Listen up! Your weeds are trying to tell you something.
Like all varieties of plants, individual weeds thrive in particular conditions. Some like it dry, others moist. Some prefer acidic soil, others thrive in more alkaline environments. Some will even tell you that your soil is perfect.
So before you pluck and pull, take note. You can learn a lot about the growing conditions in your yard, based on which weeds are growing where. These 10 common weeds will reveal secrets about your soil:
Used in traditional medicine to make a poultice against stings, rashes, and insect bites, plantains are nonetheless unsightly in the lawn and garden. Their presence indicates low fertility and high acidity. They also thrive in poorly drained, compacted soil.
The cure: To prevent plantains, correct the soil imbalance, aerate soil, and raise the level of your lawn mower so tall grass blades can shade plantain’s leaves.
Crabgrass
Above: Digitaria sanguinalis (crabgrass). Photograph by Rasbak via Wikimedia.
Ever the opportunist, crabgrass thrives in both poor or very fertile soils, and will spring up in times of drought or excessive watering.
The cure: To combat, raise the height of your mower to encourage “good” grass. Seed control also works with this annual: discourage germination by spreading cornmeal in the early spring.
Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), also known as “Creeping Charlie,” is an aggressive weed that can quickly consume an unhealthy lawn. It thrives in areas with poor drainage, low fertility and lots of shade.
The cure: Ground ivy will take advantage of bald spots, so make sure your lawn and garden have a lush canopy (or mulch), and fertile, well-drained soil. A higher mowing height (from 2.5 to 3 inches) will also help.
Annual Bluegrass
Above: Poa annua(bluegrass) photograph by Rasbak via Wikimedia.
An abundance of annual bluegrass is an indication that your soil is fertile, but most likely compacted and over-watered and poorly drained.
The cure: To combat, aerate and water less, raise your mower height, and prevent seeds from spreading by spreading a cornmeal gluten in spring.
Chickweed
Above: Common Chickweed (Stellaria media); photograph by Hugo via Wikipedia Commons.
Got chickweed in your garden? Goods news. That means it’s highly fertile. But this spreading annual can also indicate poor drainage and too much watering as well as compacted soil. (Good thing they’re delicious to eat.)
Truthfully, I drink no less than five cups of tea a day. I rotate between different blends, depending on the season and my health needs. So when I learned that my favorite organic tea company, Traditional Medicinals, was just a short 20-minute drive from my house, I knew I needed to visit their demonstration garden to learn how to grow herbs for making my own teas. I have no intention to stop buying tea; I simply want to be more experimental and self-sufficient—and have a little farm-to-cup experience of my own.
I asked Abbey Ramirez, head gardener at Traditional Medicinals (which, by the way, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year), about the best herbs to grow in the home garden. Her response:”I picked eight herbs with feasibility, seasonality, safety, and frequency of use in mind. These herbs are all beginner-friendly to grow, generally safe to use, can be cultivated in containers or in the ground, and are relatively easy to dry and store for later use.” Sounds perfect to me. Please keep reading to learn more.
NOTE: Although these herbs are generally known to be safe, always doublecheck the safety of consuming any plants if you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, or have any medical conditions.
“Calendula is tougher than it looks!” says Abbey. “It grows in a variety of soils but will fare best in soil with good drainage and does better with a weekly deep watering rather than frequent light water.” It prefers full sun but tolerates part sun, requiring at least five hours a day. And even though this plant grows in zones 3-11, it is considered an annual in zones 3-8 and behaves as a semi-evergreen perennial in zones 9-11. If you’re lucky, your calendula could bloom year-round. Bonus: Bees adore it.
Good for: digestive issues such as heartburn and peptic ulcers Plant part used: flowers Tea: fresh or dry How: 1-2 tbsp or 2-4 flowers in 1 cup of hot water for 10-15 minutes Food: fresh (petals only) or dry How: Use in salads, soups, cooked greens, baked goods, or as a garnish (best uncooked for nutritional value).
