Days of Dandelions

 

Spring is here, and soon the grass and lawnmowers. Do people still strive for the perfect lawn, to walk on a carpet of grass--lush and green, with no unwanted weeds like clover or dandelions?

 The grass thrives in cool and damp conditions, like the gardens of the great mansions of England.   Maybe there is still an envy of the aristocracy in striving for the perfect lawn. To have enough space to grow nothing but grass with ornamental borders.  

Not like a crowded  cottage garden, where what  available space there is is used for growing lettuce and beans and eggplants,  tomatoes and peppers,  and lots of flowers, too.  

And what of the so-called weeds?  

Clover is a soft and resilient ground cover.  It also enriches the soil.

Dandelions have many uses.  Young leaves are edible.  The root is medicinal.  You can make a healing salve with dandelions. You can make dandelion tea, and dandelion wine.  

Rabbits eat the stems like spaghetti.

And bees love the flowers. Imagine, dandelion honey!

Oh yes, children love dandelions, too. They look like something a child would draw, in chalk on a sidewalk,  or a yellow crayon on paper, a round yellow flower like the sun.