On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 00:45:54 GMT, Phisherman wrote:

On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 23:51:08 GMT, "Shadow"
wrote:

Soon spring will be here, as will my yellow sea of dandelions. To be honest,
I really haven't tried very hard to get rid of them. I live next to a field
that is full of wildflowers (which I quite enjoy), and I had always assumed
that any attempt I made to rid my lawn of weeds would be nullified by seeds
from the field next door ending up on my lawn.However, in an attempt to be
neighbourly, I thought I'd try this year to at least get a start on
controlling the dandelions. I really do not want to use chemical
fertilizers, so I am looking for an organic solution. Any suggestions would
be appreciated.

Sounds like you enjoy the dandelions, so I suggest keep them. But if
you really want to put forth the effort and money to rid them you can
use a broadleaf herbacide that will kill the dandelions but not harm
(too much) the grass. What may happen is that you may be left with a
very sparse lawn and eventually need to overseed, else you will be
faced with a more vicious weed--crabgrass. If you prefer to go
totally organic, you can dig each one out by hand but if you break off
the long tapered root, it will grow back. My lawn is thick (I
overseed each year), so I may get a dozen or two dandelions over a
half acre of lawn each year. A thick lawn requires very little
chemicals and I will use spot treatment for the few weeds that grow.

I second Phisherman's advice. While not "organic," spot-treating with
Weed-Be-Gon or some similar broadleaf herbicide is quite effective.
When I was able to afford it, I got this in an aerosol can(!) and just
sprayed a little foam on each plant. In a thick lawn, this took about
5 minutes on a couple of Saturday mornings, and the problem went away
(and the can lasted for 2-3 years). Digging is *very* organic, and
quite ineffective -- at least as a long-term cure. The tiniest root
fragment will produce new plants.