Dandelions can add some colour to the garden and some people prefer to treat them as wildflowers, but if left untended can sap the nutrients from nearby plants.
These pesky yellow flowers are especially notorious on lawns as they can spread incredibly quickly and their deep roots mean they will only regrow if cut away.
Genevieve Schmidt, a landscaper and founder of North Coast Gardening has shared that getting rid of dandelions without damaging your lawn can be difficult, but not impossible with her ‘injection’ method.
She said: “I just got a nifty tip on how to kill dandelions organically when they are growing in your lawn or the centre of another plant: injection with vinegar-based organic weed killer.”
Vinegar is one of the most effective natural ways of removing weeds but it is often not recommended by gardeners as can risk damaging any nearby plants, and can especially be difficult to use on lawns without risking the grass.
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Genevieve said: “You may have found that if you spray non-selective herbicide, organic or otherwise, on your dandelion you end up with a dead patch of lawn to match your dead dandelion, which is so not cool.
“You can try getting the long taproot out manually with your soil knife, but it often takes a few tries because if you leave any portion of that taproot, you’re in for another dandelion soon.”
Instead, Genevieve recommends injecting dandelions directly with a small syringe, which helps kill the plant by using toxic chemicals and also prevents grass from being affected.
Genevieve said: “The whole injection-by-hand thing may sound like a pain, but if your dandelions have really good taproots and keep coming back, I’d think 20 seconds per weed is well worth it being gone forever.”
All you need to do is inject the dandelion deep in the head, aiming for the central spot where the leaves come from.
After two weeks the dandelion roots will dehydrate and die off, making it easy to pick up and throw the whole dandelion in the bin.
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Genevieve said: “After a couple of weeks, you can lift the top of the dandelion right off of the poor, pickled taproot.”
You can inject dandelion with white vinegar in your kitchen cupboard, or use Weed Pharm, an organic weed killer which Genevieve recommends.
She said: “Weed Pharm [is] a food-grade organic herbicide made from concentrated vinegar [which is] 20 percent acetic acid.”
This dandelion injection method will keep your lawn looking lush, tidy and can be done no matter the weather or time of year to help your garden keep looking its best.
Genevieve added: “Another cool thing to note is that while spraying herbicide (any kind) is only effective on dry days with temperatures above 60 degrees Fahrenheit [15 Celcius], injections of herbicide can be done in the dead of winter with the rain pouring down.