“Marshmallow has a soothing and lofty presence in the garden,” says Abbey. It needs moisture-retaining soil but also good drainage to avoid root rot. “If planted in full sun, this plant needs more water, but if it is in partial shade, one could get away with less water (this depends on your soil’s drainage and water retention).” Marshmallow grows as a deciduous woody perennial in zones 3-9, and Abbey recommends pruning back two-thirds every winter after it reaches maturity.
Good for: throat, respiratory, and digestive troubles Plant part used: roots, leaves, and flowers Tea: fresh or dry (roots only) How: 1-2 tbsp ground or chopped in 1 cup of hot water for 10-15 minutes (or same ratio in room temperature water overnight) Food: fresh or dry How: Use flowers in salads, baked goods, or garnish; use leaves in soups or sautéed with other greens.
Above: Photograph by Kier Holmes, taken at Traditional Medicinals.
Says Abbey: “Chamomile is a joyful and bee-friendly addition to a medicinal garden.” Though it craves full sun, this plant needs well-draining soil with decent water retention and consistent light drinks of water. Chamomile grows in zones 4-11 and can continuously bloom from April to August. Abbey adds, “This plant is strictly an annual, but I have found it is a prolific re-seeder and will likely propagate itself year to year if left alone to drop its seeds and complete its full lifecycle.”
Good for: sleep, relaxation, and digestion Plant part used: flowers Tea: fresh (stronger, more bitter) or dry (traditional, lighter, and more floral) How: 1-2 tbsp or 6-12 flowers in 1 cup of hot water for 10-15 minutes Food: Fresh or dry How: Use fresh as garnish only, as the flowers are quite bitter; ground dry flowers into powder for baked goods.
Many of us adored dandelions when we were kids, blowing the fluffy seed heads and making wishes. But at some point, they stop being something magical and we see them as a nuisance in the garden.
Darn dandelions might have cheerful yellow inflorescences, but the serrated basal leaves can quickly take over an area and mar the appearance of the garden or lawn.
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These plants are a nightmare to get rid of, their taproots can grow up to 18 inches long, and if you leave some in the ground, a new plant can regenerate from any leftover section larger than an inch.
Then there are all those seeds that float far and wide, starting babies everywhere they go.
In this guide, we’re going to discuss how to control dandelions in the garden. Just keep in mind as you look at these that you should use multiple methods of control.
One method is good, but employing two or three is better. Apply a pre-emergent, hand-pull anything that pops up, and apply a thick layer of mulch, for example.
Here’s what’s ahead:
Now, obviously, we’re going to discuss how to eliminate these unwanted plants.
But any guide to weed control wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t at least talk about a technique known as tolerance. That simply means learning to live with them.
The amount of money we waste and the damage we do to the environment trying to control dandelions in particular, is not good.
Gardeners everywhere are slowly starting to see dandelions in the lawn not as a sign of a slovenly space but as a normal part of being guardians over our little patches of the planet.
Many still see them as an unacceptable element that must be eliminated at all costs.
My neighbor will come over to my lawn, which I’m currently in the process of killing off so I can replace it with native ground covers, and he will dig up and dispose of any dandelion or false dandelion that he comes across.
To him, a perfect lawn is a status symbol. To me, it’s a waste of time, money, fertilizer, and water.
Neither one of us is right. It’s a matter of preference. But I totally understand where he’s coming from – we all want our yards to be beautiful, whatever that looks like to us.
If you don’t mind letting dandelions spread out a little, you can save yourself a lot of work and potentially money. In terms of damage and threat to cultivated plants, dandelions are some of the least problematic weeds we can have around.
So, let’s assume that you are determined to get rid of your dandelion problem. Let’s start out with the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly option.
1. Pull Them Up
This isn’t the solution most gardeners want to hear, but pulling the plants is the most effective solution for small areas.
Get yourself a dandelion-digging tool designed to pull up taproots and start working the day after you’ve had some rain.
You’ve probably seen these at pretty much every nursery and home supply store you walk in to.
