The lot to the west from my house is owned by a mostly blind, mostly deaf, shut-in little old lady. She knew my name when my husband and I first moved in, but now she seems to have lost it in the cruel fog of aging.
Lawn care, understandably, is not a priority of hers, and through the years the dandelions have become... shall we say... dominant.
There is a bright side that I remind myself of every time I curse the thick rain of dandelion fluff that covers my property. I know for sure that she never, ever, uses dangerous weed killing chemicals on her lawn. With one new baby, one large dog that eats anything, eight quasi-free range chickens and two organic garden plots, I am glad that I fret about harmless yellow flowers, not chemical warfare.
Furthermore, I know where I can get dandelions to try out that jelly recipe...
5.22.2008
Looking on the bright side
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3 comments:
I'm trying to take a more nuanced view of dandelions too. Dandelions actually mine important chemicals like calcium from the subsoil using their deep taproot. If you pull them out using a weed hound and compost them (hot enough to kill the seeds), then you'll increase the mineral content of your compost. I have also found that my chickens love them. Unfortunately you can't really do that if it's on the neighbor's yard. Then I'll just hope for you their the kind with the tender, edible leaves rather than the tough hairy kind.
whoops, meant "they're" not "their."
Chickens adore dandelion pulls. We collect them in buckets from our lawn and then feed them to the ladies. Delicious! I'd love to pasture the ladies on the neighbor's lawn but I just don't think she'd agree to it.
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