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I fucking hate dandelions, I hate herbicides a shit ton more though. I planted clover and other ground over to compete with the dandelions and to feed the bees. My husband and I go out picking dandelions any day it’s not raining and we see yellow in the yard. It’s kinda fun to see who can get the longest thickest root 😉
People can eat dandelions. So, free food? Where?
Dandelions actually do important work for your lawn. They break up the hardened soil to make the ground softer for the grass to grow in. Letting dandelions grow will lead to a more beautiful lawn.
I wonder is it something specific to the USA or in other countries people are obseessing over nit having them in the lawn?
I’m in France and every though WE are far from having wild urban meadow or meadow at all, I’ve never heard of people and HOA complaining about dandelion before learning nolawn mouvement on the internet.I too had never heard of the insane hatred on the poor dandelions before stumbling upon it online.
They should just eat more salad if it’s such a problem.
Clearly someone who’s never accidentally tasted dandelion milk.
Totally a USA thing. Dandelions and Clover are seen as undesirable to our eugenicized monoculture lawns.
The terrible part is the clover and dandelions and these other early season
flowers“weeds” are a very important part of a bees diet.I love your line of thinking. Lawns don’t feed the ecosystem, flowers do! But here in the US dandelions and clover are not a critical part of their diet. Native plants are the critical part of their diet - e.g. Native maple trees that bloom first!
Dandelions are native to Europe
Clover is native to Eurasia
They are far from the worst weeds, i wouldn’t go eradicating them like you should invasive plants (I leave both in my lawn anyways). But if we are looking to support our bees and ecosystem, then we should be re wilding our yard and growing native plants
In New England there’s a lot of neat spring ephemerals too (select from additional attributes)
Thank you. My understanding was since these were among the first flowers to come up in the spring, they are one of the few plentiful sources of food.
Definitely a thing in the US. People spend lots of money to have chemicals poured onto their lawns every year, summer and winter, to keep the weeds away. All of those chemicals have to go somewhere. Probably the groundwater and streams and other bodies of water. Not good.
It’s a weird culture a lot of emphasis on freedom and protecting your home but then you just “ok then” when the local busy body comes around. It’s your land get them told
…HOAs hire management companies; management companies issue citations, collect fines, file liens, and foreclose your property…
They can’t initiate foreclosure anymore, since around 2005 or thereabouts… But they can still file a lien, and collect on it if foreclosure happens.
…depends upon the jurisdition: in my state, HOAs can foreclose for unpaid assessments but not for fines…
*land of the free
I can’t fathom why anyone hates dandelions. The entire plant is edible and they’re a cute little flower.
I saw a bunny once systemically behead a bunch of dandelions in an area. It was cute and scary.
Goats love dandelions. It’s like cocaine
And they are amazing for bees
I heard their pollen doesn’t provide enough nutrients for the hive/queen. Specifically protein.
Here’s a link to neat bee article. Go pollinators!
https://www.gardenmyths.com/dandelions-important-bees/
Protein contains amino acids, and some of these amino acids are essential. That means the organism can not make them; they have to get them in food. Dandelion pollen is low in valine, isoleucine, leucine and arginine, essential amino acids for honey bees.
Dandelion is consider a poor quality source of protein for bees.
That’s true, but it’s better than no flowers. I see this comment pop up pretty regularly in reference to dandelions as a source for pollinators as if eliminating the flower would be of little impact. Dandelions are one of the first flowers to show up for the pollinators, even if they don’t provide the best food for insects it’s still something, especially in sterile modern suburban landscapes. .
Still better than short cut grass.
Some people are allergic to joy.
joy is bitter killer
Not joy in general; just other people’s joy.
Some people derive joy from seeing others suffer, that’s true.
maybe they’re allergic to the pollen
Dandelions never hurt anybody.
You must not have met HOAs.
HOAs have hurt people.
Not that I’ll ever buy a home but I would never buy one in an HOA
I’m sure there must be some based HOAs out there that encourage this sort of thing instead of forbidding it. You just have to not live in Normieville.
That’s a contradiction. HOA’s are by definition Normieville.
I don’t see why it would have to be though. A bunch of oddballs could certainly get together and create one to protect diversity in their neighborhood from a normie invasion.
The most well-intentioned HOAs can easily go to shit when power-tripping assholes, with all the free time in the world, take them over.
If structured through direct consensus democracy, rather than the appointment of leaders, the Karens will be powerless.
For the same reason why very few companies are worker owned co-ops: people suck and capitalism doubly so. That’s why we very rarely can have nice things.
In the case of HOAs, the bad ones (which are the vast majority of them) exist to extract profit (in the form of increasing property values, fining anyone who doesn’t follow their petty rules, and sometimes even take someone’s home for breaking the aforementioned rules) and exert as much control over people as possible.
In the US at least, laws regarding HOAs are a grotesque combination of under-regulation and regulations specifically crafted to FACILITATE abuse rather than discourage it.
Do the dandelion dance! Blast techno! Wear a speedo! Celebrate nature’s bounty, yo!!
It doesn’t say what to do with them… If I see something like that with no context, I’m breeding ginormous people-eating dandelions…
Dandelion greens are really good for you. Plus as others have noted monoculture lawns are pretty bad for the environment. Better than impermeable surfaces but still not great.
You can make Dandelion wine, coffee, dandelion salve, dandelion syrup, dye your clothes and eat them, to mention a few uses. - maybe he should sell them.
I’ve made dandelion wine and dandelion root tea, both good. A wonderful little treat of a plant.
I’ll pass on eating my clothes
Don’t knock it 'til you’ve tried it.
I will never understand lawns.
Dogs tend to like them. Other than that…
Dogs would be just as happy with any other kind of nature, let’s be real.
Maybe overall, but my little Chihuahua/dachshund is too short to deal with taller plants. When we go for a walk by areas with natural growth or even unmowed lawns, he either has to leap through it or walk in the road. I’m sure there are some other options he would be fine with, I don’t think grass is necessary, but he is definitely not just as happy with any other kind of nature.
That sounds more like your pup isn’t used to it more than they can’t deal with it.
Lawns became symbols of the elite in England, as wealthy landowners sought to show off their gains via the most ostentatious displays possible outside stately homes.
Colonizing landowners were keen to replicate the look of a manicured English garden. As such, English imperialism is somewhat to blame for lawns being created around the world, where they became a status symbol, and a sign of wealth and well-to-do.
What I don’t get is what’s the point of a garden with only 2cm-long grass in it?
The point from from old England’s perspective is that keeping the grass at 2 cm requires a whole bunch of resources and people, so only the rich could afford it. Even today, any neighborhood with weeds growing instead of a 2cm lawn is instantly classified as lower class. There often is no practical use or sometimes use for games or walking is when forbidden because it’s a status symbol only.
It’s like asking what’s the point of owning a Bugatti Chiron that can go 400 kph when you’re stuck in the same traffic jam anyway.
It goes back to the origin stated here. It was desirable because they could afford to effectively waste a lot of acreage on a crop that had no benefit. Simply for show.
That is the point. You’re basically trying to say “Look how rich I am, I can afford to have all this land dedicated to looking pretty and not being useful for anything else”
