6 ms·

Dandelions are an incredible gift from nature. What other plant is completely edible, self propagates with no intervention, brings up nutrients from deep in the

• ed25519FUUU 3y ago
  The invention of broadleaf herbicides like 2,4-d (herbicides that kill broadleaf “weeds” but not grass) has been disastrous. Now it’s expected you regularly spray chemicals on your lawn. Sometimes your neighbor can even use county, state, and city laws to compel you to do it.
  • philips 3y ago
    Yeah it is a huge issue. Oregon last year stopped enabling HOAs to force homeowners to spray herbicide or insecticide on their properties. HB2409 2021 https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_94.763 https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_94.763
  • emptyfile 3y ago
    People spray herbicides around their lawn in America? Around their place of living? Bizarre.
    • salad-tycoon 3y ago
      In America, we demand the finest green laws that money and better living through chemistry can provide. A persons lawn is indicative of their status in society and how high functioning they are. Perfect flush and lush green is sought after, many big YouTube channels only discuss how to achieve a better lawn than the jerks down the street. Bonus points for symmetrical patterns mowed into the lawn. So it’s a status symbol. Lots of people do deleterious things to achieve status. I don’t think it’s “weird” but rather maybe a bit dumb Do you eat non organic cereals of basically any kind? Those are loaded with it too.
    • nerpderp82 3y ago
      Biocides!
    • msrenee 3y ago
      Even better, we dump pesticides all over our yards to kill mosquitos, grubs, and beetles. There's signs all over town here advertising spraying for mosquitos with who knows what. There's trucks driving around advertising spraying for everything with more than four legs and even a number of less desirable things with four legs. And then we wonder why our pollinators are all dying off. Agricultural pesticides are bad enough. Covering every last inch of green near our houses with pesticides and herbicides is another nail in the coffin.
      • soperj 3y ago
        Not in the USA, people around me are doing "No Mow May" to leave flowers and long grass for pollinators.
        • UncleOxidant 3y ago
          Not in your USA. There are multiple USAs it seems. I did No Mow May last year (on just a small part of the yard) and the guy across the street started shouting at me until June (at which point he just started shouting about other things)
          • nsxwolf 3y ago
            In many towns it is illegal to just let your lawn grow wild.
          • soperj 3y ago
            As in, I'm not in the USA, not as in, this doesn't happen in the USA.
            • UncleOxidant 3y ago
              Oh, sorry, I got a completely different meaning there. I'm increasingly thinking it would be good to be "Not in USA". Cheers!
              • 3y ago
    • nsxwolf 3y ago
      Yes because dandelions make your lawn look like shit.
• pneumic 3y ago
  In addition to the good qualities you listed, they are also good indicators of compacted soil (plants with thick taproots tend to spring up in compacted soil). They are technically invasive where I am (northeast US) but I have never seen them take over an area so much as to choke out native species. I would argue that they have become naturalized.
  • goda90 3y ago
    As far as I can tell, in the US they are only considered invasive in Oregon and Alaska. Invasive is a separate definition from non-native. An invasive(native or non-native) has to be a threat to the established ecosystem, which dandelions generally aren't.
• YurgenJurgensen 3y ago
  I'm going to question the 'beautiful flowers' part of that. From an aesthetic point of view Dandelion flowers don't have a lot going for them. They're aggressively yellow and tend to visually dominate over other plants (and they're extremely efficient at propagating, so if you don't actively control them, they'll quickly become the majority flower) while they're blooming, and the blooms don't even last very long, sometimes less than 24 hours, and a dandelion head that's shed its seeds looks kind-of ugly. I generally have a very light-touch approach to gardening, but even I draw the line at dandelions. The correct method of dealing with them is a trowel though, not weedkiller.
  • RajT88 3y ago
    Indeed, Dandelions are beautiful when blooming, but less so before the blooms where they appear as alien hydras with many heads and flailing tentacles. The flower stalks grow unbelievably fast too. I have been trying to rein in dandelions on my lawn this year, and thought I could control them by just snipping off the flower heads. Soon, I realized this would take an hour of labor a day that I didn't have to spend on lawn maintenance.
    • ihaveajob 3y ago
      Also, the seeds spread FAR, so no matter what you do, they'll come back, for better or worse.
  • ed312 3y ago
    As a recent lawn owner/steward of a small strip of ground, this is my approach as well. My view is if you want a more or less monoculture of grass, you should have to physically work for it (no fuel-powered tools either). In this sense, I treat the grass portion of my yard as a garden and do end up spending some time every week troweling out a few dandelions and other unwanted plants. I _do_ make sure I compost all the "weeds" I pull. Overall this seems environmentally friendly, and I do get a good chuckle every time someone asks me which herbicide I spray.
