Our next stop on the backyard medicinal tour brings us face to face with a plant that’s been cursed by suburban homeowners for generations: the simple dandelion.
I’ll admit: I’m not excited about having a yard full of yellow blooms. A few here and there are okay, but I do try to limit them. I don’t chemically treat anything, but if I notice a clump becoming too prolific, I’ll manually remove them, and I definitely try not to let them go to seed! While it’s fun for the kids to blow and watch the seeds drift away (who am I kidding – I still like to do it just as much as they do), each one of those seeds has the potential to take over another part of the yard.
But if you can get past the idea of having a perfectly manicured lawn (which, in my opinion, is a waste of time and money, and a battle you’re never going to win anyway, but to each his own) and accept a few dandelions scattered about, you can reap some benefits that may surprise you.