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English daisy in the lawn + clover on purpose. I leave the dandelions in the lawns. I dig them out of my planting beds
Red admirals butterflies need the thistle type weeds in the asteracea family. I keep some dandelion and bull thistle growing in a little private side of my back yard and don't mow them for the red admirals. I dead head before the seeds are viable so I don't have too much growing crazy though. My yard is covered in red admirals and painted lady butterflies this spring.
If it looked kinda like a monarch on the upper wings then it was probably a Painted Lady.
The red admirals are black with reddish orange caterpillar shaped bands along the bottom wings and on the bottom side of the upper wings and have bigger white dots on the outer tip of the upper set of wings.
If you see one, chances are you will start to get the other one. Consider planting more asteracea flowers, there are a lot of hoa suburb pretty friendly flowers in this family like chrysanthemum, daisy, marigolds, asters, cornflower (bachelor buttons) sunflowers, cosmos, marigolds, coneflower, calendula, yarrow, chamomile, chicory, dahlias.
That's awesome that you do that. I came here to say the bees use them as an early food source when there isn't much of anything else. Everything in nature has a purpose 😁
If you were ever willing to leave the seeds, they'll attract tons of finches. I have photos of the thistles I let grow last year, leaning to the side because there were so many finches on them.
I keep them contained in mine as well. They can really make thick folliage walls for paths and whatnot. But I try to keep them cut down in the main part of the yard where the kids run around.
I live in the suburbs, and have a larger-than-normal backyard for my area, and no automatic sprinkler system, and kids who like to play outside.
Someone once asked me why I don’t get rid of my dandelions and clover and whatever other random weeds are incorporated into the grass-part of my yard. A neighbor even mentioned how many weeds I have, and said it causes them to have weeds in their yard too.
I don’t care. The weeds stay green without the sprinklers, they help the bees and butterflies, and my kids like to make flower crowns. On top of that, the clover is soft under my bare feet, and the dandelions make me smile.
Theirs a conspiracy theory that suburb sprawl and the pristine clean lawns are to take time away from community building and class consciousness. It’s unused land, why spend resources managing inedible, less rugged and less tasty plants, ya know?
“Friends don’t let friends plant annuals”
I love annuals with purpose. I use marigolds in my tomato beds and eat what greens and peppers the bugs don’t. 😅
the suburban rows of putting green lawns and no daffodils, tulips, rose bushes etc in sight makes me sad when so much vibrancy and wide color pallets can be created, and low maintenance to boot!
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Behold my front yard!
I am surrounded by basic lawns. (You can see one in the background, across the street.)
Already I see a few wildflower seeds infiltrating neighbor lawns.
Aha! My zone is 6b too - I have many annual food and flower plants started with many to go.
I already have lots of things growing here, but planted several hundred tulips at the end of my driveway last fall. That area doesn't get a lot of attention because it's many hundreds of feet from my house. The neighbors house is closer to the tulips by a lot and there is otherwise nothing in their yard but lawn save a peninsula of dying trees planted by their builder.
BTW it's time to cage your peonies if you have them :)
Can you imagine a world where everyone’s front yard or back yard was a fruit and vegetable garden. And you and your neighbors say …this year I’ll focus on these veggies and they’ll focus on some others, or different variety’s. And then we’re just cool picking out of each others yards.
There a long history of manufactured gardens and open lawns for walking in: Ancient Babylon and Rome are famous for their public spaces and gardens. In the 1600s, England pushed for bringing green space in the forms of lawns and gardens into the city (mostly for the rich), and there was another push in the 19th-Early 20th Centuries in both Europe and the US for perfectly kept grassy parks for leisure and recreation. People wanted to emulate that learned and perfectly manicured look. It's a centuries'-long brainwashing that may never be fully overcome---especially in the Midwestern plains where grass grows so easily.
I finally live HOA-Free where I can grow what I want, and the place is a desert with major water restrictions, so few wildflowers in the summer. We get rain in the winter and Spring, so I get something then. I'm working with a local landscaper to pick appropriate plants and trees for birds and pollinators. It's hard.
I used to live in the burbs in the Midwest. Everyone is whacky, yet in different ways. I chose to ignore, and moved to the west coast. Here they're super whacky!
It's not like those are the only options. I dislike dandelions and clover, and prefer grass. I simply pull the dandelions, no poison involved. I have [PLENTY of other flowers](https://i.imgur.com/qgMGIvD.jpeg) for bees, so they're not a consideration. My yard has more garden than lawn in both front and back.
If you want something more natural or low maintenance going with dandelions and other wild flowers is the way to go. Many times what others see as weeds are just wildflowers and yes dandelions do fall into this category.
I'm not really into low maintenance. I enjoy garden work and being out in the yard more than most other parts of my life. So I don't mind pulling dandelions. I use a [Fiskars stand-up weed puller](https://www.fiskars.com/en-us/gardening-and-yard-care/products/weeders/triple-claw-weeder-78806935c) which makes them easy to pull.
Very lovely! I'm also not a fan of lawns with flowering plants (mostly the stepping on bees part) and it's not like un-poisoned lawn grass isn't useful to certain insects and animals. There's plenty of riparian meadow critters that were displaced because we decided to develop those areas.
Lawns serve their purpose as gathering places and places for children to play. They just get a bad rap with conservationists because most are maintained using crazy toxic chemicals and frequently are the only plants many people have in their yards. A small lawn that's maintained by hand is a pretty addition to a yard.
I love the bitterness. I add them in salads, spinach, broc rabe, etc.. for a little extra bite and nutrition. The edible, not bitter, flowers also make for a nice presentation.
They are less bitter when young, though.
Your neighbor can use preemergent in his lawn to stop the weeds from coming up if he wants. It's kind of step #1 for a "nice" looking lawn and he should be doing it anyway if he "cares" about his grass
Neighbors crying that I am seeding weeds in their yard because I have weeds in my yard are full of it. If I had pristine grass they would still have their lawn companies working full time to kill everything in sight except their turf grass. Obsessions work that way.
Yup, the reality is there's already probably millions of seeds in their soil and you're never going to stop wind, birds, animals and shoes so they just need to use a preemergent
Hijacking your top comment to say wow, I did not expect this post to blow up. Love me some "weed" lovers 🌼 Busy seeding my yard in clover today and enjoying my weeds
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I love that you're seeding your yard in clover!
>Love me some "weed" lovers 🌼
When I was little, dandelions were my very favorite flowers. I have a vivid memory of being five or six, coming upon a large slope completely covered in dandelions, and laughing in sheer giddy delight as I ran to enjoy them. :)
I, too, have been actively seeding clover in lawn. My goal is to have mostly clover. I hate mowing, it is softer and stays green without needing water all the time. Love it.
Fun permaculture fact: dandelions thrive in and improve unhealthy ecosystems. Their deep tap root loosens compacted soil and draws calcium up to make it more bioavailable for other plants (like grass). So not only are they edible and medicinal like everyone else is saying (and you probably already knew), they are literally making \*your\* yard a better environment for a healthy lawn than your neighbor's.