Find one that is rust-resistant with an ergonomic handle, like this one from Garden Guru available via Amazon.
The key is to get out in the garden and dig them up consistently before the plants bloom to permanently eliminate the problem. Make sure you’re taking up as much of the root as possible.
2. Herbicides
There’s a reason why people turn to herbicides especially for larger areas: they work.
Broad, non-selective herbicides will kill everything in the area, which can exacerbate the problem.
If you kill a spot of lawn, it’s highly likely that dandelions or another weed will move into the area before the lawn has a chance to regenerate.
There are both chemical and natural herbicides available, which gives you options if you’d like to avoid chemicals that might contain carcinogens or products that might harm wildlife.
For a natural herbicide, look for something that uses corn gluten meal or iron, like Earth’s Ally Weed and Grass Killer, which harnesses sea salt to kill any plant it touches.
Purchase it at Arbico Organics in a one-and-a-quarter pound concentrate, 24-ounce ready-to-use, or gallon ready-to-use containers.
Chemical options include products that contain carfentrazone, dicamba, glyphosate, isoxaben, and triclopyr.
A broadleaf herbicide targets only plants with broad leaves – like dandelions – rather than those with narrow leaves like grass, so it’s a better option for using on the lawn.
These contain chemicals like 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid or carfentrazone to selectively kill herbaceous and woody plants with broad leaves.
Broadleaf herbicides have their own downsides. They will kill anything they touch that has broad leaves, so you might accidentally harm plants you want to keep.
Herbicide drift has become a real problem in commercial crops, and I’ve dealt with it more than once in my own garden.
Pre-emergent herbicides like isoxaben or indaziflam are effective at preventing the seeds from germinating, but they won’t help with taproots left in the soil.
There are a few products that combine pre-emergents with post-emergents, and these work well on young plants, but they don’t kill mature, established plants.
Bonide Captain Jack’s Lawnweed Brew is a pre- and post-emergent herbicide that will eradicate many broadleaf weeds in grassy areas.
This method won’t work in a lawn or an area where you’re growing ground cover since you want to cover bare soil, but it’s an excellent option to use in ornamental or vegetable gardens.
Heap three inches of mulch around any plants that you want to protect from dandelions, taking care to avoid touching the stems.
This will smother any seeds or root chunks, preventing them from sending up leaves.
Even better, add some landscape fabric or a weed barrier around your plants and put mulch on top of that.
Arbico Organics carries an excellent weed barrier option in WeedGuard Plus. The rolls come in a two-pack of 24-inch width and 50-foot length.
The downside of using mulch for this purpose is that organic materials will need to be replaced regularly as they break down.
When materials like leaf litter or bark breaks down, it creates the perfect substrate for new dandelion seeds to take hold.
You’ll want to rake it up or work it into the soil and top it with fresh mulch.
What Doesn’t Work
Alright, we’ve tackled the big three techniques that work. What about all those other bits of folk wisdom?
Household vinegar won’t kill these weeds – it isn’t strong enough. You need to use horticultural vinegar to effectively kill weeds, but even that won’t kill the taproot because it only works on the parts it touches.
Horticultural vinegar is also incredibly toxic and can seriously injure you or anyone nearby if you don’t wear protective clothing. Stick to the herbicides listed above instead.
Feel free to add Epsom salts to your dandelion patch. It won’t reduce their numbers, but it will add magnesium and sulfur to the soil to help the weeds grow even more abundantly.
Dish soap doesn’t work at all, even when you mix it with vinegar, so don’t bother. Dish soap is an excellent way to help whatever you mix it with to adhere wherever you spray it, but it doesn’t effectively kill plant tissue on its own.
Mowing regularly sounds like a good idea in theory because it helps to control many other weeds. If you repeatedly cut off the aboveground parts of some species like thistles, it deprives the roots of nutrients, and they will die. Not dandelions.
The rosette of foliage lacks stems and it sits well below the height of the mower blade, so you can’t cut the leaves that way. Plus, the roots can store nutrients to regenerate even if you cut them down over and over.
