Making the news today....

[Mick Dempsey]

16 minutes ago, peds said:

Yeah, except that, taking into account the whole insect apocalypse thing... there really isn't plenty of room elsewhere. The amount of land wasted globally by lawns, and both the carbon and ecological footprints required for their upkeep, is immense.

 

Swap your lawn for a wildflower meadow, or at the very least: allow the wildflowers that also enjoy your lawn to grow there, and enjoy the best of both worlds.

I have 3 hectares of grassland behind my garden that hasn’t seen any chemicals in decades.

I have the best of both worlds.

Edited April 25 by Mick Dempsey

[peds]

We are going to have to agree to disagree on this one I'm afraid. Personally, I find a square of plain lawn visually unappealing and detrimental to the overall aesthetic of a garden, and I don't understand the obsession with maintaining it, no matter how small and no matter how extensive your other meadow may be.

But that's okay, you can't see eye to eye with everyone all the time, and at least noone got their feelings hurt.

[carlos]

3 minutes ago, peds said:

We are going to have to agree to disagree on this one I'm afraid. Personally, I find a square of plain lawn visually unappealing and detrimental to the overall aesthetic of a garden, and I don't understand the obsession with maintaining it, no matter how small and no matter how extensive your other meadow may be.

But that's okay, you can't see eye to eye with everyone all the time, and at least noone got their feelings hurt.

not really the ethos of the thread......but a welcome change

[sime42]

4 hours ago, peds said:

Regarding insect apocalypse:

 

 

I'm doing my bit. There's a few thousand dandelion seeds just been mixed into the top layer of compost of the trays for around 6000 bedding plants.

 

🥷🌱🌳🐝🌍

 

Was that an act of horticultural sabotage by "someone"?

[sime42]

4 hours ago, peds said:

Why on earth would you want to do that? Great plant for any location. Pack enough of them into one spot and they work as great ground cover to keep the weeds down. 

 

I'm not a fan of dandelions, they're towards the far end on the good plant to annoying weed scale. What's so good about them? Got to admire their tenacity and prowess at reproduction though. They'll be one of the survivors in the barren wasteland that's left in a few years I'm sure.

 

So children love them, (blowing the "clocks" and stuff), and you can make wine out of the flowers. I have fond memories of picking them with my grandad as a child, running around in a sea of bright yellow. Plus eating the leaves has a diuretic effect, (if that was what one wanted), hence the French name for them. What else is in their favour? Anything to do with the long tap root drawing stuff up from the depths?

 

 

 

[peds]

Well yeah, those big long tap roots suck all sorts of things from deeper in the soil than many other plants their size, so they are great to have around even if just used for chop and drop to feed other plants nearby. Especially on soil in poor health, broken ground, that sort of thing.

 

A surplus of pissenlit roots can also be turned into root beer as long as another favourite "weed", burdock, is available in roughly the same quantity. In fact roots, leaves, stems, buds, flowers, and seeds are all edible and, prepared appropriately, delicious. 

They are also, predictably, more chock-full of nutrients than other leaves you'd be eating a similar amount of. Can replace frisee, endive, radicchio, and other substantial leaves in salads. Use with a similar volume of green herbs to make pesto or salsa verde. Cook with peas and bacon or wild mushrooms for an exciting side dish.

 

Well worth having around. 

 

Edited April 25 by peds

[Mesterh]

I think you can make a coffee substitute from dandelion roots and they are supposed to have many health benefits from root to flower. They are a really good source of food for insects at this time of year. Only stuff ive read a long time ago.

 

We always used to call them wee the beds as kids as apparently they make you 'wee the bed' if you eat them. Probably just some propaganda from big pharma like.

 

 

 

[sime42]

I'm sold on the idea. Half! Quite intrigued to try brewing some root beer.

 

 

[sime42]

Though after reading this, maybe not.

 

"The flavour of dandelion and burdock seems to follow a bell curve of: too sweet, horrible, really rather nice, horrible, poisonous – with the 'quite nice' occurring at the 3–4 week point and extendable by keeping it in the fridge."

 

Dandelion and burdock beer | River Cottage

WWW.RIVERCOTTAGE.NET

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Dandelion and burdock roots, being perennial, are available all year, but it is important to collect them only when the...

 

[Mark Bolam]

14 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

I have 3 hectares of grassland behind my garden that hasn’t seen any chemicals in decades.

I have the best of both worlds.

Exactly.

I like to think I’m breeding healthier insects by trying to keep my lawn weed free.

If they can’t be arsed to fly about 20m to the weed infested park adjacent to me then they deserve to die.