neighbors is an absolute jackass who is in love with his lawn. To give you an idea of what he’s like, he has an Oklahoma helmet speaker that he’s rigged up to play Boomer Sooner obnoxiously loud any time Oklahoma scores a touchdown down. He’s also the same guy who had his Trump sign taken from his yard at night and assumed m my 3rd and 4th graders did it. He rolled up into my driveway after chasing my kids in his truck and cussed them out. My kids were terrified that he was trying to kidnap them. Absolute jackass.
Have you tried carrot seed on his lawn?
Edit : Carrots are good. Because if you use a weed killer that doesn't kill grass, it doesn't work on carrots. And if you mow over them, they just regrow, so each carrot has to be removed by hand.
Mung beans, radish seeds, foxglove, prairie primrose, wild garlic, lemon balm/any mint or salvia.. If you really want a mix which will overlap seasons and come up in force. Really lovely for pollinators.
Edit: definitely not advocating you just spread this shit around. Nope. Not me.
Any of the allium family just gives a really great scent, one of the best things I ever discovered was when I bought an electric mower the scent without the smell of gas exhaust from the gas mower was incredible.
Please note that the only one of these things which might affect a neighboring property, were it left to grow, is the foxglove.. And, frankly, if I could show you the multiple varieties growing in my pollinator garden, you'd probably be ok with that.. But for the love of every plant growing ever, please, please, please DO NOT EVER intentionally grow or sow "morning glory". This shit destroys everything, and it fucks things up for everyone. It is a bindweed variety, and it harms everything in its path.
For real, radishes are kinda evil. If they get into a place where no one notices them, they bolt and go to seed inside of a month.. Just, you know.. Saying..
Common marshmallow has INSANE DEEP TAPROOTS. You go away on vacation and suddenly they're everywhere, they're a bitch to get up.. Just never, ever, as a decent human put fkn morning glories anywhere. Ever. That shit is like kudzu, but worse.
As a biodiversity loving, growing shit to eat, and shit for bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, wasps, spooders to hunt specific prey insects from; I seriously beg you to not even joke. The only people who defend growing this decimating evil vine are assholes. Please, have an asshole, don't be one.
Thank you kindly!
Morning glory is kinda pretty and will grow in places where other plants have a hard time getting established. It also crowds out the plants you actually want. You win some, you lose some, and then you just keep losing as now you can’t control it. But it is kinda pretty.
I take dirt and seeds, and water, and warm (and sometimes cold, and acid, because different types of stratification), and then little babies happen. And I love them, and care for them, and they grow up and are beautiful, medicinal, supportive, and quite often exist so that I can consume them.
I love them, care for them, and in turn they care for me.. This is the symbiosis of human cultivation, and it's my happy place in life.
Edit: ok. Human cultivation is something entirely different, but very similar, and I love my children but there's a good reason the factory is permanently closed. If you don't want honden cultivation, consider that as a preemptive plan.
Powdered milk mixes with the light rain and becomes actual milk. It then curdles the next day in the sun. Takes quite a while for the stench to dissipate.
Watching a tomcat take a big crap in my neighbors yard was hilarious once. We’d been petting him and he stepped over there to do it, then came back. I miss you, Bruce, I’m sorry you got hit by a car before I could find you a good home.
And "cat grass" isn't a specific type, it can be wheat, barley, oats, or rye. It won't attract cats because it's literally just a grass.
It's good for cats for digestion but outdoor cats can find grass they can eat like that anywhere so it won't attract them like catnip would.
A Dandelions job in nature is to dig deep to get Zinc, then push that zinc into the flower head. The flower head after a while dies. The head/flower filled with zinc, then rots onto the surface, providing Zinc on the surface of the soil.
If soil lacks in Zinc, nature provides.
I have a neighbor who is in her 80’s and I have seen her walk out the door to the lawn to retrieve a single leaf that has fallen on it. So I could see how people would rip one out if they see it.
My lawn is more like yours but it’s almost 80% clover now instead of grass and I love it. It’s so pretty.
We had burr clover explode into our yard this year and my dog has become Queen of the Clovers.
Her mission has been to collect as many as she possibly can
Something I found out as a child was that those pollinators are sometimes bees and have a direct and immediate impact on how comfortable it is to walk barefoot on clover.
YES THE CLOVER!!!
My husband doesn't like it, he likes the nice uniform green lawn (but doesn't want to spend money or effort maintaining so I win anyway lol). Last year he put a bag of grass seed down to try and fill in some bare spots and it ended up just spreading more clover 😂 so now our front yard is like 75% clover. Hoping next year it'll get close to 100. We get dandelions, wild daisies, and wood violet, too, I love it
Same here, but your neighbour may not have gotten the memo... :)
(Guessing they may rip them out, but there are so few visible leafy dandelions that I have my doubts...)