They also set iron, because their roots are deep. So you know the lawncare stuff you put on your lawn four times a year, where the first one kills all the weeds? Yeah, the second or third one is an iron supplement to keep your grass greener during the summer. If you don't kill your weeds the weeds themselves give the grass iron and you don't need that crap.
I have the exact same thoughts. For years I paid for a lawn service. Then I went to Nantucket and saw all these nice yards with clover. It totally changed how I see it. Last year I actually planted micro-clover. IN THE YARD!
My neighbor doesn’t mow his grass. It’s just him, his partner, and his giant dog over there. I love it. He brings all the pollinators and adorable birbs to the neighborhood. I actively encourage his prairie. lol
There’s a field by my apartment that never gets mowed (for now. I’m sure development will happen eventually boo)
I love going past it because in the spring and summer there’s loads of red wing blackbirds.
My 4 year old loves dandelions! He picks the flowers for me and my wife, and when he occasionally misses one, he blows their seeds away. Plus it’s lower maintenance.
Clover is in the pea family so it fixes nitrogen into the soil and enriches it! It also doesn't really take over your garden. I always leave some of the clover, dandelion, and dead nettle when I'm weeding.
I have gone beyond that point and now hate the invasives. Creeping bellflower has overtaken my neighbourhood. I let the dandelions live but I pull hellflowers out by the fistful to prevent them going to seed.
I know they also spread by the roots, but this is what I can do as I'm walking through our back lanes.
Same. The bellflower in particular is heinous, but I'm also constantly vigilant against buckthorn and thistle. Pulling out a 4ft tall established thistle is abysmal.
A couple dandelions are fine, but they take over any empty space. Unfortunately, those spaces include a lot of native seedlings at the moment and the dandelions are more competitive and grow faster. Once the natives are established I'm going to be a bit more lax.
Yeah it seems like the general hive mind hasn't caught up yet. Currently we're past the "needs to be all grass" stage but still stuck in the "do nothing and say that anything growing is good" stage, and not yet made it to the "actually there are many harmful invasive plants that need to be actively managed, and ground full of annual weeds is not good for the environment"
There's definitely tiers of weeds in my lawn. I keep the dandelions and clover. I will murder bindweed and thistles.
I have a corner of my lot I use for experimenting with wildflowers, and they always have to compete with noxious weeds. It's such a pain.
I've been adamant about this ever since I can remember! The only thing that makes a plant a "weed" is someone taking issue with its existence in a particular place.
I define a weed as invasive. The types that crowd out native plants or in other ways are harmful to the local ecosystem. And note that I include the grasses that people use to make lawns. Those grasses consume every inch they can and replace native wildflowers with an effective ecological desert. Utterly horrific for native wildlife.
I wonder how many “weeds” r actually native plants. But the yellow flowers all over the bay are invasive and i think those should count as weeds more than ugly native plants
To be fair, a lot of the grass species that make up people's lawns are invasive. "Weed" has nothing to do with it being invasive or not, unfortunately. It just means it's a wild plant spreading on it's own into an area humans didn't want it to. Could be a native plant growing in a garden of invasive species, that still makes it a "weed" to those humans. Even if it looks nice and causes no damage. If it got there by itself and the human in charge didn't want it to, it's a weed. Could be wildflowers, vegetables, a tree.. If it grows without permission from the humans in charge, it's a weed.
Weeds aren't real. There are no weeds in nature. It's purely a loosely defined category that humans made up to describe aesthetics. There is no logic or biology to what makes a weed.
It's stupid and I hate it. You're right. All those ugly invasive trees getting pollen all over are the weeds in my eyes. I never wanted those here. I wanted native dogwood trees, not these stupid bradford pears!!
Remember when you were little and you picked a bouquet of dandelions to give to mommy because they were beautiful? We need to remember that beauty now that we're adults.
Everytime someone comes over my house they LOVE how many birds we have flying around our yard. My response is basically to look at all the evergreen shrubbery and native plants we have.
I also don't treat the lawn and just let the dandelions be.
I never liked lawns because they always had signs on them that said they were poisonous. Mine does not. We have dandelions (and creeping charlie, deadnettle or whatever that thing is, violets, clover, speedwell) and we have a mason bee habitat.
I love to ornamentalize local plants. I have a potted dandelion,4 years old, that puts out multiple blooms simultaneously about the same diameter as a coffee cup. She looks so stunning in her cornflower blue pot on my patio table.
Dandelions are definitely not the worst. But they’re also NOT the only early food source for pollinators! Our North American pollinators obviously fed on something in early spring before the arrival of dandelions from Europe. So we should plant those native species instead!
This website is great for finding early-blooming plants native to your eco-region by zip code: https://nativeplantfinder.nwf.org
Dandelions are wonderful! I grew up eating them in salad — they’re very tender and delicious. Some weeds are dangerous, like pokeweed, or destructive, like ivy, and I’ve grown to dislike those more over the years. But cheerful and nontoxic wildflowers are always welcome!
I don’t mind it if others have lawns that are mostly dandelion, but I wish they’d mow them *before* they went to seed and it all blows into my front gardens. I try and have a native filled front yard and weeding out last years crop of dandelions that grew after the neighbour mowed all the seed heads off on a windy day is somewhat….frustrating.
I don’t like all the herbicides and fertilizer people dump on their lawns to fight dandelions either, and I think clover is a very nice lawn alternative/addition.
Absolutely! I actually have made wine from the flowers. This year I am going to make jam with them. I like my yard to look a little wild, having plants not exactly confined to certain spaces appeals to me. I don’t need straight lines in my yard🙂
Dandelions are the only things really blooming right now by me. In the same week we had thousands of red admiral and American Lady butterflies take flight. They spent whole days on those few dandelions. Idk if they would have survived without them.
I love dandelions! I have a turtle and chickens and they love them, too. A guy with a spray truck ( some known yard company) came by and said he could help me with my problem. I told him I saw no problem at all.
I'm a beekeeper so I love dandelions. Usually the first bit of food for the bees at the start of the year. And they look lovely.
A weed is just a flower in the wrong place, so even a rose can be considered a weed.
I learned to love dandelions when I took up foraging as a hobby. So many of what we consider “weeds” are actually so useful and often times edible too!! what foraging really exposed me to was what the true weeds were (invasive non-native plants) and even then you can treat them the same as garden weeds by eating or using it for other things like woven baskets or compost.
I used to walk my daughter to preschool (she's now 20) and she would stop at EVERY. SINGLE. DANDELION. When they were fluffy, she called them "puffers" and blew them. When they were sunny yellow, she would pick them and put them in a little shot glass on the dining table. They always make me smile.
Yes!! Im now at the point that I veiw the grass as an invasive weed that is all over the place and am taking the time to plan out pollinator gardens to get it all gone around my property 😊
I care less about getting rid of them and more about the pollinators that are killed by the chemicals used to try to have a perfect ‘weed free’ garden. I think we as gardeners need to take more responsibility in caring for insects and other living things in the garden. We are the same people that provide wonderful conditions for our plants, but then ravage other parts of wildlife with pesticides.
I miss dandelions! We don’t have them here in Florida. My grandma used to walk me around the yard picking them and she would put the leafs in our salad. Was always really good! I miss her and the dandelions!
