“Crabgrass? No wonder! If they called if ‘Elfgrass’ people would loooove it!”
Well, it’s not the first time someone’s called me a tool of Satan.
I love dandelions.
I’d make dedelion wine, but I’m afraid of all the crap you dandelion haters have sprayed about. Roundup wine, not so good, methinks.
Dandelions, bull thistles, creeping Charlie, smartweed, phalpanicum (sp?) and foxtail are the bane of the gentleman farmer. The goats won’t eat the creeping Charlie. There is hope. Go down to your local feed and fertilizer store or the farmers’ coop and get a five-gallon jug of 2-4-D Esther. This is a lifetime supply for the owner of a 100’ x 200’ lot. Mix it at one pint per 1000 gal. Put it in a sprayer and have at it. Do this in dark of night. Do not let the environment police know. Do not under any circumstances pick your nose, rub you eyes, or put your fingers near your mouth or any other orifice until you have had a long shower. Then go outside and listen to the death screams of every broad leaf plant in your yard and all of the down wind yards. Ah, the delights of modern agriculture.
Just wanna point out that 2,4 D is the same active ingredient that’s in Ortho Weed-B-Gon, and you don’t have to go down to the co-op to buy it and make a fool of yourself in front of all the serious pickup trucks with your soccer mom VEE-hickle, neither. 
Also want to point out that Weed-B-Gon takes a couple of weeks to work. Be patient.
Re using Roundup: I wouldn’t, because it kills everything it touches, including those unnoticed stems of grass that were growing in and around the big dandelion blurg. It “translocates” to the roots of whatever leafy stem it touches, so when it touches a stem of Kentucky bluegrass, it’ll kill that whole plant. You’ll have a huge dead spot in the lawn everywhere you squirted the Roundup.
Oy, Wring, you’ve got the right idea. I wish I had the guts to do a “designated prairie”. But it’s not that kind of neighborhood here. We’ve got a Weedwhacker-happy street department with an 800 number hotline for reporting city weed violations.
But Fenris, you might take a tip from her book. The reason she doesn’t have any dandelions is because the taller plants are shading them out, outcompeting them. Try changing your lawn mower setting to the highest you can live with. This will also help with controlling crabgrass, which needs full sun to germinate. As long as no full sun ever gets to those kajillions of crabgrass seeds hiding down amongst the roots of the Kentucky bluegrass, they won’t sprout.
Dandelions?!?
Muhahahahaha!
A RANT ABOUT DANDELIONS!?!?!?!?
hehehe!
he really said dandelions!!!
hahaha!
no way, he didn’t!!
ROFL!!!
Of rants consisting of things invading the yard I would think crabgrass would be #1. I mean if they ever find any life on Mars it’s gonna be crabgrass. Man that stuff’s a bitch.
Anyway, whatcha wanna do is to make your lawn so darn thick that nothing can invade it. The first thing you want to do is get rid of all the current weeds. Then you seed your lawn excessively in the Fall and Spring. Fertilize it 3-5 times a year. More so towards the latter part of the year for the sake of the fact that you don’t want to be fertilizing in-migrating weeds from around your property during the Spring. Search weekly for weeds and remove them, yeah it’s a bitch, but hard work pays off. If you use chemicals on yer lawn don’t go overboard with them. Eventually you’ll have a beautiful carpet of a lawn that’s so thick - nothing will invade it. Then you can play golf or something.
Lawn.
Hmmm, what is this “lawn” you speak of?
My front yard is a street and my back yard is railroad tracks. It’s the roving packs of bloodthirsty muggers that bother me, not weeds.
That and the killer rottweilers that seem to have infested the west coast.
At this point I would welcome a roll in the dandelions.
<Lina Lamont (from Singin’ In the Rain) voice>
If I could bring some joy into your dull, humdrum lives, it makes me feel as if all my hard work ain’t been in vain fer nuth’n!
</Lina Lamont voice>
**
It’s a bitch, but if it’s kept mowed, it’s hard to tell from the real grass at a couple of yards distance.
Fenris
Jack Batty wrote:
“It’s the roving packs of bloodthirsty muggers that bother me, not weeds. That and the killer rottweilers that seem to have infested the west coast.”
Round-Up works pretty well on them, too.