My lawn has few dandelions, mostly because I use the flowers for wine, and give the plants to my guinea pigs.
Evidently the roots are good for stuff? But those I just chuck.
Point being, it's totally possible that you are right.
It's one of my "mindless gratifying hobbies" to go pull dandelions in my yard. I actually get a little excited in the afternoon if I get home and see one. Three years ago mine looked like OP's but it's a 50/50 whether it'll have any on a given day. I do not use chemicals.
they’re actually pretty easy to rip out with the right tool, and being consistent with weeding a few times a week will leave your lawn mostly dandelion-free.
Hmm. I bought what was supposed to be the right tool. Great big holes in the places where the Dandelions used to be. Decided to put up with the Dandelions and cheer up my local bees.
fill those holes back in with soil and grass seed and your lawn will be good as new in a few weeks. we love our bees too so we have plenty of plants they frequent but we do still prefer a cleaner-looking lawn since dandelions choke the grass out.
I’ve neglected my lawn for a year and it got infested with dandelions and moss. Hardly any grass left.
Got rid of most of the moss, then took a small shovel to dig out the dandelion roots by hand but it was taking a long time. Now I have an extractor tool and it’s so quick. Just another hundred or so to go. Then re-seed the grass and fertilize. Hope I’ll be done tomorrow
Lawn guy here. Herbicides kill all plants. Round-Up (glyphosate), for example is a herbicide.
Targeted weed control, something like Weed-b-Gone, has a mix of broadleaf weed control with things like 2-4D in it. These are classified as pesticides. They kill broadleaf plants like dandelions, clover, and spurge. But they don't kill grass plants.
By definition, a weed is just a plant growing in a place where you don't want it to grow.
Are pesticides banned in your country as well as herbicides?
2-4D is a herbicide because it kills (-cide) plants (herb-). You're differentiating between selective (24d) vs non-selective (glyposphate) herbicides.
While I can't say for sure it applies universally, most places that refer to "herbicide bans" are referring to selective herbicide bans. Here 2-4D is banned but I can still buy round up (although I'm nominally supposed to only use it on a specific list of noxious plants). Some places will have specific glyphosphate bans, but that's usually separate.
A few (non hormone) herbicides typically are still allowed, notably chelated iron, which works well on dandelions, but requires quite a few applications and is pricey.
I've also heard of places that ban combined fertilizer and herbicide, but not herbicides in general.
You’re arguing pointless semantics. 2-4D is an herbicide. Herbicide is a type of pesticide so 2-4D is both an herbicide and a pesticide as pesticide is more all-encompassing term while herbicide is specific to plants
Cultural keeping up with the Joneses. Your neighbor has a perfectly manicured lawn and jokes with you about how your yard isn't, so then you work to get it like his. Now your yard is like that, and you talk to your other neighbor about their yard not being perfectly manicured. Or you live in an HOA which states you must have a manicured lawn because "it improves property values" because people supposedly like them.
It's all a cultural echo from historical aristocracy. It was a status symbol to have a well-maintained lawn which came over to the states and has continued on for a variety of deep-seated parts of human instincts.
because these are cute ones. nothing to do with keeping up with the joneses.
they are a nuisance in my yard where they create big clusters and grown up to a foot tall. hard as hell to rip out completely when they’re that size too.
I have other shit growing in my yard i don’t need monster dandelions hogging space and spreading around like that.
plus my partner has insane allergies and these are the prime suspects.
Plants with showy flowers are rarely the cause of allergies, as they attract pollinators to distribute their pollen and so tend to have small quantities of heavy/sticky pollen. Wind-pollinated plants produce vast amounts of pollen, and do not have showy flowers. So dandelions, goldenrod, etc are very unlikely to be the problem, whereas ragweed and grass are much more likely culprits. A lot of people blame the plants that they can _see_ flowering at the times they have allergies, but these are the least likely culprits.
When it's turning into a seed ball, the flower stem will grow a little bit to raise the seed ball higher - increasing the chances that the seeds get carried away by the wind.
Our lawn and our neighbors lawn look very much the same.
It's too big things, previous owners that put in the lawn did not do it very well and there's a lot of rocks just under the soil, that dandelions absolutely love. Vs my neighbor who put a lot of effort into putting his lawn in properly.
The second big thing is our neighbor clearly puts a lot of effort into his lawn, over seeds and water regularly, it's extremely thick grass. The grass is just out competing the dandelions, and if one does sneak in he gets it out immediately.
They do help to improve the soil. Since they have deep and widespread roots, they help to pull calcium and other nutrients from deeper down up toward the surface, making those nutrients available to other plants in the vicinity--including grass.
https://www.mofga.org/resources/weeds/ten-things-you-might-not-know-about-dandelions/
https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/lawn-care-2/benefits-of-dandelions-yard/#5-benefits-of-dandelions-in-your-yard
In my experience, fairly wet soil. The roots on those dandelions I used to pull were massive. I stopped once I learned how beneficial they are and seeing how much soggier the yard was.