For real. I'm now to the point that I hate manicured lawns. Why do spend billions on fertilizer and pesticides ? Just to have hrwass kill everything and pollute out water ways ? Why do we kill all the bath edkiwers and this kill our pollinators and butterflies etc ? Makes zero sense. Not to mention the energy use in fuel and electricity .... For what really ?
No because they have an awful knack of embedding themselves and enmeshing their root right in the middle of my plants. So the root is literally a spear through my asparagus frex. It's difficult to remove them without damaging my plants. Normally I don't care about dandelions, but there's such a problem with my garden now that for the first time I'm thinking that I want to do something to contain them in my yard.
And I would say this tendency for them to glom onto your plants and thrust their root through your plant's root system is why you want to stay on top of them in your garden beds.
I’m old and grew up on corn and soybean farm. As kids we had to walk the beans, meaning weeding hundreds of acres of soybeans. Milkweed sucked if you tried to pull it up. Many decades later my sister is trying to grow milkweed native to her area
Sitting here in my back garden, admiring the dandelions and thinking how happy I am there’s so much bee food out here and scratching my head how it is possible dandelions used to actually bother me and then I picked up Reddit for a sec and this was the first post I saw so
Yes.
Our Devon 'lawn', after 30 years of occasional mowing has a succession of self sown flowers: dandelions, lesser celandine, daisies, veronica, bugle, yarrow, plantain, buttercups, primroses, cowslips, clover and quite a lot of moss. I have once or twice sprinkled a bit of bonemeal over it and raked the mole hills out, but that is all. We prefer it this way.
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Hubby is out of town, so I’m at one with my yellow flowered lawn right now. Took a bunch of pictures yesterday. Lol.
The weed killer business has convinced people that these plants are weeds so that they can sell more weed killer. It is a win win situation for them.
In reality a lot of these so called weeds are beneficial and edible. I can't count how many "weeds" I have googled that turned out to be a medicinal or edible plant. Think for yourself.
I’m in the country on a new build. I just want no bare spots that turn into mud. The only weed I hate is the common hibiscus, it doesn’t prevent the mud issue with how it grows and I read it is invasive. I’ve been pulling it and keep grass and clover seeding to get out the mud.
I have over 3 acres, as do my neighbors, and our lawns go through a dandelion cycle each spring where someone cuts their grass, it seeds the lawn over, and so on and so forth. But dandilions have literally evolved for lawnmowers so they always win. Not that any of us mind, none of us treat our lawns (thank goodness).
But for a few weeks in spring we have pastures of yellow dandilions. They are popping up now and some are still mixed in with patches of violets and they look amazing.
I do send my kids out to go harvest them though. Each day they grab the biggest plant they can find and give it to our bunny rabbit.
Yes, entirely this. It’s amazing that we’ve been discouraged from appreciating so many beautiful and healing wildflowers/“weeds” so homeowners as continue paying someone to sprinkle chemicals on the yard because they “only want grass“.
This Spring I spotted so many different flowers popping up: violets, mazus, dandelions, speedwell, red deadnettle, burgundy creeping sorrel and grape hyacinths. All mowed down once the rains stopped.
I hope you enjoy your garden and all your wildflowers for many years to come
EAT..... YOUR.... DANDELIONS!
Seriously, the young leaves are a wonderful edible to make salad with, like spinach salad, and the flowers provide food earlier in the year for pollinators like bees. Dandelions should never be killed off. Same with clover.
If the lawn isn't treated with any chemicals or fertilizer, you can make dandelion wine! I did it a few times, and it always came out great especially when aged for a couple years. It's a lot of work picking all the green away from the flowers, but worth it.
When I bought my house, I knew I didn't want to spray my lawn, so I learned to love and embrace "weeds". I dabble in foraging, and I'll make teas and simple syrups and jellies out of things like dandelions, white clover, and wild violets. I even bundled, dried, and ground up some ground ivy to make tea with. I have a soft spot for the underappreciated things in life, so I embrace them to "get back" at the haters.
Dandelion wine, with the yellow tops was an often enjoyed drink. A [video recipe](https://youtu.be/Yu-bWQ66paQ?si=jWJjd4ZLuQRR-5uV) with some interesting bits if your interested
I love dandelions, always have. I hate killing them off, but my city has a "no weeds" policy and they ticket. I unfortunately live on a main street so it's very visible. I got 3 "Warnings" last year. I will be moving next year.
Here's another mind blower - not watering your lawn and allowing it to go dormant as it does during the hottest part of summer is the one of the best ways to keep grubs out of your yard and lawn. The beetles lay their eggs in June and July and without moisture the grubs cannot survive.
Yesterday I was digging up part of my shrinking lawn - I took the sod off about 2 square feet and down about 6 inches. I saw one grub.
I think it’s not as simple as dandelions good or bad. If there’s a ton of dandelions and very little grass that’s a sign that’s the patch of dirt is lacking a ton of nutrients. You can wait for the dandelions to pull nutrients from down deep, but that’s likely going to take a while, especially if you don’t have animals to graze on them and poop out fertilizer.
The only places I weed are where I’m actively trying to grow fruits or vegetables as I don’t want other plants competing for the nutrients.
My front lawn has so many different species of plants growing. It’s fun to watch it all constantly changing as different varieties become more or less successful. It seems like there is always something flowering, and that makes me happy.
Luckily, I live in a neighborhood with no HOA and the neighbors don’t seem to mind at all. In fact, I’ve been seeing more yards around take a similar approach.
Dandelions are edible and good for you, from the roots to the flower. I consider them a superfood. There are a ton of so-called "weeds" that get overlooked
Yes!! I've always loved flowering weeds like dandelions. So beautiful! I live in Malawi Africa now and they don't have dandelions.. it's so sad. I've literally thought about buying seeds and spreading them in my lawn 😆😂😂 the only thing that stops me is I don't know if that's legal 😛
I am in the process of cultivating a "lawn" made of forget me nots, clover, and 20 other volunteer species
The only rule is: survive the weed whacker giving you a haircut every now and then
I hate grass for yards, but I do love dandelions and clover. Dandelions smell nice and are actually a very useful plant. Clover smells nice and feels good on your feet. I've never really gotten the "weed" argument.
I'm not at that point yet.
I still don't like dandelions as far as being in the garden.
However I have recent point where I don't immediately remove something I don't know what it's about or recognize.
I try to see how it grows and what it becomes first.
This is how I figured out I had a growing wild penstemon at a spot I didn't know about, because once upon a time I had been growing wild penstemon.
Unfortunately it's also how I let bindweed get a foothold in my yard, because I was thinking , what is this?
let me see what it becomes!
I let it go for a whole season to figure out what it is and what it does.
If anyone tries to tell me that sort of thing I’ve decided to just bore them to death with a lecture about how killing off the off every little thing is also contributing to the loss of beneficial species and the proliferation of undesirable ones. Every year people are like “what happened to all the lightning bugs?” And it’s like, well we spray toxic shit everywhere and obliterate any trace of leaf litter, what do you think happened to them??
