The lawn becomes crazy: why you might just need to learn to love dandelions

The lawn becomes crazy: why you might just need to learn to love dandelions

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Let’s start with the obvious: the dandelion season. peak Dandelion season.

This means that your lawn is either a beautiful golden sea or a hotbed of yellow disasters.

You can either sit on the deck and enjoy a cup of coffee, or kneel on the lawn and pull the intruders out with your fists — or pay you to drive them out.

In other words, are you in Team Nature or Team Turf War. It all depends on your mentality, which seems to be changing recently.

The swarm has been struggling. Pesticides have received new scrutiny. The popular home order has promoted the home stability movement to a certain extent. Encouraged people Back to nature.

This year, No Mow May, a campaign initiated by the British Plantlife and adopted by the Canadian Society for Conservation of Nature, tried to convince Canadians that they could turn their lawns into the wild.

Residents are asked not to mow their lawns throughout the month to help pollinate insects including butterflies and bees. Food for these insects is scarce in May.

In May of this year, the New Brunswick Green Party leader David Coon’s residence in Fredericton had absolutely no signs of mowing. Kuhn loves dandelion and welcomes the opportunity to help the bees as best he can. (Joe McDonald/CBC)

The remaining week is only one week: the general consensus is: it is developing, and when you don’t try to fight against nature, life will definitely become much simpler.

So is it time to embrace the dandelion? We talked with experts and residents on both sides of the fence, and this is what we found.

Where is the wild thing

“Have you seen my lawn?” Even in an email, when David Coon was asked what he thought of Dandelion and No Mow May, the pride was obvious.

Coon, the leader of the provincial Green Party, has clearly gone a long way on environmental issues.

His front lawn in Fredericton’s house is endless with wildflowers, bushes and dandelions.

In May of this year, there was absolutely no mowing activity here, and there may not be much mowing activity during the rest of the summer.

Kuhn said: “The idea of ??not cutting grass is a good gesture for people to make their own contributions to bees.” “We have many species in New Brunswick that are on the verge of disappearing.”

This also helped him become a big fan of flowers that many people look down on.

“I love dandelion,” Kuhn said. “When I was four years old, I was really sick… I was in a basement room. When I was finally able to go out, there were dandelions everywhere. So to me, they were really positive.”

We all appreciate our backyard and the wild animals that live with it more.-Paula Noël, Canadian Nature Reserve

Paula Noël is also deeply involved in the evolving movement.

The New Brunswick project leader of the Canadian Nature Conservation Association faithfully observed that “there is no mowing possible”-she has a lawn to prove it.

She said that “Operation Without Cut” has been carried out for several years, but it is very popular this year. “A lot of people have emerged to talk about, share and respond to this challenge.”

Noel said she believes that part of the reason is because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said: “Last year many of us spent a lot of time at home.” “We all appreciate our own backyard and the wildlife that we live with.”

Watch | Make things beautiful:

May without a moon: the bane of lush lawn lovers, but the gift of bees 1:54

How do we learn to hate them

Knoll is not sure when dandelion will become an environmental beautification object, but it may have started in the 1950s.

She said: “During the Depression and War years, people ate dandelion greens because they were free, nutritious, and actually very nutritious.”

“After the Second World War, dandelions are closely related to the poverty and hardship of those years, so this is part of the reason why they are condemned. The campaign of the herbicide company [in the 1950s and ’60s] May also play a big role. “

At about the same time, the rise of suburban communities gave birth to a cultural tradition of having a well-maintained front lawn, and peer pressure also took the lawn from there.

But in recent years, several factors have begun to change this thinking.

More and more evidence of climate change has made us pay more attention to the environment.

NB has no ambiguity about dandelions at Sussex Elementary School in Sussex, and posted the caption of this photo on Twitter last week: We can’t resist playing among all the dandelions today! #NoMowMay (Southern English School District/Twitter)

Reports of an alarming decline in the number of bee colonies in the world (disease, habitat loss and pesticides are all to blame) have made people pay more attention to any species that might harm them.

At the same time, anyone who can keep bees is suddenly encouraged, including dandelions.

“They are one of the first foods for pollinators this season,” Knoll said. “They do not cause any damage to the environment. At this time of the year, the insects we see most on them are bees.”

Many municipalities and school districts no longer paint public property, but choose to let nature take over.

Aaron Kennedy, Communications Director of Quispamsis, said: “We have never sprayed them in our recent memory, and we have no complaints.” “We just let them grow. They will definitely be many.”

Being surrounded by untreated public spaces makes it more challenging to make your own residential grassland without dandelions, especially considering the amazing planting ability of dandelions.

Just sleep 10 more times until there is no more No Wow May! The ritual of waking up the neighbor with Durk’s lawn mower on Saturday morning is so close, you can almost hear it. (Gabe Smith / Shutterstock)

Considering the occurrence of these events, No Mow May is a movement whose time has come.

Noel said: “People are looking for things that can be done to protect wildlife and protect the environment to make a difference.” “This is something that people can easily accomplish. [do] Help a little corner of their own world. “

Some people like green

Rob Walker hardly spares 15 minutes to talk about dandelions. He is too busy helping clients get rid of them.

Walker is the Saint John area manager of Weed Man Maritimes. He has been working in the field for 17 years and said that if No Mow May takes root, he will not see much evidence.

He said, “No, not a lot.” People still want their lawns to look good.

If you are one of them, Walker will provide some tips to help you weeding (mainly weeding).

For homeowners who want a neatly trimmed lawn without dandelions, which prevents pollinators, they will need to apply a lot of fertilizer and lime, sow seeds frequently, water frequently, and mix grasses. (Target/Shutter)

The first and most important thing is to make the grass dense and healthy. Walker said: “If the dandelion seed can’t touch the soil, it can’t grow.”

This means applying a lot of fertilizer and lime, sowing frequently, watering frequently, and mixing grass.

If you are determined to eliminate almost all dandelions, then you will have to take the path of herbicides.

Walker said that once the lawn turns green, be prepared to accept the fact that you will occasionally see some dandelions and other weeds on the lawn.

But for Noel, Kuhn and other New Brunswick people, they promised “no mowing”, which is unlimited.

Knoll said: “Momei is really not about training our way of thinking.” “I think this tells people that it is okay to let some yellow flowers add some color to the landscape at this time of year.”


“Don’t drink before bed” and other useful dandelion tips

Other names for dandelion

The French word for dandelion is Dandelion, Translated as “Pee”. It is no coincidence that dandelion is a powerful diuretic.

Eat your weeds

Almost every part of dandelion is edible, including leaves, flowers and roots. A cup of dandelion vegetable contains about 112% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin A and 535% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin K. They also contain calcium, iron and magnesium.

Waiter, there is a dandelion in my gut

You may eat dandelion leaves without realizing it. Store-bought mesclun is a mixture of tender salad greens, which can include lettuce, arugula, chicory, fresco, oak leaf, radicchio, sorrel, chervil, and dandelion leaves.

Continue to breed

The fluffy white dandelion seed head can hold up to 172 seeds. However, this is just the beginning: throughout the summer, plants will continue to bloom, and each plant can produce up to 5,000 seeds a year.

First place with tie rod

Pulling a dandelion in the wrong way will turn a plant into a multi-headed hydra. It breaks the root system underground, and now every part of these breaks will become dandelions, with multiple leaves and four or five different stems, all with flowers growing on them.

I want to thank you for not calling me

Dandelion is a flower and its scientific name is dandelion. It is native to Eurasia and has been widely introduced into North and South America and other continents.



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