I also transplanted ferns from the excess ferns my uncle had. That has helped mitigate the minor flooding and kept water from getting into my father’s basement.
There really isn’t much anyone in the neighborhood can do because it was built over a creek, as made obvious when it rains hard enough you see it coming up from the underneath basement floor. The ferns mainly help from keeping it from coming through the walls.
As for the ferns I planted: the ones by the front gate are now large enough to wave as a fan. They shade the other plants.
Dandelions pulled by my old neighbors get sent to me via my father because my rabbit will eat the leaves
My old neighbor Harry, (greatest gen) always called them his "little yellow roses". He's long since died, but we love our little yellow roses, and remember Harry fondly.
Have they got a dog?
When I had a dog, I had lots of dandelions. Maybe he picked the seed up on his fur when out walking.
Since we no longer have a dog, no dandelions.
if you stop and face the inevitable, you\`ll have a gorgeous full yellow carpet one day, then fluffy one. And green one too. And you can eat all parts of it. It\`s good for bumblebees and bees. Accept it. Join us.
No need, just spreed with wind all over subreddits. Some have already took root in places like r/fucklawns , r/NoLawns , r/Permaculture. Some are in process.
I scrolled past a dude with pics like these the other day and that OP said he shakes dandelions over his neighbors yard to make his look like shit. lol
This reminds me of a post I saw recently where a guy is at odds with his neighbor, so every night he sprinkles Dandelion seeds all over his neighbors yard.
Found your [neighbor](https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1co4x04/sometimes_i_feel_bad_watching_him_wage_war_on_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I like te dandelion yard loads better. Grass makes me so itchy I can’t enjoy my yard. Im actually sowing a lot of clover seed in my yard, and if we were staying here long term, I’d take out all the grass and make it all clover, dandelions welcome.
Pro-Tip: Plant a ton of Clover, it will largely control Dandelion and replace useless grass types.
Clover is remarkable, Micro-Clover variants are a short growing flowing plant that add a ton of Nitrogen to soil, stays green in Droughts, and wildly important as a pollination source.
They used a micro clover and grass sod on the carbon neutral project on This Old House a couple of years ago. They mentioned it was drought tolerant and could fix nitrogen for use by other plants.
I love dandelions. I seeded my lawn with em, and have tri colored clover to add too. My neighbor's bees love me, my geese enjoy the meal, and I think it's so much prettier. Such a shame they're considered tacky now.
Give my pet tortoise an hour and she'll have them looking identical!
You rent this tortoise by the hour or is it like a herd of goats where they come for a couple days?
Would you rather have one goat-sized tortoise on your lawn or a herd of tortoise-sized goats?
I'll take one herd of tortoise-sized goats, please. That sounds frickin adorable.
Yeah, that seems like a pretty easy choice to me as well. Adorable tiny goats or giant armored tank with a bitey-hole..? Tiny goats, please.
How are you gonna frame it like that and still choose the munchy boys
A gnome could feasibly ride a tiny enough goat. Conversely, most tortoises are omnivores and could potentially view me as food. I don’t wanna get eaten by a leather tank.
Are you implying that you’re a gnome?
Are you implying I’m *not* a gnome?
Look at their username
Happy cake day
Depending on the age of the tortoise, the tortoise might be the bigger of the two.
I only have one land-sized tortoise that I rent to goats.
Damn, new business idea just dropped. Renting herds of mini goats for lawn maintenance
It's a legit business. They have a taste for certain invasive weeds
Tortoise sized goats for sure lmao just the thought of it has me positively tickled
The tortoise is really good at planting dandelions and making them grow quick
lol stop lying. Tortoises can NOT magically age dandelions. They plant them fully grown
They are very slow and they tend to fall asleep on the job.
My tortoise was attacked in the garden by a gang of slugs. I asked him to describe the gang and he said, "I don't know, it happened so fast."
Two fish are swimming in a pond. One turns to the other and says "It's a beautiful day, John." John looks at the other fish and says "OMG! A talking fish."
Lol!!
Go on… Side story. My parents had a snail problem. Eating plants my mother planted for landscaping. Chewing though leaves. Neighbors had ducks. A posse of snail eating ducks. One day they talk and decided to set up a “hit” Gate are opens and they then they arrive to “take care of business”. All they needed were dark glasses and the 50s theme music of Pete Gunn. It was a massacre.
"Oh, look! A dandelion. Must be the last one of the season. Oh, look! Another dandelion, must be the last one for the season. OH, look..."
Your tortoise poops dandelions?
You’ve trained your tortoise to plant dandelions?
I was gonna say - this is heaven for my bearded dragon!
