Dandelion

The Dandelion

The dandelion traveled to our country with the early English settlers. Some claim that there are as many as 250 distinct species of dandelions others say there are really only sixty. I remember once reading that the Native Americans called the dandelion “Englishmen’s Path” because it appeared wherever the English had trod. It’s a plant that actually has many varied and worthwhile uses. The leaves can be used in salads or soups. The root has medicinal uses as a diuretic or in the making of dyes and let us not forget dandelion wine.

However there is very little commercial cultivation of dandelions. For the most part the dandelion is a weed invading the suburban lawn and challenging the spiritual harmony of the weekend gardener.

I am not an avid lawn person. The avid lawn person fertilizes and seeds on schedule. An avid lawn person executes a precision mowing schedule based on grass heights and varies the mowing pattern in order to insure equal lawn development. The avid lawn person frets over bare spots and laments over weeds. No I am not an avid lawn person.

However each spring as I return to the chore of lawn care the dandelion causes me to examine my inner nature. I can choose to fight off the invasion working to bar the dandelion from my yard. I can choose to spend hours digging them out or seeking weed killing products to “zap” them. But I have chosen a different path.

I marvel at the dandelion. I marvel at how quickly the flower stem rises six to eight inches above a freshly mown yard. I choose to see the yellow flowers spread across my lawn as a meadow of sun drops. And when the flowers convert to a puff of seeds, who break apart floating away on the wind I do not see a thousand future dandelions seeking a home in my yard, I choose instead to see fairies going forth into the world.