How to Get Rid of Dandelions Without Toxic Poison
Dandelions are invasive weeds that spread quickly as the flowers go to seed. Left unattended, a few dandelions in your yard eventually become a blanket of yellow. Because the wind carries and deposits the seeds, neighbors end up with dandelions in their yards, too. Chemical pesticides can get rid of dandelions, but natural nontoxic methods are equally efficient when practiced consistently. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Corn gluten
- Lawn fertilizer
- Lawn mower
- Cooking pot
- White vinegar
- Dandelion remover
Instructions
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Pour corn gluten into your lawn fertilizer and spread it over the lawn in the spring at the time you would normally fertilize your grass. Purchase corn gluten at nurseries or hardware stores. Spread the corn gluten over your lawn once each spring to greatly reduce dandelions and other weeds.
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Prevent dandelions from growing and going to seed by mowing frequently. Cut your grass regularly. When dandelions sprout, make sure to mow the lawn before the yellow flower heads can go to seed to avoid having the weeds spread.
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Warm white vinegar in a cooking pot. Pour the undiluted vinegar directly over the dandelion flower and leaves. The acid in the vinegar effectively kills the above-ground portion of the plant.
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Wait one to two days for the dandelions to shrivel from the vinegar then pull the roots with a dandelion digger. Insert the digger into the ground and secure the root with the hook-like end of the digger. Pull the dandelion to remove the long root.
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Tips & Warnings
Use the vinegar technique and your dandelion digger repeatedly throughout the growing season to reduce and eliminate dandelions.
Enlist your neighbors in removing dandelions on the block. If you get rid of your dandelions but your neighbor doesn't, you'll still end up with a dandelion problem from the neighbor's seeds.
References
- Photo Credit Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