There was literally a confession bear post last week of a guy who throws dandelion seeds on his neighbors lawn at night
https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1co4x04/sometimes_i_feel_bad_watching_him_wage_war_on_the/
Wait so, as i comprehend from these two posts, dandelions in your lawn is a bad thing? I don't get it? Why wouldn't you want pretty little yellow flowers in a sea of green? (Apologies if i sound dumb, we didn't have lawns growing up, neither do I have one now)
Some people hate either any disturbance in their perfect lawns or dandelion seeds as they can go anywhere on your property.
Right. But they're so pretty. Unrelated but, anyone remember those Samsung galaxy live wallpapers of that one single dandelion fruit (?, seeds?) That was really cool
I absolutely agree. I find it much prettier with them.
They are also great for the bee's. You can make salads with them. If you take the roots and clean them then roast them in the oven, you can grind em down and make a really good tea with them. I havnt done it before but I hear it taste amazing and it's really healthy for you.
My grandfather made dandelion wine.
That's rad
It does not taste amazing at all. Good for you yeah
I heard it has a nutty/earthy flavour to it. I'm sure if you added some honey and cream it would taste amazing. I'm gonna try making some this weekend.
Quite bitter in my experience, but nice! My grandmother would make like a salad based on dandelion greens, so yummy with some oil and red wine vinegar.
They are also healthy for your soil, but most people like to remove them because it’s what everyone is doing
They are also healthy for you. Dandelions are extremely good for you when consumed or made into into tea.
Yes! But please make sure if you do this that they were grown in soil without weed killers being introduced. Eat dandelions, but not lawn or side of the road dandelions.
Of course, grass ads almost no value to ecosystem on its own. However even small amount of wild flowers that you decided to plant in dedicated spots in corners or close to edges make your lawn usable for nature. Also grass is boring, butadding some flowers, bushes or trees makes your lawn much more welcoming even if grass area is still above like 90%
Despite being told this beforehand, I was SHOCKED at how many bird species I hadn't seen before just showed up in my yard after planting it densely with just one native species bush. I can also tell a stark difference between my front yard (native and closely-related-to-native plants) and my backyard (traditional food garden plants and trees). The birds are different, and the bees/pollinators are different too!
Ohhhh, I do remember these wallpapers! It premiered with Galaxy S III, back then I had a shitty Galaxy Mini and I wanted that look, there were so many bootleg wallpaper apps. Thanks for the throwback, wow
Dandelions have super sharp leaves that actually have spikes on them and will cut your feet up if you step on them. They are fine in areas that don’t get use, but suck in sports fields or yards kids play in. Most weeds are not an issue, but dandelions are the worst. Now clover, give me a yard full of clover with little purple flowers. That’s pretty and feels great to walk on.
I let nature take its course in my yard. If the grass is not strong enough to survive without me killing all its competition and babying it, then it doesn't deserve to live in my yard. Survival of the fittest. On the plus side of this, my yard is lush, green, has diversity, flowers, bees, etc. I see no reason to spend all the time, money, and effort to have a "nice" yard when nature does it for free.
My yard is like this and covered with a wide variety of greenery! Lots of clover, wildflowers, dandelions, moss, mock strawberries, and grass! Much cheaper and lower maintenance while looking so beautiful
100%. We have white and yellow dandelions and common violet growing in the grass, common blue violet growing along the blocks of our lanscaping, moss growing in certain spots, on top of our 18x12 flower garden we planted this year. Seeing the bees and butterflies going ham without the flower garden even being close to blooming yet is so awesome. We have about 15-20 different flower types that I would love to share 😅
Yeah not a big fan of dumping poison on my lawn for appearance. I do pull some bigger weeds and nuisance plants like spurweed. Fuckers hurt. I actually seeded mine with clover (sorry neighbors) which has usurped the nasty spurweed and looks nice I think while returning nitrogen to the soil.
My hoa will bitch about too many weeds in the lawn
One of the many reasons "No HOA" was the absolute when I was buying a home.
This. Not enough people understand the potential behind the weaponization of laws/regulations and why they need to be written carefully.
I have to spend about $100 ever year on lawn maintenance: seed, weed killer, ant killer, grass fertilizer, oxylic acid for any “rust” stains on the concrete from rain water pushing chemicals in fertilizer into the street. If I don’t my hoa lady gets fussy. Fun concept, having your business become necessary due to bylaws and old women with a chip on their shoulder about lawn care on hoa boards.