Burning or pouring boiling water will kill the aboveground parts, but these methods won’t kill the entire taproot unless you do it repeatedly for long enough to deprive the roots of nutrients. It’s usually easier just to pull the roots.
Whack Those Weeds
You will never get rid of dandelions forever. The seeds can float on the wind for miles, so even if you, your neighbor, and your neighbor’s neighbor remove every single one, all it takes is a stiff breeze, and you’re back to square one.
That’s why constant diligence is necessary. If you truly don’t want any of these weeds in your garden, you will have to keep watch and work at it nonstop throughout the growing season.
Where are your dandelion foes popping up? Are you dealing with a never ending stream in your lawn? Are they creeping up among the roses? Let us know your situation in the comments section below and we can offer some customized advice.
Seen through the critical lens of weeds, dandelions are perhaps the most familiar nuisance plant of all. Seen through the appreciative lens of food, they are a welcome and fresh spring ingredient. You don’t have to be a forager to recognize the new, lion-toothed leaves (dent-de-lion is the French etymology) emerging from their overwintering crowns in spring. A few weeks later, dandelions’ bright flowers, rayed like miniature suns, set fields, lawns, and path edges ablaze. Soon, their silky parachute-seeds drift off—the threat (or promise) of more.
Instead of reaching for the Roundup, let’s rewind, rewild, and re-set our dandelion clocks to appreciate this useful plant.
Dandelions are one of the bitter herbs of Passover, and in Gaza today, dandelions, along with other hardy “weeds” like common mallow, feed the hungry. An edible plant valued at least since the Ancients ate them as a tonic, dandelions are associated with a solid repertoire of traditional recipes. Dive into cookbooks and websites from countries ranged around the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and you will find them on plates of wilted greens annointed with olive oil and caramelized onions, in yeasted pies and meaty stews, and in reassuringly simple salads.
Above: Early-blooming dandelions give bees a boost.
A bee-friendly PSA: While dandelions are good to eat if you are human, their flowers are also a boon to bees. Their bloom time varies according to regional seasonal differences, so consider not mowing your lawn (and lobby your local municipality or park not to mow either) when they bloom in your area.
Above: Dandelion crowns include the base of the plant, leaves, buds, and flowers.
Above: Early spring’s dandelion crowns wilting in a hot pan with oil.
Early spring’s dandelion crowns are the whole basal rosette of the plant, sliced just above the root. Harvested before the more uncompromising bitterness of the mature leaves has developed, the crowns are a crunchy and mild vegetable, and succulent treat.
While the crowns can be eaten raw in salads, they are also easy to wilt entire in a pan of warm oil. My favorite spring snack is a quick cicchetti-like bite of sautéed dandelions atop good bread, with some field garlic to add a pungent bite. They can also be added whole to familiar dishes from almost any culinary genre: East Asian noodle bowls, Southeast Asian-style curries, Italian-inspired spaghetti (with bottarga), Senegalese maafe, South African bredies. Willing, and wilted, the dandelions add an additional layer of flavor to any of these meals, along with a healthy dose of minerals and antioxidants.
Above: Wilted dandelion crowns tossed into pad thai. Above: Tender dandelion leaves.
WASHINGTON—In an effort to draw attention to the earth’s continuing loss of biodiversity, officials from the World Wildlife Fund confirmed Tuesday that the only remaining species were humans, pigeons, and dandelions. “Yep, that’s it—there are a few thousand pigeons, some dandelions, and then humans are obviously still kicking around,” said WWF spokesperson Daniella Satrapi, explaining that there had been a horse and a little crabgrass last week, but those were gone now, too. “Not a ton of dandelions, now that we mention it. And a lot of people are dying. But the pigeons are going pretty strong. So enjoy them. We are going to miss dogs, though.” At press time, the WWF confirmed that a human had eaten the last dandelion in existence.
Nation’s 56,000 Acres Of Spinach Crops Cooked Down To Single Half-Cup Serving