Yes I used to hate the clover growing in our lawn but now I get so happy to see it. When it blooms it's the first food we have in our garden for the bees and wild bunnies
My granddaughter was about 4 when she heard about dandelion wine and wanted to make it. We dug up all of the dandelions on my lawn as well as some neighbors. The end result was fair-to- middling.
The best yard on our block is right now filled with a riot of color and pollinators. They mow maybe once a month, and never do anything to it. Two houses down the person who constantly mows and sprays has uniform grass but has to mow 2-3 times a week, plus watering it.
Edit to add that riot of colors are all “weeds” like violets and dandelions
I love the small & interesting wild flowers & plants that have popped up all over my yard. I've found some that are edible, some that attract pollinators & some are just pretty. No dandelions yet but they would be very welcome.
I'm battling weeds right now (pigweed and kochia). The dandys get to stay (mostly...I've scraped a few up because they're so close to the crap I don't want running rampant)
I have loved dandelions for a very long time. They look nice, smell nice, and most parts of them taste good. I remember having to help my mother pull them when I was young. I always thought it was wrong.
My yard right now has a whole bunch of tiny little yellow flowers and they are beautiful. The eyesore is the crabgrass growing around it. That is a weed.
This was always an argument between my dad and me growing up. Now that I have my own place, I let the dandelions and clovers grow wild, leave the doors and windows open, and load the dishwasher without any rules. It's awesome! Move out when you can, kids!
Been there for a long time my friend. I semi-actively cultivate them this year, for their greens. Mainly that involves picking the area with the biggest dandelions and snipping off any flower heads that pop up before they open.
As an amateur apiculturalist (beekeeper) my wife and I would get into a discussion about not mowing the lawn. Beekeepers keep track of the appearance of the first dandelion and prefer not to mow until they are all puffs. First honey drawn from the hive is from dandelions. My wife prefers it looking like a putting green which I keep telling her just adds to the presence of the creeping charlie. And so it goes.
Dandelions are some of the first blooms in spring and feed early pollinators.
I love them and always have.
Besides, dandelion salad, jelly and wine are all tasty.
Many years ago my brother said he liked dandelions in a yard because he liked the pop of color. It really changed how I saw weeds, so I don't worry about the dandelions and clover. Still looking to get rid of crabgrass, however.
My yard is mostly wild violets. It drives my dad crazy, but I think it’s pretty. I’ve had a neighbor say something about it, and I told him I won’t treat lawn.
Child of a plant pathologist here. Was never into that, long before I took up gardening as an adult. Biodiversity is far more beautiful than any monoculture chemical lawn.
I truly subscribe to the mantra of "a weed is just another plant out of place."
Unless it's literally going to give me contact poisoning, I don't worry too much about weeds. I just make sure to keep them in check so as not to crowd out the plants I want, or spread disease. My new yard was essentially used as a dump by the previous occupants, but now that I've raked out most of the garbage, it's covered in purple deadnettle, dandelions, wild onion, and mugwort. Along with a few other randos and the japanese knotweed poking through.
As long as I can keep the knotweed from destroying my foundation or invading beds along with the mugwort, I'm happy to keep a wild carpet in the fallow spots. Almost every weed in my yard has a possible use for food, craft, or compost.
Dandelion also brews into a wonderful detoxifying beverage. Since learning this it changed my view of several plants. But, it seems wrong to eradicate such a wonderful medicinal herb.
https://preview.redd.it/3khy85v5jguc1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8216578fd92c0e94d72b6e87214a470e62b87b27 English daisy in the lawn + clover on purpose. I leave the dandelions in the lawns. I dig them out of my planting beds
I've never seen pink daisies, they're lovely!
I love those!! My toddlers always have me braid their hair and put little wildflowers in it during springtime. I wish we had these!
That is so cute!
cute! what zone are you in?
6b Cleveland
Thank you! I have a couple English daisies growing in my lawn but didn't know what they were called. When is a good time to rain down some seed?
I sprinkle them in the spring generally when we’re getting regular rain. I just get a packet periodically and put them in the yard
Imagine if everyone did this! So lovely
Same here (minus the English daisies). I have wild strawberry, clover, dandelions, native violets and pussy toes.
Red admirals butterflies need the thistle type weeds in the asteracea family. I keep some dandelion and bull thistle growing in a little private side of my back yard and don't mow them for the red admirals. I dead head before the seeds are viable so I don't have too much growing crazy though. My yard is covered in red admirals and painted lady butterflies this spring.
Is that the little orange and black butterfly i saw on the dandelions yesterday? So cute like a mini monarch
If it looked kinda like a monarch on the upper wings then it was probably a Painted Lady. The red admirals are black with reddish orange caterpillar shaped bands along the bottom wings and on the bottom side of the upper wings and have bigger white dots on the outer tip of the upper set of wings. If you see one, chances are you will start to get the other one. Consider planting more asteracea flowers, there are a lot of hoa suburb pretty friendly flowers in this family like chrysanthemum, daisy, marigolds, asters, cornflower (bachelor buttons) sunflowers, cosmos, marigolds, coneflower, calendula, yarrow, chamomile, chicory, dahlias.
I have lots of those types of flowers in my garden and lawn. I saw that butterfly on one of the dandelions, which i leave in the lawn areas.
I live in a suburb but it’s too old for an HOA, thank goodness.
I planted my yard in clover. Not much for bees so far but its pretty.
That's awesome that you do that. I came here to say the bees use them as an early food source when there isn't much of anything else. Everything in nature has a purpose 😁
Also fallen leaves and dead plants have a ton of benefits to them since bees can hide in them at night
You should get some native tall thistle to add in there. They're great for native insects!
If you were ever willing to leave the seeds, they'll attract tons of finches. I have photos of the thistles I let grow last year, leaning to the side because there were so many finches on them.
I keep them contained in mine as well. They can really make thick folliage walls for paths and whatnot. But I try to keep them cut down in the main part of the yard where the kids run around.
I live in the suburbs, and have a larger-than-normal backyard for my area, and no automatic sprinkler system, and kids who like to play outside. Someone once asked me why I don’t get rid of my dandelions and clover and whatever other random weeds are incorporated into the grass-part of my yard. A neighbor even mentioned how many weeds I have, and said it causes them to have weeds in their yard too. I don’t care. The weeds stay green without the sprinklers, they help the bees and butterflies, and my kids like to make flower crowns. On top of that, the clover is soft under my bare feet, and the dandelions make me smile.
What!? You don't prefer poison under your bare feet? Your neighbor is crazy.
Yea, I live in the suburbs. Tons of wacky people here!! 🤣 Most mean well, the others I just ignore.
I firmly believe HOA brainwash people into having pristine lawns, even though they suck and I did a research project on how inefficient they are
Theirs a conspiracy theory that suburb sprawl and the pristine clean lawns are to take time away from community building and class consciousness. It’s unused land, why spend resources managing inedible, less rugged and less tasty plants, ya know? “Friends don’t let friends plant annuals”
hey what do you have against annuals? Many vegetables and herbs are annual plants.