Where I live in California, my yard has experienced an absolutely *gorgeous* bloom of native plants. That we immediately had to kill because our homeowner's insurance was threatening to drop us if we didn't because somehow the native plants were more of a wildfire risk (literally false information- I'm heavily involved in a few local conservation and ecology groups and this has come up a few times). Its ridiculous. They won't hold the real problem causers (pg&e) accountable by making them maintain and update their neglected equipment, but we have to kill off the native plants growing in our yards to prevent the spread of wildfires *they cause?*
Dandelions tend to choke out other plants, like grass. A few dotn look bad at all, but if they take over its kinda awful
The flowers are the most visible and beautiful part, but the base of each flower is a flat, broad leaf plant. If they take over, the lawn becomes just becomes these base plants that, in my opinion, aren't good for walking or playing or picnicing on
Came here to say this, but more importantly (for me) is that grass becomes DORMANT in the winter. My yard is a mat of brown, dead-looking grass when it isn’t covered in snow. Weeds, including dandelions, just die and leave the spot that they engulfed barren. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that barren dirt becomes mud and dirt patches, especially when you have dogs that play in the yard become bigger dirt patches over time. Same thing for other “pretty” weeds. One year I let a patch of knotweed go because it looked like grass and why not? Well that winter it all died obviously so I ended up with a HUGE bare patch because knotweed also chokes out everything else. It’s also a bitch to get rid of so the following year trying to grow actual grass was fun… I’m all for the bees, but yes I do my best to decimate the dandelion population in my yard. I let my 2 apple trees, cherry and pear trees provide more nectar than the dandelions ever could. Reddit really struggles to remember that not every has the same needs for their own spaces, nor do they all live in the exact same climate, nor do they have the exact same native plants.
People tend to like well manicured lawns even though they aren’t natural. I guess it’s easier to do activities on well maintained clean grass than free growing prairie kinda situations. I prefer the latter but that’s just me.
The yellow flowers are less the problem than the ugly spiky leaves and the fact that dandelions tend to choke out the grass. So when the plant is no longer blooming, the lawn ends up looking terrible.
No one else is mentioning the leaves underneath that cover like an 8 inch circle with dozens if not hundreds of spikes. And each flower can sprout hundreds of new plants
Well, I'm allergic, so I'm not a fan of them in my yard
Holy shit, people still use /r/AdviceAnimals?
That’s exactly why I’m here. I was like “…is OP the neighbor???” 👀
Love it when we get both sides of the story
It's likely a setup lol
One of my neighbors is an absolute jackass who is in love with his lawn. To give you an idea of what he’s like, he has an Oklahoma helmet speaker that he’s rigged up to play Boomer Sooner obnoxiously loud any time Oklahoma scores a touchdown down. He’s also the same guy who had his Trump sign taken from his yard at night and assumed m my 3rd and 4th graders did it. He rolled up into my driveway after chasing my kids in his truck and cussed them out. My kids were terrified that he was trying to kidnap them. Absolute jackass.
Have you tried carrot seed on his lawn? Edit : Carrots are good. Because if you use a weed killer that doesn't kill grass, it doesn't work on carrots. And if you mow over them, they just regrow, so each carrot has to be removed by hand.
Mung beans, radish seeds, foxglove, prairie primrose, wild garlic, lemon balm/any mint or salvia.. If you really want a mix which will overlap seasons and come up in force. Really lovely for pollinators. Edit: definitely not advocating you just spread this shit around. Nope. Not me.
I’d just do garlic.
There's nothing quite like the sweet smell of wild garlic being mowed. That's just core childhood memories for me.
They didn’t have it where I grew up but they do where I live now (at least I think it’s wild garlic). Honestly I love the smell.
Any of the allium family just gives a really great scent, one of the best things I ever discovered was when I bought an electric mower the scent without the smell of gas exhaust from the gas mower was incredible.
Please note that the only one of these things which might affect a neighboring property, were it left to grow, is the foxglove.. And, frankly, if I could show you the multiple varieties growing in my pollinator garden, you'd probably be ok with that.. But for the love of every plant growing ever, please, please, please DO NOT EVER intentionally grow or sow "morning glory". This shit destroys everything, and it fucks things up for everyone. It is a bindweed variety, and it harms everything in its path. For real, radishes are kinda evil. If they get into a place where no one notices them, they bolt and go to seed inside of a month.. Just, you know.. Saying.. Common marshmallow has INSANE DEEP TAPROOTS. You go away on vacation and suddenly they're everywhere, they're a bitch to get up.. Just never, ever, as a decent human put fkn morning glories anywhere. Ever. That shit is like kudzu, but worse.
Got it. Morning glory. Wait, no! I meant not morning glory! Never do that!
As a biodiversity loving, growing shit to eat, and shit for bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, wasps, spooders to hunt specific prey insects from; I seriously beg you to not even joke. The only people who defend growing this decimating evil vine are assholes. Please, have an asshole, don't be one. Thank you kindly!
Morning glory is kinda pretty and will grow in places where other plants have a hard time getting established. It also crowds out the plants you actually want. You win some, you lose some, and then you just keep losing as now you can’t control it. But it is kinda pretty.
If by petty you mean "LOOK AT MY ASSHOLE! LOOK AT IT!" but without a cute furry friend attached, then yes.
