Dandelions, that is. I spent a couple of hours today removing them from the wildflower-thick front yard. The bees can have the wild violets, the tiny purple blooms on Creepin' Charlie, the yellow flowers of the wild strawberries and the tiny, pink-streaked white flowers that carpet the yard every Spring, but I get the dandelions. And I take them away. I like them. But the neighbors don't, and the dandelions would crowd out the other flowering volunteers if I let them.
Wish I could retrieve them from you. I have won awards for my dandelion wine, but haven't done so since losing my dandelion-collecting big hound a few years back. I need to get back into it, and teach our new dog to do the same thing.
ReplyDeleteHad I but known! I use a 19th-century dandelion plucker, which manages to extract the plant with the root about half the time. I chase them like Achilles after the tortoise all summer, getting half of half of half.... They may be bribing Zeno.
ReplyDeleteBut at the end of a hunting session, I have a big bag of dandelions, in varying degrees of intactness. Most are a bit long in the tooth for salad and I have not yet been tempted to dry the roots for "poverty chickory." You'd be welcome to have them.