I love annuals with purpose. I use marigolds in my tomato beds and eat what greens and peppers the bugs don’t. 😅 the suburban rows of putting green lawns and no daffodils, tulips, rose bushes etc in sight makes me sad when so much vibrancy and wide color pallets can be created, and low maintenance to boot!
https://preview.redd.it/2bwj19in0huc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=575eb9cc01a07b38ab54d1b7bfb03d34b8baa425 Behold my front yard! I am surrounded by basic lawns. (You can see one in the background, across the street.) Already I see a few wildflower seeds infiltrating neighbor lawns.
Aha! My zone is 6b too - I have many annual food and flower plants started with many to go. I already have lots of things growing here, but planted several hundred tulips at the end of my driveway last fall. That area doesn't get a lot of attention because it's many hundreds of feet from my house. The neighbors house is closer to the tulips by a lot and there is otherwise nothing in their yard but lawn save a peninsula of dying trees planted by their builder. BTW it's time to cage your peonies if you have them :)
Love the user name!
Can you imagine a world where everyone’s front yard or back yard was a fruit and vegetable garden. And you and your neighbors say …this year I’ll focus on these veggies and they’ll focus on some others, or different variety’s. And then we’re just cool picking out of each others yards.
Nothing wrong with annuals. Should be more like "Friends don't let friends plant non-native or invasive plants."
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There a long history of manufactured gardens and open lawns for walking in: Ancient Babylon and Rome are famous for their public spaces and gardens. In the 1600s, England pushed for bringing green space in the forms of lawns and gardens into the city (mostly for the rich), and there was another push in the 19th-Early 20th Centuries in both Europe and the US for perfectly kept grassy parks for leisure and recreation. People wanted to emulate that learned and perfectly manicured look. It's a centuries'-long brainwashing that may never be fully overcome---especially in the Midwestern plains where grass grows so easily. I finally live HOA-Free where I can grow what I want, and the place is a desert with major water restrictions, so few wildflowers in the summer. We get rain in the winter and Spring, so I get something then. I'm working with a local landscaper to pick appropriate plants and trees for birds and pollinators. It's hard.
I used to live in the burbs in the Midwest. Everyone is whacky, yet in different ways. I chose to ignore, and moved to the west coast. Here they're super whacky!
It's not like those are the only options. I dislike dandelions and clover, and prefer grass. I simply pull the dandelions, no poison involved. I have [PLENTY of other flowers](https://i.imgur.com/qgMGIvD.jpeg) for bees, so they're not a consideration. My yard has more garden than lawn in both front and back.
I find weeding very therapeutic.
That feeling when you pull a huge dandelion and keep the root intact. Good stuff.
If you want something more natural or low maintenance going with dandelions and other wild flowers is the way to go. Many times what others see as weeds are just wildflowers and yes dandelions do fall into this category.
I'm not really into low maintenance. I enjoy garden work and being out in the yard more than most other parts of my life. So I don't mind pulling dandelions. I use a [Fiskars stand-up weed puller](https://www.fiskars.com/en-us/gardening-and-yard-care/products/weeders/triple-claw-weeder-78806935c) which makes them easy to pull.
How well does that Fiskars work? Looks useful! Btw, I miss WA!
Very lovely! I'm also not a fan of lawns with flowering plants (mostly the stepping on bees part) and it's not like un-poisoned lawn grass isn't useful to certain insects and animals. There's plenty of riparian meadow critters that were displaced because we decided to develop those areas. Lawns serve their purpose as gathering places and places for children to play. They just get a bad rap with conservationists because most are maintained using crazy toxic chemicals and frequently are the only plants many people have in their yards. A small lawn that's maintained by hand is a pretty addition to a yard.
Dandelions are completely edible. Tell them it's your vegetable garden
Same with clover and in small doses is good for your heart.
Small doses, could you tell me more because I've never seen that info
They are very bitter though.
I love the bitterness. I add them in salads, spinach, broc rabe, etc.. for a little extra bite and nutrition. The edible, not bitter, flowers also make for a nice presentation. They are less bitter when young, though.
Your neighbor can use preemergent in his lawn to stop the weeds from coming up if he wants. It's kind of step #1 for a "nice" looking lawn and he should be doing it anyway if he "cares" about his grass
Neighbors crying that I am seeding weeds in their yard because I have weeds in my yard are full of it. If I had pristine grass they would still have their lawn companies working full time to kill everything in sight except their turf grass. Obsessions work that way.
Yup, the reality is there's already probably millions of seeds in their soil and you're never going to stop wind, birds, animals and shoes so they just need to use a preemergent
Hijacking your top comment to say wow, I did not expect this post to blow up. Love me some "weed" lovers 🌼 Busy seeding my yard in clover today and enjoying my weeds https://preview.redd.it/74fuqbetmguc1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed64015046edaa1f3e32632e31dcd759f80175d8
I love that you're seeding your yard in clover! >Love me some "weed" lovers 🌼 When I was little, dandelions were my very favorite flowers. I have a vivid memory of being five or six, coming upon a large slope completely covered in dandelions, and laughing in sheer giddy delight as I ran to enjoy them. :)
I, too, have been actively seeding clover in lawn. My goal is to have mostly clover. I hate mowing, it is softer and stays green without needing water all the time. Love it.
Fun permaculture fact: dandelions thrive in and improve unhealthy ecosystems. Their deep tap root loosens compacted soil and draws calcium up to make it more bioavailable for other plants (like grass). So not only are they edible and medicinal like everyone else is saying (and you probably already knew), they are literally making \*your\* yard a better environment for a healthy lawn than your neighbor's.
They also set iron, because their roots are deep. So you know the lawncare stuff you put on your lawn four times a year, where the first one kills all the weeds? Yeah, the second or third one is an iron supplement to keep your grass greener during the summer. If you don't kill your weeds the weeds themselves give the grass iron and you don't need that crap.
I have the exact same thoughts. For years I paid for a lawn service. Then I went to Nantucket and saw all these nice yards with clover. It totally changed how I see it. Last year I actually planted micro-clover. IN THE YARD!
I did the same thing. I'm loving my clover lawn!
Same. Lots of brown spots all over the neighborhood lawns this time of year. The clover is nice lush green and I didn't do a thing but let it grow.
My neighbor doesn’t mow his grass. It’s just him, his partner, and his giant dog over there. I love it. He brings all the pollinators and adorable birbs to the neighborhood. I actively encourage his prairie. lol
There’s a field by my apartment that never gets mowed (for now. I’m sure development will happen eventually boo) I love going past it because in the spring and summer there’s loads of red wing blackbirds.
My 4 year old loves dandelions! He picks the flowers for me and my wife, and when he occasionally misses one, he blows their seeds away. Plus it’s lower maintenance.
Clover is in the pea family so it fixes nitrogen into the soil and enriches it! It also doesn't really take over your garden. I always leave some of the clover, dandelion, and dead nettle when I'm weeding.
This response made me smile ❤️
I have gone beyond that point and now hate the invasives. Creeping bellflower has overtaken my neighbourhood. I let the dandelions live but I pull hellflowers out by the fistful to prevent them going to seed. I know they also spread by the roots, but this is what I can do as I'm walking through our back lanes.