    • YurgenJurgensen 3y ago
• Mistletoe 3y ago
  I'm pretty sure if the average household engaged in basic permaculture we would all start to starve like Sri Lanka. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/7/15/23218969/sri-lanka-organic-fertilizer-pesticide-agriculture-farming https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/7/15/23218969/sri-la... I'm an avid gardener and I love the environment but we have to realize the real numbers for how we feed ourselves. It would take about one acre of land to feed yourself on wheat in a year. >An estimated value of 720 pounds of wheat is said to be consumed by a family of four yearly. 60 pounds of wheat can be got from a bushel. Since a bushel of wheat can be grown on 0.25 acre of land, you’ll need 0.75 acres of land per person. You’ll need approximately 3 acres of land for growing wheat and grain yearly for a family of four. https://permaculturism.com/how-much-land-does-it-take-to-feed-one-person/ https://permaculturism.com/how-much-land-does-it-take-to-fee...
  • goda90 3y ago
    I think you're misunderstanding what a household engaging in basic permaculture means. It doesn't mean that they have to grow all their own food. It doesn't mean all farms have to switch to permaculture overnight.
  • tnorthcutt 3y ago
    The commenter you're responding to didn't suggest changing anything about our current food supply, other than to _add_ residential permaculture.
  • ysavir 3y ago
    Is wheat the most impactful-per-area crop? Would other crops yield sufficient quantities in smaller areas compared to wheat? As others mentioned, the original idea is to supplement, and not replace. If every household strove to grow at least some of its food, we could probably reduce our need to transport, store, and distribute edibles by a non-insignificant amount. And the GP's point especially revolves around the lack of effort involved. While some crops require a lot of preparation and attention, in the case of "weeds" like dandelion, the effort can be no greater than walking outside and pulling them from the ground.
    • 3y ago
• ravenstine 3y ago
  Though I agree that dandelions are awesome, your description of them also describes sow thistles perfectly. Not only are sow thistles often mistaken for dandelions (at least in their earlier growth stage), but they are woefully underrated as edible wild plants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonchus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonchus In fact, I appreciate sow thistle even more than dandelion. People assume they must be bitter or even poisonous because they have white sap and can look kind of ugly in their late stage of growth, but if you pick them when they're tender they aren't bitter at all. If a person wasn't aware they were eating a common weed, they might assume they were eating a gourmet green from the produce section. I've used it to substitute spinach for creamed spinach, and though it doesn't taste like spinach, it was very tasty. But I usually just pick and eat the greens raw! Specifically, I am referring to the "sow thistle" that is of the genus Sonchus. It is not a true thistle, and I think that there's other plants called "sow thistle" that aren't this one. I've never tried using the roots and don't know whether they have properties similar to dandelion. Dandelions may have a leg up in terms of the root, but I'm not sure. Sow thistle is otherwise highly nutritious. As someone who's been foraging for over a decade, I find it crazy how most foragers completely overlook this plant despite how it's both common and tasty in contrast to many of the more sought-after plants. Here is a good article on identifying sow thistle which also includes a recipe: https://www.eattheweeds.com/sonchus-sow-thistle-in-a-pigs-eye-2/ https://www.eattheweeds.com/sonchus-sow-thistle-in-a-pigs-ey... EDIT: And here's a video by the same author of that article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWQ4nGraAdI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWQ4nGraAdI
  • tspike 3y ago
    Wow thanks, I had no idea
• ngvrnd 3y ago
  day lillies, I think, are also completely edible.
• RobotToaster 3y ago
  >What other plant is completely edible While it is edible, it should be noted the leaves are a good diuretic, which may be an undesirable effect for some.
• _a_a_a_ 3y ago
  Please stop with the "nature's bounty" rubbish, it's just soft thinking. Since you ask let's try carrots, beetroot, fat hen, strawberries (yes, leaves and stems are edible too), samphire etc. If you want to broaden out a bit, various fungi and seaweed.
  • yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    > Since you ask let's try carrots, beetroot, fat hen, strawberries (yes, leaves and stems are edible too), samphire etc. If you want to broaden out a bit, various fungi and seaweed. ...yes? All of those sound like good things to try; are you attempting to disagree?
    • _a_a_a_ 3y ago
      I'm objecting to anthropomorphisising (sp?) nature. Dandelion roots being edible to humans is just how it is, and it might very well not have been if we had or lacked certain enzymes. Nature isn't here for us, to make our lives easy. Or for that matter, hard. It just is.
      • vram22 3y ago
        >Nature isn't here for us, to make our lives easy. Or for that matter, hard. It just is. So, you're doling out (what you think is) knowledge, while objecting a couple of levels above, to others doing the same? Did you invent Nature, that you are so sure of its purpose, or lack of purpose? If you think others are getting it wrong, give some objective proof, first, for why you think your statements are right, including any of them. Otherwise, you are as little credible as the people you dismissed out of hand.
        • _a_a_a_ 3y ago
          There is no objective proof and asking for it is disingenuous (unless you want to be clear about exactly what 'proof' comprises, that would be interesting). But you may not be aware that animals do eat other animals and it's not very nice, so start here https://www.google.com/search?q=lion+kill+hunt https://www.google.com/search?q=lion+kill+hunt if you are unfamiliar with the process.
• zwieback 3y ago
  I call BS, dandelions crowd out all the good stuff I want, flowers, vegetables, etc. I don't mind them in my meadow.