(Dande)Lions, Tigers, and Bears, oh my!

Anyone who knows me even a little well knows that I am slightly, I mean completely, obsessed with getting rid of dandelions. It probably stems from high school when my dad told me that I could earn my new tennis racket if I managed to rid our lawn of dandelions (and yes, I realize exactly how #firstworldproblems this sounds). Anyone who knows me even a little, knows that given a challenge I become a little, okay, completely obsessed with the completion of that challenge. So I think that after three straight days of picking weeds after school, I had removed the dandelions (to the point that when I closed my eyes to go to bed I saw dandelion roots). And now that I know better, I am completely against using chemicals in my eternal battle against them. So this leaves me to hand pick each and every single dandelion. Each. And. Every. Day. Since we are also not fertilizing or using any chemicals and the people that lived in the house before us let the lawn go, our lawn is currently riddled with dandelions. And each day when I feel like I have successfully tackled the problem, I look outside a few minutes later to see the stubborn yellow flowers rearing their ugly heads once again. I swear, if cockroaches are predicted be the only things left after WWIII (maybe not funny to joke about right now), they will be dancing around in a field of dandelions.



I really should give up, love the beauty of the little yellow flowers and learn to get dandelions in my salads and drink dandelion tea – but at this point, I am not willing to admit defeat. So until recently, I have literally tried every single tool (here’s my current favorite) created to make the removal easier and have gotten to the point where I can uproot around 50 dandelions in less than 5 minutes. I know almost immediately if I got enough of the root or not and still have faith that eventually I will beat the dandelions. BUT now I have even more hope. The jury is still out and I will update the post when I know more, but I found a glimmer of hope in the dark dismal war against dandelions. 

While reading about natural fertilizers, I found a quick reference to corn gluten and it’s natural fight against dandelions. My interest was piqued enough to do some more research. So here’s what I found: it was "created" by accident by Iowa State University researcher Nick Christians. He created a natural herbicide made from corn gluten meal that is now patented. He found that as a weed suppressant, it inhibits seed germination by drying out the seed as soon as it cracks open to sprout. In this manner, corn gluten does not kill existing weeds. Read more, or purchase here.

The first application has been laid and while so far the dandelions are still teasing me each morning, I remain hopeful that the claims will come true and the corn gluten will change the ph. level of my lawn – creating a golf course smooth lawn that naturally is too healthy to support the growth of any new dandelions. 

And while I was writing this, I stumbled upon this...maybe's it's a sign that I need to reframe my view on these beautiful yellow flowers :)