Keeping Your Lawn Spring Green by Getting Rid of Dandelion

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Sunday, January 7th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

With proper care, your lawn can stay spring green despite the threats from the elements, pests or diseases that it might face.

Major problems to watch out for are:
1. Weed-growth,
2. Fungal attacks and
3. Insect pests

Dandelion- A Major Weed Problem
Keeping your lawn healthy requires paying close attention to any changes in the appearance of your lawn. For today, we will focus on one of the major weed problem- the dandelion. Below is a scenario you may find familiar.

You have given your beautiful spring green lawn loving care but one day as you are happily mowing away, you spot a fuzzy head poking out of your perfect green oasis. You took a closer look and found that it was a dandelion. It’s going to be a pain in the butt to get rid of you thought.

Before it gets to that point, consider using a pre-emergent herbicide specifically for broad-leafed weeds like the dandelion. It is reported that Isoxaben, which is available for commercial use, may be particularly effective against broad-leafed weeds if applied to the soil before the seeds can germinate. Once established however, your only options are:
1. Using post-emergent herbicides or
2. Pulling the dandelion out

Pulling Dandelion Out
Considering the fact that dandelions have long, long taproots, it can be difficult and time-consuming task as they can grow up to 10 inches in length. Notoriously brittle and prone to breakage, if even a small piece of the taproot is left in the ground, the weed will regenerate. Despite all your care, your spring green lawn will likely suffer future outbreaks if you take this approach.

Using Post-Emergent Herbicide to Get Rid of Dandelion
You might want to run screaming from your fuzzy little enemy, or tear your hair out, but assuming you choose not to do either, what do you do? Well, the most commonly used post-emergent herbicide is Weed-B-Gone.

This is probably one of your best bets after they’re established, as it specifically targets the weed itself and leaves your lawn blissfully unharmed. Apparently, it is possible to apply vinegar as a more non-toxic and environmentally friendly option, but its use requires that you apply it directly to the dandelion. Exercise care, or your spring green lawn will turn brown should you accidentally dose your grass with vinegar.

Failing that, you could always give up the idea of spring green lawn care entirely and give your yard over to the dandelions. Interestingly enough, dandelions have actually been used as foodstuff by various people, and they’ve been used medicinally in the past. The leaves can be used in a salad and you can even make dandelion wine and jams.

Of course, assuming you don’t want to graze on dandelion leaves anytime soon, try some of the above options to get rid of these weeds.

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