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My daughter was quite put out when her teacher awarded extra credit for the students who brought in long dandelions --- they were the first weed which I'd manag

My daughter was quite put out when her teacher awarded extra credit for the students who brought in long dandelions --- they were the first weed which I'd managed to eradicate from our yard (by digging them up by the roots). Next was the plantains, buckhorn, and uncommon. The big thing is, eliminating such weeds means that the grass needs to be cut less often, since it's the growth rate of the grass which determines this, which is an important consideration since I use a reel lawnmower.

hosh 3y ago
You have to mow the grass like that because the soil conditions got worse. Dandelions, for example, thrive in calcium-poor soil conditions. Their deep taproots mine the calcium from below the grass’s root zones and surfaces it up to the leaves. If you don’t harvest the dandelion yourself and “chop and drop them” over the course of several seasons, the soil will have sufficient calcium for other plants to outcompete the dandelion. In other words, dandelions are pioneer plants, and has a role within ecological succession. They are great for soil building. You could, of course, just add oyster shells into areas of large numbers of dandelions. But you would not get the benefit of a dandelion breaking up compacted soil. I too use a reel lawnmower. But I’m slowly turning my front yard into a perennial garden, which is a great hedge against inflation.
- WillAdams 3y ago
  What I did was systematically dig out the dandelions and amend the soil with mulch, digging down a shovel length or more and screening the soil to remove all the rocks (and adding more mulch to make up for the volume lost from removing the stones). Since then we've gotten compost from the township and raked it over the lawn to fill in low spots, and I'd like to think that allow over two decades of grass clippings to mulch in have helped as well. I also allow the grass around the edges to grow long and cut it by hand w/ clippers, spreading it for birds to make nests of. Garden areas are my wife's problem.

hosh 3y ago

You have to mow the grass like that because the soil conditions got worse. Dandelions, for example, thrive in calcium-poor soil conditions. Their deep taproots mine the calcium from below the grass’s root zones and surfaces it up to the leaves. If you don’t harvest the dandelion yourself and “chop and drop them” over the course of several seasons, the soil will have sufficient calcium for other plants to outcompete the dandelion. In other words, dandelions are pioneer plants, and has a role within ecological succession. They are great for soil building. You could, of course, just add oyster shells into areas of large numbers of dandelions. But you would not get the benefit of a dandelion breaking up compacted soil. I too use a reel lawnmower. But I’m slowly turning my front yard into a perennial garden, which is a great hedge against inflation.

WillAdams 3y ago
What I did was systematically dig out the dandelions and amend the soil with mulch, digging down a shovel length or more and screening the soil to remove all the rocks (and adding more mulch to make up for the volume lost from removing the stones). Since then we've gotten compost from the township and raked it over the lawn to fill in low spots, and I'd like to think that allow over two decades of grass clippings to mulch in have helped as well. I also allow the grass around the edges to grow long and cut it by hand w/ clippers, spreading it for birds to make nests of. Garden areas are my wife's problem.