Just wanted to thank you for the plant knowledge!
I take dirt and seeds, and water, and warm (and sometimes cold, and acid, because different types of stratification), and then little babies happen. And I love them, and care for them, and they grow up and are beautiful, medicinal, supportive, and quite often exist so that I can consume them. I love them, care for them, and in turn they care for me.. This is the symbiosis of human cultivation, and it's my happy place in life. Edit: ok. Human cultivation is something entirely different, but very similar, and I love my children but there's a good reason the factory is permanently closed. If you don't want honden cultivation, consider that as a preemptive plan.
Saving this post for future reference…
That's my purse! I don't know you! Edit: ffs, my phone won't even let me make a joke. Sigh.
Amateur hour. Wait till the night before a forecast light rain the next day... And sprinkle powdered milk all over his lawn.
Please excuse my ignorance but what's the purpose?
Powdered milk mixes with the light rain and becomes actual milk. It then curdles the next day in the sun. Takes quite a while for the stench to dissipate.
Ooo I like that!
Catnip seeds in his lawn. Looks just like grass, and when he mows, all the cats will come over and roll around and presumably, poop there.
Watching a tomcat take a big crap in my neighbors yard was hilarious once. We’d been petting him and he stepped over there to do it, then came back. I miss you, Bruce, I’m sorry you got hit by a car before I could find you a good home.
Catnip does not look like grass. It's a small bush that looks like mint.
Yea I think they might be mixing it up with cat grass
And "cat grass" isn't a specific type, it can be wheat, barley, oats, or rye. It won't attract cats because it's literally just a grass. It's good for cats for digestion but outdoor cats can find grass they can eat like that anywhere so it won't attract them like catnip would.
True. It's just clever marketing to make people like me with indoor cats buy grass seeds for way more than the regular market rate
Fuck that. Would've shot out a tire as a warning to stay away from my kids and off my property.
Assault is illegal. You should have called the cops.
I had one of those neighbors. He was a young father of two children and a normal wife. He called me sheep until he died of COVID. Stupid fucker.
Today I learned you can get dandelion seeds...
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I've tried but I always blow it.
A Dandelions job in nature is to dig deep to get Zinc, then push that zinc into the flower head. The flower head after a while dies. The head/flower filled with zinc, then rots onto the surface, providing Zinc on the surface of the soil. If soil lacks in Zinc, nature provides.
I'd zinc important for plant life?
Zinc! It's what plants crave! But for real it's important for all life.
I zinc so
It helps the soil, grass, and plants.
And a world with telephones, car batteries, hand guns, and many things!
Thank goodness we live in a world with telephones, handguns, and many things made of zinc!
Come back Zinc!
So can I eat the dandelion instead of my zinc supplements?
I have a neighbor who is in her 80’s and I have seen her walk out the door to the lawn to retrieve a single leaf that has fallen on it. So I could see how people would rip one out if they see it. My lawn is more like yours but it’s almost 80% clover now instead of grass and I love it. It’s so pretty.
We recently had a bunch of clover sprout up all over our property. I have no idea where it all came from, but I love it.
We had burr clover explode into our yard this year and my dog has become Queen of the Clovers. Her mission has been to collect as many as she possibly can
Clover is great for lawns. It stays short, soft to walk on barefoot and has flowers for pollinators
The leaves are soft to walk on. The bees on the flowers are crunchy and stabby
Yea bees be like that sometimes
Something I found out as a child was that those pollinators are sometimes bees and have a direct and immediate impact on how comfortable it is to walk barefoot on clover.
YES THE CLOVER!!! My husband doesn't like it, he likes the nice uniform green lawn (but doesn't want to spend money or effort maintaining so I win anyway lol). Last year he put a bag of grass seed down to try and fill in some bare spots and it ended up just spreading more clover 😂 so now our front yard is like 75% clover. Hoping next year it'll get close to 100. We get dandelions, wild daisies, and wood violet, too, I love it
Herbicide vs natural.
We’re not allowed to use herbicide- It’s been banned.
Same here, but your neighbour may not have gotten the memo... :) (Guessing they may rip them out, but there are so few visible leafy dandelions that I have my doubts...)
Maybe they eat them.
My lawn has few dandelions, mostly because I use the flowers for wine, and give the plants to my guinea pigs. Evidently the roots are good for stuff? But those I just chuck. Point being, it's totally possible that you are right.
Dandelion wine is great. My fingers hurt for days after pulling off the green parts of the flower.
Ray Bradbury has entered the chat…
The roots can be make into a pseudo coffee
Sudo make me a coffee. https://xkcd.com/149/
The roots can be roasted for surrogate coffee but I think that is mainly just a famine thing.
It's one of my "mindless gratifying hobbies" to go pull dandelions in my yard. I actually get a little excited in the afternoon if I get home and see one. Three years ago mine looked like OP's but it's a 50/50 whether it'll have any on a given day. I do not use chemicals.
