I was out at a family member's house and the lawn was gorgeous. Not a single dandelion in sight. Now I am not one of those people who embraces the dandelion. I consider it a weed. I remember hearing a quote from someone famous that perhaps we just need to look at them differently. This is true for dandelions offer great nutrients in their leaves. So the next time you're hungry march outside and pick yourself some greens. You can also steam them up like spinach. Please don't eat them though if you use chemicals in your landscaping environment.
I asked this family member (yes, I am withholding who it is) how they got rid of the dandelions and they eagerly ran back to the shed and came out with a bottle of Weed Be Gone. I shot a look at my boyfriend who knows I don't put that stuff or any other chemicals on my lawn or gardens. Since the family member and I just recently got on talking grounds again and I didn't want to rock the boat with my GREEN LIVING CRUSADES, I kept quiet, hoping my boyfriend would interject. Well...now that bottle of Weed Be Gone is sitting in my shed and I don't know what to do with it. I won't use it. I don't want to give it away to family or friends. I don't want to toss it in the garbage. ...and I don't want to put it down the drain. ..so for now it sits.
Once I got home from this family member's house, I immediately googled how to get rid of dandelions naturally. There are many different remedies out there, I was quite shocked that so many people use chemicals. It seems we are losing ourselves and getting out of touch with the earth. The easiest fix, that is what we want. Well what if I said there was a much easier fix and it is free.
First of all, I encourage you all to check out the ingredients in Weed be Gone. It is said that the active ingredient is one of the ingredients of the Agent Orange that effected so many war veterans drastically. I would not feel comfortable with my children running around with bare feet soaking up this chemical. There are even stories of the dangerous cancer causing effects it has on our animals. Now Fido is important to you right? Or the effects it has on our wildlife and streams? Ok, now that I have probably got your attention, let's get back to learning how to get rid of the dandelions naturally.
First and foremost, you can PULL them out. Just make sure you get as much of the root as possible. There are also handy-dandy tools to help you accomplish this.
Secondly, you can discourage their growth by mowing often, also go around and pick off the heads before they seed. As you are likely aware there can be thousands of seeds from one flower.
The third way that I know of I actually find the most amazing. Pour boiling water over the center of the stem. You can literally watch them lose their green color and turn brown. I probably spent close to 3 or 4 hours boiling water on the stove and brought each pot outside pouring the water over each and every dandelion one by one. Ok I agree, this isn't the most efficient way to rid of dandelions but it is natural. I bet someone has already come up with a tool of some sort that heats the water the perfect temperature and is held in some kind of tank or something. All you have to do is wheel it around and spray each dandelions with hot, boiling water.
So, since I don't own this tool I dreamed up...I want back to the drawing board. Once again googling for more answers. This my friend seemed to be the magic ticket.
HOT VINEGAR:
•1. Boil Vinegar on the stove. Not sure how bad it is to inhale so don't boil long and use ventilation.
•2. Pour hot vinegar in a sray bottle. Use an old one cause the bottle might disfigure a little due to the hot water.
•3. Spray the dandelions with about three or four sprays of the hot vinegar. I heard doing this on a sunny day works better. Let the vinegar soak in and do its thing.
•4. Watch the dandelions turn brown and die....YEAH!!!
I probably did a patch half the size of what I had done the day before with the boiling water (3-4 hours) in about 10 minutes. Much, much easier.
I still think that boiling water is more natural and it is free (well besides, the cost of water and the electricity to boil it) but until I find the proper contraption I will stick with the vinegar.
I hope that this inspires you to put away the chemicals and strive for a more natural and clean environment, that is not only better for you, but for the environment as well.
Here is a photo from pouring the boiling water over the area. Keep in mind that this area was completely covered with dandelions. I am not talking about a few, I mean the whole area. We decided to kill them off and then reseed. 
I didn't get a picture of the vinegar method, but essentially it looks the same, just more specific spots, since I can aim better with a spray bottle rather than dumping water. I do realize that brown spots don't really look so hot but we let the dandelioin problem get so out of hand that we have to resort to this method. The plan is to kill them off as much as we can this year and reseed the grass and then hopefully have a nicer lawn next year. In the meantime, we will be actively picking the heads off of dandelions so they don't seed again, mowing often, and aggressively shooting them down with VINEGAR!!!!
