Soon it will be time to kill those bad dandelions (Insanity)

[Thinktank]

Do you kill dandelions? Are you one of the millions of brainless Canadians across this country who actually goes out and buys weed killer, to kill dandelions on your lawn? There's a lot of reasons it's a really dumb thing to do, and one of those reasons is - you have to store the half empty container somewhere in the basement or garage. My friends younger brother died of cancer thirty five years ago probably because their Dad stored the pesticides he used on the orchard - in the basement.

Do you know why we still kill dandelions on school fields? It's because the dandelion is such a dangerous plant, some school kid could be running, and trip over the plant and hurt himself. Half Canadian kids will soon be obese, and they'll grow up to spend $billions on heart drugs, blood pressure drugs, diabetes drugs, and we're worried about the "danger" of the dandelion in school fields, so we kill those plants with synthetic herbicides that are harmful to our health.

They say there's a sucker born every minute though. Are you convinced your lawn must look like a golf course - perfectly smooth without any weird yellow plants sticking out like a sore thumb? Do you contaminate your yard with weed killer that gets tracked into the house, just because some genius marketing people convinced you to spend money to kill dandelions? Do you want to know more reasons why it's a dumb thing to do?

Discuss.

..

[Queen K]

Thinktank, I have to agree here. The dandelions are harmless, just annoying right? They provide food for insects and represent a dash of colour, what's the harm? But then be sure to behead them when they are about to go to seed, just so as to not annoy your neighbours.

I know we have unconventional views on this subject.

Awaiting the storm....

[khutchi]

what's a lawn?

[kgcayenne]

Bees rely on dandelions for their first meals of the season. We'll lop them off just before they seed.

[Silverstarqueen]

I read recently dandelion is supposed to have anti-cancer properties. Soon it will be illegal to grow it when word of that gets out.

[kgcayenne]

Well, son of a b.... shush, then.

[Fancy]

Do you know why we still kill dandelions on school fields?

Lots of schools don't kill dandelions on their property.

[Bsuds]

I use a weed puller to try and keep them under some control.
You can also spray directly on them with a vinegar/salt/water mix that will kill them as well.

[Bsuds]

Make wine...

http://commonsensehome.com/dandelion-wine-recipe/

[Smurf]

My dad used to throw a tiny bit of rum in, gave it a real nice flavour.

[TylerM4]

A bit dramatic eh?

I love the medical certainty of pesticides in the basement causing cancer. Especially when we're talking weed killer/herbicide. To counter - I can tell you stories of my Grandfather. Farming in the OK 60 years ago. DDT was the "weak stuff" back then. He sprayed a lead arsenic mixture. He stirred the tank with his arm, wore no protective gear (literally soaking wet with spay residue by the end of the day), and still almost made it to 80yo before the unsafe farm equipment (not cancer) took him.

Regardless - I do think people go over the top with regard to dandelions. Every other year I'll throw down some weed N feed to try to keep them under control, but that's about it.

Didn't COK ban these sprays a couple of years ago anyway?

[Relentless]

Dandelions don't really serve a purpose in your lawn.
If you need to feed the bee's you can grow them in an area that isn't lawn.

My neighbors(2 of them) have millions of dandelions growing in their entire yard, they refuse to do anything with them, but the time will come when they wont have any lawn, as it will be all dandelions, and then what?

I don't let them grown and flower in my yard, I dig them out with a long flat blade screwdriver long before they bloom.
Dandelions are like rats in the neighborhood, you start with one and then have millions if you don't deal with them.
Dandelions are not native to Canada to begin with, and have no business here!

I get a kick out of the people who go year after year not looking after their lawn, and then rush out to Crappy Tire to buy spray to get rid of their over abundance of dandelions.
Then they spend hours spraying them, only to miss a few hundred.
By the time they have them sprayed, seeds from 1000 others have already spread, and 3 weeks from now, they will have another crop.
Dandelions should be banned in Canada for sure!

[What_the]

A lawn is nothing more than manicured weeds, which we waste water on to please peoples aesthetics, which in turn spend time on hand and knees and/orpoison to manicure a sea of weeds further.
My manicured weeds bother you to the point of your dissatisfaction? Your problem not mine. Sorry just saying. First world problems people.

[LANDM]

I just kill the dandelions because ThinkTank's uncle said it was a good idea. He seemed like a pretty smart guy so I've been doing it ever since.

[What_the]

And call me crazy but we humans are laying waste to this planet: pollution, deforestation, driving species to extinction and we're worried about a little wildflower that serves a purpose in our food chain to the point we poison our literal backyards... so subjectively they "look" better. To me, that's crazy.

I'm actually amazed at the evolutionary success of these plants; what else grows 6 inches over night?