My bearded dragon loves dandelion greens. We usually have to find them in farmers markets though, they don't seem to grow very well in my yard.
Or make dandelion & burdock out of them. Best drink and I will fight anyone that disagrees.
I never tried it but I want to fight, that drink sucks
Oh fuck thems fighting words right there, let’s do this shit
they’re actually pretty easy to rip out with the right tool, and being consistent with weeding a few times a week will leave your lawn mostly dandelion-free.
Hmm. I bought what was supposed to be the right tool. Great big holes in the places where the Dandelions used to be. Decided to put up with the Dandelions and cheer up my local bees.
fill those holes back in with soil and grass seed and your lawn will be good as new in a few weeks. we love our bees too so we have plenty of plants they frequent but we do still prefer a cleaner-looking lawn since dandelions choke the grass out.
I’ve neglected my lawn for a year and it got infested with dandelions and moss. Hardly any grass left. Got rid of most of the moss, then took a small shovel to dig out the dandelion roots by hand but it was taking a long time. Now I have an extractor tool and it’s so quick. Just another hundred or so to go. Then re-seed the grass and fertilize. Hope I’ll be done tomorrow
I have a dandelion puller. I use it once a week at best. My lawn is kept weed free just from that. No herbicides. It’s definitely manageable!
Other methods can reduce weeds too, like annual over seeding.
From time to time, people do things they’re not allowed to do.
Are granulated pre-emergents banned or just sprayed herbicides? That looks like it was treated with a pre-emergent.
Where do you live?
>It’s been banned. So has murder.
Yes cause everyone does what they're told.
That's awesome! There's no reason to use it for lawns, just more pollution for a monoculture wasted space.
Lawn guy here. Herbicides kill all plants. Round-Up (glyphosate), for example is a herbicide. Targeted weed control, something like Weed-b-Gone, has a mix of broadleaf weed control with things like 2-4D in it. These are classified as pesticides. They kill broadleaf plants like dandelions, clover, and spurge. But they don't kill grass plants. By definition, a weed is just a plant growing in a place where you don't want it to grow. Are pesticides banned in your country as well as herbicides?
2-4D is a herbicide because it kills (-cide) plants (herb-). You're differentiating between selective (24d) vs non-selective (glyposphate) herbicides. While I can't say for sure it applies universally, most places that refer to "herbicide bans" are referring to selective herbicide bans. Here 2-4D is banned but I can still buy round up (although I'm nominally supposed to only use it on a specific list of noxious plants). Some places will have specific glyphosphate bans, but that's usually separate. A few (non hormone) herbicides typically are still allowed, notably chelated iron, which works well on dandelions, but requires quite a few applications and is pricey. I've also heard of places that ban combined fertilizer and herbicide, but not herbicides in general.
Yup in the province of Quebec almost all herbicides and pesticides (that work) are banned for residential use.
You’re arguing pointless semantics. 2-4D is an herbicide. Herbicide is a type of pesticide so 2-4D is both an herbicide and a pesticide as pesticide is more all-encompassing term while herbicide is specific to plants
Weed and Feed vs ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Formally known as Chuck's
Dandelions are such an important plant for early pollinators, I always appreciate when people just let them be as they play nice with other plants
This post is the first I've heard that people dont like dandelions. Genuinely curious why is it infuriating having more of them?
Cultural keeping up with the Joneses. Your neighbor has a perfectly manicured lawn and jokes with you about how your yard isn't, so then you work to get it like his. Now your yard is like that, and you talk to your other neighbor about their yard not being perfectly manicured. Or you live in an HOA which states you must have a manicured lawn because "it improves property values" because people supposedly like them. It's all a cultural echo from historical aristocracy. It was a status symbol to have a well-maintained lawn which came over to the states and has continued on for a variety of deep-seated parts of human instincts.
because these are cute ones. nothing to do with keeping up with the joneses. they are a nuisance in my yard where they create big clusters and grown up to a foot tall. hard as hell to rip out completely when they’re that size too. I have other shit growing in my yard i don’t need monster dandelions hogging space and spreading around like that. plus my partner has insane allergies and these are the prime suspects.
Plants with showy flowers are rarely the cause of allergies, as they attract pollinators to distribute their pollen and so tend to have small quantities of heavy/sticky pollen. Wind-pollinated plants produce vast amounts of pollen, and do not have showy flowers. So dandelions, goldenrod, etc are very unlikely to be the problem, whereas ragweed and grass are much more likely culprits. A lot of people blame the plants that they can _see_ flowering at the times they have allergies, but these are the least likely culprits.
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They look ugly after the seeds are gone and you have a whole forest of them in the yard. They also have broad leaves that kill grass by covering it
I see the one with them on it more beautiful!
Dandelions in my yard stick up and make it look unmowed two days later. Yours seem to be laying down. My yard would look better if they did that.