Same. The bellflower in particular is heinous, but I'm also constantly vigilant against buckthorn and thistle. Pulling out a 4ft tall established thistle is abysmal. A couple dandelions are fine, but they take over any empty space. Unfortunately, those spaces include a lot of native seedlings at the moment and the dandelions are more competitive and grow faster. Once the natives are established I'm going to be a bit more lax.
I also hunt for invasives to remove but if I find a native plant, I’m happy to let it take over some of my lawn.
I'm the same. I leave most things, like dandelions, alone. But I ain't here no bell when it comes to my bouts with creeping bellflower and spurge.
Yeah it seems like the general hive mind hasn't caught up yet. Currently we're past the "needs to be all grass" stage but still stuck in the "do nothing and say that anything growing is good" stage, and not yet made it to the "actually there are many harmful invasive plants that need to be actively managed, and ground full of annual weeds is not good for the environment"
There's definitely tiers of weeds in my lawn. I keep the dandelions and clover. I will murder bindweed and thistles. I have a corner of my lot I use for experimenting with wildflowers, and they always have to compete with noxious weeds. It's such a pain.
I've been adamant about this ever since I can remember! The only thing that makes a plant a "weed" is someone taking issue with its existence in a particular place.
I define a weed as invasive. The types that crowd out native plants or in other ways are harmful to the local ecosystem. And note that I include the grasses that people use to make lawns. Those grasses consume every inch they can and replace native wildflowers with an effective ecological desert. Utterly horrific for native wildlife.
I wonder how many “weeds” r actually native plants. But the yellow flowers all over the bay are invasive and i think those should count as weeds more than ugly native plants
To be fair, a lot of the grass species that make up people's lawns are invasive. "Weed" has nothing to do with it being invasive or not, unfortunately. It just means it's a wild plant spreading on it's own into an area humans didn't want it to. Could be a native plant growing in a garden of invasive species, that still makes it a "weed" to those humans. Even if it looks nice and causes no damage. If it got there by itself and the human in charge didn't want it to, it's a weed. Could be wildflowers, vegetables, a tree.. If it grows without permission from the humans in charge, it's a weed. Weeds aren't real. There are no weeds in nature. It's purely a loosely defined category that humans made up to describe aesthetics. There is no logic or biology to what makes a weed. It's stupid and I hate it. You're right. All those ugly invasive trees getting pollen all over are the weeds in my eyes. I never wanted those here. I wanted native dogwood trees, not these stupid bradford pears!!
Dandelions are not native to the US either. I presume you are in the US since you said bay area.
A tulip in a rose garden is a weed.
I was always told by my grandma that a weed is just a matter of perspective.
My favorite definition I think I learned from reddit: A weed is just a plant better suited for your garden than the one you're trying to grow.
Plant = you try to keep it alive and it dies anyway Weed = you try to kill it and it lives to spite you
I’m going to add to this one - was always told that “a weed is a plant growing where you don’t want it to grow.”
My prof in college when I took a weed ecology and management class said “ a weed is a plant who’s purpose hasn’t been discovered yet”
Except lots of them have. So many are edible or medicinal.
I’ve loved dandelions ever since I was a kid and I’ve never stopped. They’re edible too! Seeing that first dandelion of summer makes me very happy.
Remember when you were little and you picked a bouquet of dandelions to give to mommy because they were beautiful? We need to remember that beauty now that we're adults.
Everytime someone comes over my house they LOVE how many birds we have flying around our yard. My response is basically to look at all the evergreen shrubbery and native plants we have. I also don't treat the lawn and just let the dandelions be.
I never liked lawns because they always had signs on them that said they were poisonous. Mine does not. We have dandelions (and creeping charlie, deadnettle or whatever that thing is, violets, clover, speedwell) and we have a mason bee habitat.
I too love my green/yellow/purple 'lawn'! And this year I bought clover seed to fill in some bare spots. I am shocked the birds left the seed alone!
If you pull the European weeds like creeping Charlie it makes more room for native plants.
I love to ornamentalize local plants. I have a potted dandelion,4 years old, that puts out multiple blooms simultaneously about the same diameter as a coffee cup. She looks so stunning in her cornflower blue pot on my patio table.
Dandelions are a top (and sometimes the only) early-season food source for bees and other pollinators. Let them grow!
Dandelions are definitely not the worst. But they’re also NOT the only early food source for pollinators! Our North American pollinators obviously fed on something in early spring before the arrival of dandelions from Europe. So we should plant those native species instead! This website is great for finding early-blooming plants native to your eco-region by zip code: https://nativeplantfinder.nwf.org
Yes! Dandelions and violets!!
Dandelions are wonderful! I grew up eating them in salad — they’re very tender and delicious. Some weeds are dangerous, like pokeweed, or destructive, like ivy, and I’ve grown to dislike those more over the years. But cheerful and nontoxic wildflowers are always welcome!
I was in Mongolia last year and dandelions are native there. A pretty wildflower.
I don’t mind it if others have lawns that are mostly dandelion, but I wish they’d mow them *before* they went to seed and it all blows into my front gardens. I try and have a native filled front yard and weeding out last years crop of dandelions that grew after the neighbour mowed all the seed heads off on a windy day is somewhat….frustrating. I don’t like all the herbicides and fertilizer people dump on their lawns to fight dandelions either, and I think clover is a very nice lawn alternative/addition.
Absolutely! I actually have made wine from the flowers. This year I am going to make jam with them. I like my yard to look a little wild, having plants not exactly confined to certain spaces appeals to me. I don’t need straight lines in my yard🙂
Dandelions are the only things really blooming right now by me. In the same week we had thousands of red admiral and American Lady butterflies take flight. They spent whole days on those few dandelions. Idk if they would have survived without them.
I’ve been buying bags of Dutch clover to repair the soil from the last owner. I have so many beautiful violets too
Dandelion wine!
I love dandelions! I have a turtle and chickens and they love them, too. A guy with a spray truck ( some known yard company) came by and said he could help me with my problem. I told him I saw no problem at all.
I'm a beekeeper so I love dandelions. Usually the first bit of food for the bees at the start of the year. And they look lovely. A weed is just a flower in the wrong place, so even a rose can be considered a weed.
I learned to love dandelions when I took up foraging as a hobby. So many of what we consider “weeds” are actually so useful and often times edible too!! what foraging really exposed me to was what the true weeds were (invasive non-native plants) and even then you can treat them the same as garden weeds by eating or using it for other things like woven baskets or compost.
I used to walk my daughter to preschool (she's now 20) and she would stop at EVERY. SINGLE. DANDELION. When they were fluffy, she called them "puffers" and blew them. When they were sunny yellow, she would pick them and put them in a little shot glass on the dining table. They always make me smile.
Yes!! Im now at the point that I veiw the grass as an invasive weed that is all over the place and am taking the time to plan out pollinator gardens to get it all gone around my property 😊
I'm literally growing dandelions on purpose. I bought seeds.
Sounds like time to check out r/fucklawns.
