What can I do about dandelions in the gardens?

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Hi, I have a fairly large patch of dandelions starting to grow in my garden - they're starting to creep down the length of the garden and they're part of the lawn so I don't just want to go out there and start spraying weedkiller.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of them?

TIA

I love them. I make dandelion " honey" every spring with them.

I have loads of bees in my garden and they don't go anywhere near dandelions so if I see one I dig it out using an old kitchen fork! Rarely get them now but it has taken real persistence to eradicate them. I have clover and daisies growing in the cracks in my patio (bees, butterflies and other insects love them) plus plants chosen for pollinators so have flowers almost all year round (the wallflowers stopped flowering in February and started again in April whilst the heather started in February and I have several types which flower in every season) so I don't think they miss the dandelions!

Embrace them. They provide support for important pollinators.

We did that. We used to have guinea pigs so we left the dandelions alone and picked them for the boys. Oh how I regret it now. Ruddy dandelions everywhere, and we haven't had guinea pigs for years.

In any case, we have a wide variety of other plants in the garden, many of which are good for pollinators anyway, and there's a massive recreation ground across the street where dandelions are rampant, so we don't need any in our garden.

Round Up gel weed killer. You wipe it onto the leaves of what you want to kill.

The thing with digging them up is apparently, the very tip of the root is where the growth hormones are. So if you leave the tiniest bit behind it will grow again. Pinching off the flowers before they seed will help, but the seeds are carried on the wind so you’ll get them blowing in.

I generally don’t use weed killer but probably would use the gel as soon as you see the leaves appear.

You can't!

Mow them regularly and especially before seeding.

I've just left them. My garden looks beautiful with all the wild flowers.

Dandelions, daisies, buttercups etc, are really, really gorgeous and so good for the bees.

sorry, so consumed with my wild flower love I forgot to answer your actual question!
I'm afraid to be sure of getting rid of them you need to remove the root. And that means digging down because they are hardy little buggers. Then winter your garden.

I'm sure there's a technical term for wintering your garden but I don't know what it is.

Get a tortoise! My tortoise loves them, although he's hibernating soon.

The sooner roundup is banned in this country the better.
When I was diagnosed with blood cancer, one of the first questions the haematologist asked me was "have I regularly used weedkillers like roundup"

Round up is terrible stuff.

It contains Glyphosate. It's terrible for people and the environment. It kills birds, beneficial insects including pollinators and gets into the water and kills fish. It stays in the soil and upsets the ecological balance of the soil. It causes illness in people

ecologycenter.org/factsheets/so-whats-the-problem-with-roundup/

I dig up the larger ones but unless you can get all the root they just come back. So I use spot weed killer.

On gardeners world they covered them with thick cardboard...which weakened them and dug them out and recovered.

You can also use bio washing powder.

Please do not use Round-up. Killing the planet for our own convenience is not on.

That's terrible @Flopsythebunny . I do hope your health has improved now.

Honestly, it isn't hard to dig up a few taproots and pick the foliage. salt and washing powder won't stop dandelions coming straight back and aren't good for the soil

Buy a tortoise.

Those chemicals are not good for the soil but, on the back of this thread, I was inspired to spend a pleasant half hour in the sunshine yesterday with my long-handled weed grubber (get one, OP - they work!) A bit of pottering in the garden is always good for the soul.

Aw they look nice in a lawn and the bees love em.

If you want to get ride though, a Japanese trowel does a good job of getting them.

That's what I would do. The roots go too deep to go digging. Ok for a few but for an infestation just use a lawn weedkiller. Why make life difficult.

I used to weedkiller them, then decided that was bad about 20 years ago when the DC came along, then I used to try and dig them all out with a grubber, then I gave up on that and just deadheaded them as soon as they faded, and that is a good compromise, they have stayed largely at one end of the lawn, which is shady so grass doesn't grow well there anyway and look gorgeous in flower.

They are early flowers so absolutely essential for wildlife.

those that weed killer. The flowers attract bees, the bees take the weed killer back to their nests and it poisons them all. So in a way your doing an excellent job of attracting them to the poison making the insect apocalypse we’ve seen this year 10x worse

Because we need the bees for food

by all means dig them up if you must but weed killer poisons insects

amp.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/02/glyphosate-weedkiller-damages-wild-bumblebee-colonies

Please, please don't use weedkiller. It's SO bad for everything - the environment, your garden, wildlife and humans.

You just have to dig them up. If you want to get on top of a perennial weed, little and often is the only way. Get on top of them now while the soil is soft, and then every time you spot one, dig it up right then. Spring when the soil warms up (April/May) is key to getting on top of them early in the season. You won't ever get rid of them completely because the seeds will fly in from elsewhere.

Personally I dig them up if they're somewhere I don't want them, and leave the rest making sure I pull the heads off before the self-seed.

I have a thing like this. Yes if you miss a bit they come back, but it slows them down.

amzn.to/3Ni8OiU