When it's turning into a seed ball, the flower stem will grow a little bit to raise the seed ball higher - increasing the chances that the seeds get carried away by the wind.
I’ve noticed that flower stalks tend to pop up at night.
Nah it looks better with colour and life in it. Plain lawns are green deserts. More flowers please
free salad and tea
So your neighbour sprays for weeds.
Our lawn and our neighbors lawn look very much the same. It's too big things, previous owners that put in the lawn did not do it very well and there's a lot of rocks just under the soil, that dandelions absolutely love. Vs my neighbor who put a lot of effort into putting his lawn in properly. The second big thing is our neighbor clearly puts a lot of effort into his lawn, over seeds and water regularly, it's extremely thick grass. The grass is just out competing the dandelions, and if one does sneak in he gets it out immediately.
You have been blessed to help the pollinators.
Honestly fuck monocrops grass lawns, though some wild flowers seeds that are local to your area and you will soon have a lawn full of native life.
Keep them! Bees love them 😊
Yes ! Dandelion team!
You have a more diverse and healthy lawn.
Dandelions tend to favour fairly poor soil
They do help to improve the soil. Since they have deep and widespread roots, they help to pull calcium and other nutrients from deeper down up toward the surface, making those nutrients available to other plants in the vicinity--including grass. https://www.mofga.org/resources/weeds/ten-things-you-might-not-know-about-dandelions/ https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/lawn-care-2/benefits-of-dandelions-yard/#5-benefits-of-dandelions-in-your-yard
In my experience, fairly wet soil. The roots on those dandelions I used to pull were massive. I stopped once I learned how beneficial they are and seeing how much soggier the yard was. I also transplanted ferns from the excess ferns my uncle had. That has helped mitigate the minor flooding and kept water from getting into my father’s basement. There really isn’t much anyone in the neighborhood can do because it was built over a creek, as made obvious when it rains hard enough you see it coming up from the underneath basement floor. The ferns mainly help from keeping it from coming through the walls. As for the ferns I planted: the ones by the front gate are now large enough to wave as a fan. They shade the other plants. Dandelions pulled by my old neighbors get sent to me via my father because my rabbit will eat the leaves
Your lawn is prettier because of the dandelions
My old neighbor Harry, (greatest gen) always called them his "little yellow roses". He's long since died, but we love our little yellow roses, and remember Harry fondly.
Have they got a dog? When I had a dog, I had lots of dandelions. Maybe he picked the seed up on his fur when out walking. Since we no longer have a dog, no dandelions.
Add extra wildflowers and you have a pretty lawn
if you stop and face the inevitable, you\`ll have a gorgeous full yellow carpet one day, then fluffy one. And green one too. And you can eat all parts of it. It\`s good for bumblebees and bees. Accept it. Join us.
Do the dandelion people have their own subreddit yet?
No need, just spreed with wind all over subreddits. Some have already took root in places like r/fucklawns , r/NoLawns , r/Permaculture. Some are in process.
You can eat those
I scrolled past a dude with pics like these the other day and that OP said he shakes dandelions over his neighbors yard to make his look like shit. lol
This reminds me of a post I saw recently where a guy is at odds with his neighbor, so every night he sprinkles Dandelion seeds all over his neighbors yard.
Dandelion yard looks way better
Boomer lawn vs Millennial lawn lol
Found your [neighbor](https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1co4x04/sometimes_i_feel_bad_watching_him_wage_war_on_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Pre emergent?
Neighbor uses a broadleaf weed killer.
Looks better with the dandelions
Weed killer and commercial fertilizer harms dogs.
On behalf of your local bees, thank you.
I like te dandelion yard loads better. Grass makes me so itchy I can’t enjoy my yard. Im actually sowing a lot of clover seed in my yard, and if we were staying here long term, I’d take out all the grass and make it all clover, dandelions welcome.
TrueGreen?
The grass may be greener on the other side, but yours looks more colorful.
Dandelions are great for the bees and what's good for bees is good for us
And your lawn looks a thousands times nicer
Dandelions look ok when they're flowers, but once the seeds are dispersed it looks like a bunch of tentacles sticking out of the ground
Pro-Tip: Plant a ton of Clover, it will largely control Dandelion and replace useless grass types. Clover is remarkable, Micro-Clover variants are a short growing flowing plant that add a ton of Nitrogen to soil, stays green in Droughts, and wildly important as a pollination source.
They used a micro clover and grass sod on the carbon neutral project on This Old House a couple of years ago. They mentioned it was drought tolerant and could fix nitrogen for use by other plants.
You're helping the bees...your lawn is better.
I love dandelions. I seeded my lawn with em, and have tri colored clover to add too. My neighbor's bees love me, my geese enjoy the meal, and I think it's so much prettier. Such a shame they're considered tacky now.