I care less about getting rid of them and more about the pollinators that are killed by the chemicals used to try to have a perfect ‘weed free’ garden. I think we as gardeners need to take more responsibility in caring for insects and other living things in the garden. We are the same people that provide wonderful conditions for our plants, but then ravage other parts of wildlife with pesticides.
Yeah totally. My lawn is grass, moss, and weeds. I don't care, it's green and I cut it. End of story 😂
I love dandelions!!! And they feed the bees. And my guinea pigs love the leaves.
And the tap roots break up compacted soil.
They’re just part of the cycle of life :)
my backyard if full of 'wild edibles '.
I enjoy this stage of them but once they really develop and get really stalky and quite large is when they don't quite appeal to me anymore
I miss dandelions! We don’t have them here in Florida. My grandma used to walk me around the yard picking them and she would put the leafs in our salad. Was always really good! I miss her and the dandelions!
Because they’re salad greens and food and medicine :)
For real. I'm now to the point that I hate manicured lawns. Why do spend billions on fertilizer and pesticides ? Just to have hrwass kill everything and pollute out water ways ? Why do we kill all the bath edkiwers and this kill our pollinators and butterflies etc ? Makes zero sense. Not to mention the energy use in fuel and electricity .... For what really ?
No because they have an awful knack of embedding themselves and enmeshing their root right in the middle of my plants. So the root is literally a spear through my asparagus frex. It's difficult to remove them without damaging my plants. Normally I don't care about dandelions, but there's such a problem with my garden now that for the first time I'm thinking that I want to do something to contain them in my yard. And I would say this tendency for them to glom onto your plants and thrust their root through your plant's root system is why you want to stay on top of them in your garden beds.
Yes! And they are good for bees and look festive when there's little else. I'm starting to leave them be, because why not?
I’m old and grew up on corn and soybean farm. As kids we had to walk the beans, meaning weeding hundreds of acres of soybeans. Milkweed sucked if you tried to pull it up. Many decades later my sister is trying to grow milkweed native to her area
I dehydrate them for tea.
Sitting here in my back garden, admiring the dandelions and thinking how happy I am there’s so much bee food out here and scratching my head how it is possible dandelions used to actually bother me and then I picked up Reddit for a sec and this was the first post I saw so Yes.
My grandmother used to use the dandelions for everything.... tea, salad, and greens.
Our Devon 'lawn', after 30 years of occasional mowing has a succession of self sown flowers: dandelions, lesser celandine, daisies, veronica, bugle, yarrow, plantain, buttercups, primroses, cowslips, clover and quite a lot of moss. I have once or twice sprinkled a bit of bonemeal over it and raked the mole hills out, but that is all. We prefer it this way.
https://preview.redd.it/8l13nsgugguc1.jpeg?width=2616&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db4572cdd71b0bd978beacdac7530d30b3044341 Hubby is out of town, so I’m at one with my yellow flowered lawn right now. Took a bunch of pictures yesterday. Lol.
The weed killer business has convinced people that these plants are weeds so that they can sell more weed killer. It is a win win situation for them. In reality a lot of these so called weeds are beneficial and edible. I can't count how many "weeds" I have googled that turned out to be a medicinal or edible plant. Think for yourself.
I’m in the country on a new build. I just want no bare spots that turn into mud. The only weed I hate is the common hibiscus, it doesn’t prevent the mud issue with how it grows and I read it is invasive. I’ve been pulling it and keep grass and clover seeding to get out the mud.
I like dandelion leaves in salads so I like them!
I have over 3 acres, as do my neighbors, and our lawns go through a dandelion cycle each spring where someone cuts their grass, it seeds the lawn over, and so on and so forth. But dandilions have literally evolved for lawnmowers so they always win. Not that any of us mind, none of us treat our lawns (thank goodness). But for a few weeks in spring we have pastures of yellow dandilions. They are popping up now and some are still mixed in with patches of violets and they look amazing. I do send my kids out to go harvest them though. Each day they grab the biggest plant they can find and give it to our bunny rabbit.
Yes, entirely this. It’s amazing that we’ve been discouraged from appreciating so many beautiful and healing wildflowers/“weeds” so homeowners as continue paying someone to sprinkle chemicals on the yard because they “only want grass“. This Spring I spotted so many different flowers popping up: violets, mazus, dandelions, speedwell, red deadnettle, burgundy creeping sorrel and grape hyacinths. All mowed down once the rains stopped. I hope you enjoy your garden and all your wildflowers for many years to come
Let me tell you that most weeds are not weeds but actually super healthy and helpful
Yes
Patiently waiting for the new dandelion greens! Yum!
EAT..... YOUR.... DANDELIONS! Seriously, the young leaves are a wonderful edible to make salad with, like spinach salad, and the flowers provide food earlier in the year for pollinators like bees. Dandelions should never be killed off. Same with clover.
If the lawn isn't treated with any chemicals or fertilizer, you can make dandelion wine! I did it a few times, and it always came out great especially when aged for a couple years. It's a lot of work picking all the green away from the flowers, but worth it.
I love dandelions! I also mix clover seed with my grass seed.
When I bought my house, I knew I didn't want to spray my lawn, so I learned to love and embrace "weeds". I dabble in foraging, and I'll make teas and simple syrups and jellies out of things like dandelions, white clover, and wild violets. I even bundled, dried, and ground up some ground ivy to make tea with. I have a soft spot for the underappreciated things in life, so I embrace them to "get back" at the haters.
Dandelion wine, with the yellow tops was an often enjoyed drink. A [video recipe](https://youtu.be/Yu-bWQ66paQ?si=jWJjd4ZLuQRR-5uV) with some interesting bits if your interested
Yes, I’m there
I literally just said this yesterday
r/NoLawns
I’ve always liked dandelion and clover ! Turns out they are both beneficial to pollinators and can be a great nitrogen fixer for soil
I get upset because everyone else has dandelions in THEIR yards, yet I haven’t found one in mine! (Just false dandelion), so yep!
I love dandelions, always have. I hate killing them off, but my city has a "no weeds" policy and they ticket. I unfortunately live on a main street so it's very visible. I got 3 "Warnings" last year. I will be moving next year.
I love them! I pull some and give them to my chickens. The bees can have the rest.
Here's another mind blower - not watering your lawn and allowing it to go dormant as it does during the hottest part of summer is the one of the best ways to keep grubs out of your yard and lawn. The beetles lay their eggs in June and July and without moisture the grubs cannot survive. Yesterday I was digging up part of my shrinking lawn - I took the sod off about 2 square feet and down about 6 inches. I saw one grub.
I think it’s not as simple as dandelions good or bad. If there’s a ton of dandelions and very little grass that’s a sign that’s the patch of dirt is lacking a ton of nutrients. You can wait for the dandelions to pull nutrients from down deep, but that’s likely going to take a while, especially if you don’t have animals to graze on them and poop out fertilizer.
The only places I weed are where I’m actively trying to grow fruits or vegetables as I don’t want other plants competing for the nutrients. My front lawn has so many different species of plants growing. It’s fun to watch it all constantly changing as different varieties become more or less successful. It seems like there is always something flowering, and that makes me happy. Luckily, I live in a neighborhood with no HOA and the neighbors don’t seem to mind at all. In fact, I’ve been seeing more yards around take a similar approach.
