What can I do about dandelions in the gardens?

[EnteringAUsername]

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 have plenty of daisies and yellow dandelions in my garden in the summer. My little DC love them and make daisy chains. I have never though to get rid of them as they look pretty.

They are early flowers so absolutely essential for wildlife.
No, they are not. Early flowers are essential but there are plenty of early flowers that aren't dandelions!!

You can actively plant a range of pretty, early flowers e.g. bugle, bulbs (crocus, snowdrop, winter aconite) clematis, hellebore, mahonia, primrose, sarcococca, wallflower, willow.
Or you can let your weeds infest my garden.
I'd rather you did the former, please!

I have one of those, excellent for getting deep roots out.

The early flowers are especially valuable as they provide food at a time when other sources are scarce

www.rhs.org.uk/weeds/dandelion

There's nothing that needs to be done. Dandelions are essential early spring pollen for insects. There's nothing better than a golden sprinkled lawn in May.

Did you actually read my post? If other sources are scarce and you are that bothered then do something active about it.
It's commonly known as 'gardening'.

I recommend this weed puller, also available in Homebase and probably other diy stores. https://www.screwfix.ie/p/spear-jackson-weed-puller/329ky

Agreed, I think they are beautiful. I sure we would buy them due to their beautiful flowers if they weren't perceived as a weed.

Did you mean to be so rude?

We can go through how each type of bee requires different flowers due to their appendages if you want so it’s best to have a variety of flowers that come through at different times if you want and all of it comes back to dandelions being early helpers for the emerging bumble bees due to how they eat. They all help. Which is the key

for clarity I’m a life time the member, come from a generations of landscape gardeners (organic before their time) and plantsman. I’ve also done multiple courses (field study centre, wildlife trust) on bees and pollinating insects, but it’s ok. You crack on being rude.

A lot of people on here are all over that and have been for a very long time. What we (well, I and others by the sounds) are trying to discourage is the easy approach of weedkiller which is environmentally very destructive and unnecessary

Yup!

for clarity I’m a life time the member, come from a generations of landscape gardeners (organic before their time) and plantsman. I’ve also done multiple courses (field study centre, wildlife trust) on bees and pollinating insects, but it’s ok. You crack on being rude.
Sorry, BourbonsAreOverated, but it's a pet peeve of mine. People make it seem as if they are single-handedly saving the planet but all they are doing is failing to weed their garden. There are hundreds of thousands of dandelions out there in fields, verges, railwaylines, cracks in the pavement, etc, etc, etc. They don't need any encouragement in residential areas!
They are not even that early-blooming; other things are out long before dandelions.

And I find it rude that people think that they can merrily send their dandelion seeds my way. If I sent bamboo or JKW your way you'd be fuming; I feel the same about dandelions.
DandelionsAreOverrated

Because it’s better for the environment and better for the garden long-term

Am I in the right hemisphere? My dandies are all gone, they seem to go a bit mad around May and then die down quite quickly after a couple of lawn mowings. I don't mind them at all, to me they are a sign of Summer approaching.

What an odd view. It's not 'rude' to allow a native species to remain present in residential areas. They're nothing like bamboo or Japanese knotweed. Monoculture (lawn), plastic grass, weedkiller, decking, tarmacking over areas that could be planted are all shitty for the environment. There are far too many of these things in residential gardens, in the name of convenience and wild flowers are helpful in supporting the environment. It's not about being 'rude'. Huge areas are lost to this crap.

Waterboatlass: How have you leapt to astroturf and tarmac? It doesn't help the discussion to try to polarise things. There is a sensible middle ground somewhere between 100% destroying the environment and 100% not bothering to do any gardening.

Why is everyone so obsessed with dandelions, can't you find something else to champion? You don't hear me complaining about buttercups and daisies, only the blumming dandelions.

I said wild flowers, not just dandelions

But this thread is specifically about dandelions!

So why are you asking why 'everyone is so obsessed' by them?