Dandelions stand 5-6 feet- how to combat

15 years ago

A friend's daughter just moved into her first house. All along the perimeter of the backyard (probably 80-120 feet by 4-5 feet wide,) are dandelions about 4-5' tall. I'm not sure what to suggest.

They will not be planting in the area for a year or so.

I was thinking of cutting them down carefully and they lying plastic over them for the sun to kill the seeds.

I know plastic will also kill the beneficial critters in the soil but at this point they just need the weeds gone. I can help them bring back the beneficials with compost etc.

As I talk about this I remember that these same weeds will be back next year unless they are killed with RoundUp in the fall. Maybe an idea would be to cut them down to a foot or so; remove seed heads as they appear again and then use RoundUp in the fall.

What do you guys recommend? This is a a couple with their first baby and their first house, so spending much time in the garden isn't top on their list. It's me that is worried about these darn dandelions.

Thanks

Ginny

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Comments (5)

jean001a
15 years ago
Any chance of pictures? I ask because I've never seen dandelions that humongous!
ginjj
Original Author
15 years ago
Jean I'll see if I can figure out how to post pictures again, have to find my notes. I actually had a picture I wanted to post but when I posted my question I saw that there was a new (to me anyway) option to :

"Image file to upload" ..... browse.

I was hoping this would be a quick way to insert pictures but no such luck. The picture I was going to use was in an email I sent to myself from my iPhone. I've never posted a picture from that source.

I can try again to post a picture, just wish I had it in my memory bank or on a post-it I could quickly find.

I'll work on this in a little while.

Ginny
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hortster
15 years ago
Boy, I'm anxious to see pictures, too. Western salsify (Tragopodon dubius) looks dandelion-ish in flower and seed head, and gets tall but more like 3', not 5-6'. Either someone got carried away with the fertilizer or maybe some of that earthquake radiation made it to CA!
hortster
hortster
15 years ago
That would be Tragopogon dubius, with a g and not a d.
hortster
ginjj
Original Author
15 years ago
The picture isn't clear enough to determine which weeds exactly. I know some of them are dandelions but not all. Any suggestions how to get rid of them for good?

Ginny