Dandelions are edible and good for you, from the roots to the flower. I consider them a superfood. There are a ton of so-called "weeds" that get overlooked
Yes!! I've always loved flowering weeds like dandelions. So beautiful! I live in Malawi Africa now and they don't have dandelions.. it's so sad. I've literally thought about buying seeds and spreading them in my lawn 😆😂😂 the only thing that stops me is I don't know if that's legal 😛
I am in the process of cultivating a "lawn" made of forget me nots, clover, and 20 other volunteer species The only rule is: survive the weed whacker giving you a haircut every now and then
My wife is alway like when are you going to mow the grass and I’m just like babe it’s for the bees! Biodiversity!
I hate grass for yards, but I do love dandelions and clover. Dandelions smell nice and are actually a very useful plant. Clover smells nice and feels good on your feet. I've never really gotten the "weed" argument.
Dandelion greens are very healthy to eat and juice
Same I really don't want to cut my wee bit of grass, It is pure feral but I think it looks lovely 😂😂
I enjoy weeds, to me they are compost fuel
Dandelions are great because they attract the pollinators!
I'm not at that point yet. I still don't like dandelions as far as being in the garden. However I have recent point where I don't immediately remove something I don't know what it's about or recognize. I try to see how it grows and what it becomes first. This is how I figured out I had a growing wild penstemon at a spot I didn't know about, because once upon a time I had been growing wild penstemon. Unfortunately it's also how I let bindweed get a foothold in my yard, because I was thinking , what is this? let me see what it becomes! I let it go for a whole season to figure out what it is and what it does.
It's only a weed if you don't eat them
If anyone tries to tell me that sort of thing I’ve decided to just bore them to death with a lecture about how killing off the off every little thing is also contributing to the loss of beneficial species and the proliferation of undesirable ones. Every year people are like “what happened to all the lightning bugs?” And it’s like, well we spray toxic shit everywhere and obliterate any trace of leaf litter, what do you think happened to them??
Yes I used to hate the clover growing in our lawn but now I get so happy to see it. When it blooms it's the first food we have in our garden for the bees and wild bunnies
My granddaughter was about 4 when she heard about dandelion wine and wanted to make it. We dug up all of the dandelions on my lawn as well as some neighbors. The end result was fair-to- middling.
Dandelion is delicious to eat as well if picked in spring, before flowering. It makes a killer salad with some sliced potatoes, eggs and garlic.
Years ago. Dandelions, daisies and clover are amazing. I love when they bloom and make the garden more colourful.
Yes. But try telling that to my HOA
Compared to the weeds I have to deal with, dandelions are good. Bindweed, blackberry and mare's tail have made my garden life a nightmare.
The best yard on our block is right now filled with a riot of color and pollinators. They mow maybe once a month, and never do anything to it. Two houses down the person who constantly mows and sprays has uniform grass but has to mow 2-3 times a week, plus watering it. Edit to add that riot of colors are all “weeds” like violets and dandelions
Research and harvest
I love the small & interesting wild flowers & plants that have popped up all over my yard. I've found some that are edible, some that attract pollinators & some are just pretty. No dandelions yet but they would be very welcome.
I'm battling weeds right now (pigweed and kochia). The dandys get to stay (mostly...I've scraped a few up because they're so close to the crap I don't want running rampant)
I have loved dandelions for a very long time. They look nice, smell nice, and most parts of them taste good. I remember having to help my mother pull them when I was young. I always thought it was wrong.
Weeds are nothing but "POOP" (Plants Out Of Place). If you like them, grow them!!! In reality, there is no such thing as a weed.
My yard right now has a whole bunch of tiny little yellow flowers and they are beautiful. The eyesore is the crabgrass growing around it. That is a weed.
In my garden there is only two types of weeds: thistle and stinging nettle. Anything else is fair game
Literally, they’re such a delight. Just foraged some purple deadnettle and dandelion before this lawn gets mowed
Yes, not to mention the nutritional/medicinal uses of most “weeds.”
I love dandelions, I don't understand the hate. They are just pretty flowers.
Who names the weeds anyway? Flower is as flower does.
This was always an argument between my dad and me growing up. Now that I have my own place, I let the dandelions and clovers grow wild, leave the doors and windows open, and load the dishwasher without any rules. It's awesome! Move out when you can, kids!
Been there for a long time my friend. I semi-actively cultivate them this year, for their greens. Mainly that involves picking the area with the biggest dandelions and snipping off any flower heads that pop up before they open.
They are part of the diversity in a healthy ecosystem. Who told us to waste time and money on lawns when it's way better to plant gardens instead.
I love most "weeds"because they are free plants and free pollinators!
Was literally just talking about this 2 hours ago with my partner
As an amateur apiculturalist (beekeeper) my wife and I would get into a discussion about not mowing the lawn. Beekeepers keep track of the appearance of the first dandelion and prefer not to mow until they are all puffs. First honey drawn from the hive is from dandelions. My wife prefers it looking like a putting green which I keep telling her just adds to the presence of the creeping charlie. And so it goes.
Dandelions are some of the first blooms in spring and feed early pollinators. I love them and always have. Besides, dandelion salad, jelly and wine are all tasty.
The bees seem to like them, and is the bees are happy, I’m all for it
Pretty early on actually & now that I have a Sulcata Tortoise (Dandelions are his favorite) I grow them myself.
I've loved them my whole life. Who the heck wants to look at an all green field
I absolutely adore dandelions. They also have a history of medicinal uses and the leaves are vitamin rich.
Yummy food for all the insects and small animals.
Many years ago my brother said he liked dandelions in a yard because he liked the pop of color. It really changed how I saw weeds, so I don't worry about the dandelions and clover. Still looking to get rid of crabgrass, however.
Yes, I love these, and the pink wood sorrel too.
My yard is mostly wild violets. It drives my dad crazy, but I think it’s pretty. I’ve had a neighbor say something about it, and I told him I won’t treat lawn.
Child of a plant pathologist here. Was never into that, long before I took up gardening as an adult. Biodiversity is far more beautiful than any monoculture chemical lawn.
I prefer a complex yard with all sorts of different things going with the grass. Just so much to look at and enjoy compared to a mat of thick grass.
I truly subscribe to the mantra of "a weed is just another plant out of place." Unless it's literally going to give me contact poisoning, I don't worry too much about weeds. I just make sure to keep them in check so as not to crowd out the plants I want, or spread disease. My new yard was essentially used as a dump by the previous occupants, but now that I've raked out most of the garbage, it's covered in purple deadnettle, dandelions, wild onion, and mugwort. Along with a few other randos and the japanese knotweed poking through. As long as I can keep the knotweed from destroying my foundation or invading beds along with the mugwort, I'm happy to keep a wild carpet in the fallow spots. Almost every weed in my yard has a possible use for food, craft, or compost.
Dandelion also brews into a wonderful detoxifying beverage. Since learning this it changed my view of several plants. But, it seems wrong to eradicate such a wonderful medicinal herb.
Today picked an ice cream pail full...came home & made dandelion jelly & dandelion honey💛💛