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Garden Notes: Enduring, aggravating dandelions have benefits, too

I saw my first bee yesterday and my first dandelion today, so I’m a little more optimistic about spring’s arrival.

Maybe I should say, cautiously optimistic.

Dandelions are one of our first spring flowers and are a much-needed nectar supply when bees emerge from their hives.

Because neither dandelions nor honey bees managed to traverse the Atlantic by themselves, settlers brought dandelion seeds and honey bees with them. They valued them as food sources and for their medicinal properties.

In the early 19th century, lawns replaced meadows, but dandelions already had centuries to sow themselves into the landscape. So today Mother Nature still plays hostess to the tiny yellow dots invading our tailored green spaces.

Property owners haven’t given up the battle, but the dandelions appear to be winning.

Today, most of us have chosen to forget dandelions are a leafy vegetable that delivers an impressive amount of nutrition. They’re high in vitamins A, B, C and D, and they have more potassium than bananas.

Every part of a dandelion is edible. The tap root is used as a cooked vegetable or to make tea. The crown, (the whitish part) and the leaves can be used in salads. The flower buds make a refreshing dandelion wine.

Dandelions grow from seeds that don’t need cross-fertilization, a process called “apomixis.” Just one dandelion can clone itself, lift a puffball to the wind and blow hundreds of seeds across hundreds of miles.

Or stealthily seed-bomb your neighbor’s yard.

When a seed germinates, it doesn’t appear to put much effort into developing leaves. That’s because it’s busy producing a tap root that can burrow 7 feet deep. By the time you see that innocent looking rosette of tiny leaves, it’s too late.

The experts who eschew chemical weed killers have some advice for like-minded property owners. Don’t cut your grass too short. They say, “Never cut grass shorter than a 1/2 inch and don’t cut more than 1/3 of the blade length at a time.” When you cut grass too short you let more sunlight in and that only encourages the dandelions.

When the saffron dandelions first appear, they’re close to the ground but then they elongate suddenly and go to seed. The trick is to cut them off just as they’re beginning to shoot up. The optimum timeframe is weather-dependent, but if you’re vigilant, and the lawnmower is ready to go, you can clip off the yellow blossoms when they’re just high enough to mow.

The experts say, “Don’t use fertilizers.” Dandelions and other weeds are better at absorbing fertilizers than the grasses we sow in our lawns.

Try mixing a bit of clover with your grass seed. It provides the nitrogen lawns need without the expense and waste of nitrogen fertilizers.

On the other hand, if your lawn or garden is experiencing a dearth of dandelions, check the net! Believe it or not, dandelion seeds are available on e-Bay!

Contact Teresa Futrick at esroyllek@hotmail.com

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