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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to rip all the heads off the dandelion flowers in my garden?

33 replies

Badgerwife · 23/04/2013 12:29

I think dandelions are a nasty weed and I want to kill every single one of the buggers to stop them turning into seeds and taking over the sorry little patch of grass we call garden.

DH thinks I'm mad, that the yellow flowers are 'pretty' and that as we're renting and it was little more than a mud field when we moved in, I shouldn't care about this. He gets a bit sulky when I rip them but I don't care.

Should I care though?

OP posts:

Rowlers · 23/04/2013 12:31

Take heads off because, if you don't, they'll go to seed and then you'll have trillions more!
Better still, dig them out. Much more effective.

DeWe · 23/04/2013 12:31

I did this at our old house. 2 years later we hardly had a dandelion plant. If he wants yellow flowers I'm sure you can find some others.

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 23/04/2013 12:33

I do it every year, just about keeps them in check. I dig them out too but half heartedly. They would take over the entire lawn otherwise.

SPsYoniTheOneAndOnly · 23/04/2013 12:34

Dont touch them! You will wee the bed

Anyone else ever told that?

grovel · 23/04/2013 12:34

They are ugly. YANBU.

JammySplodger · 23/04/2013 12:35

You're allowed to care aboutyour own little patch of mud, and you're allowed to have differing opinions on dandelions. I quite like them but each to their own.

If you really want to get rid of them, you need to take out the root or they'll just be straight back - if you feel at the base of the plant, under the leaves, you'll feel a nodule. If you pinch your fingers beneath that and pull, you should take the long root out too. Above that nodule, the plant snaps, leaving the root in place to re-grow.

This time of year you could sow some nice wildflowers, which quite often will take well to bare soil.

squoosh · 23/04/2013 13:32

If you have any warts the sap from the stem of the dandelion will cure them. Or so we were told as kids.

But yes, if you really want to get rid of them there's no point just removing what's visible from grass level upwards.

HoHoHoNoYouDont · 23/04/2013 13:33

Make Dandelion tea

OhYouBadBadKitten · 23/04/2013 13:36

That is the key - to get rid of weeds quickly you need to turn them into desirable food stuff. You can add the leaves to salad too (but it is a diuretic). Once you start eating them they will vanish never to be seen again.

cornflakegirl · 23/04/2013 13:42

I pay my children a penny for each dandelion flower they pick. Think it cost me about £4 last year. I know it doesn't get rid of the problem, but it does stop it getting worse.

FryOneFatManic · 23/04/2013 14:00

SPsYoniTheOneAndOnly
Dont touch them! You will wee the bed

Anyone else ever told that?

Yes, this was a common superstition when I was a kid and I know I'm twice your age

peeriebear · 23/04/2013 14:05

French kids call them pis-en-lit don't they?

squoosh · 23/04/2013 14:07

My parents called them 'pissabums' or something that sounds like that.

ArrowofApollo · 23/04/2013 14:08

Peerie - they were known as wet-your-beds when I was at school, too!!

GibberTheMonkey · 23/04/2013 14:21

Not really superstition
They're a diuretic

Oopla · 23/04/2013 14:22

SP- yes.
I actually caught myself telling DD that she'd wee the bed when she was picking them last. Whoops.

I quite like them and especially when they turn into fairies. You can't dig up fairies!

Original poster

Badgerwife · 23/04/2013 14:55

I kill all plants, that's my special skills. Cactuses aren't safe either. I don't know what the opposite of green fingers is, but that's me.

Rowlers, my thinking exactly! I would dig them out, but then the garden would look like it's been through a war, they are absolutely everywhere

OP posts:

Original poster

Badgerwife · 23/04/2013 15:03

yeah, they are called pissenlit in French, literally piss-in-bed. If I had to pay for each flower picked, I'd be out of pocket, about 15 flowers seem to come out every day

OP posts:

Jojobump1986 · 23/04/2013 15:07

Could you cut the flowers off but leave them dotted around the lawn? They won't seed, DH gets to look at yellow flowers... Everyone's happy, no?

Original poster

Badgerwife · 23/04/2013 15:22

Jojobump great idea; I will try to do that. DD is 21 months so quite into either making little piles on the path or throwing them around. I'll try to teach her to aim for the grass

OP posts:

ratspeaker · 23/04/2013 16:34

Do you know anyone with a rabbit? Ours loves dandelions, he gets them as a treat.
Now if only I could train him to eat ONLY the dandelions in the garden...

ratspeaker · 23/04/2013 16:37

And we called them pee the beds

ps I didnt mean poor bun should only exist on dandelions, just meant if he would only eat them not the parsley, pansies,etc etc

Boosterseat · 23/04/2013 19:36

pee the beds.

Is it regional? I'm from Yorkshire.

algor · 23/04/2013 20:50

Hope I am not to late OP, please dont rip them up until the flowers are beginning to die back and form seed heads. The flowers are an excellent source of pollen for honey bees.

Pixieonthemoor · 23/04/2013 20:52

No need to go into combat and uproot the stinky things; just go out with your pouring table salt and carefully pour about half to one teaspoon onto the centre of each plant in the centre of the rosette of leaves. Leave til after the next rain et voila! No more dandelions! Effective, cheap and not too chemically iykwim.

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