Save the Dandelions!
2009 April 22
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A weed is just a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” This rings so true for so many of our favorite spring flowers, especially the dandelion. We love the dandelion and all its virtues it has to give. Here is a small section of our yard…..no chemicals allowed here!
We are on a crusade to save our sunny yellow friends. We are dedicated to teaching others these virtues of the dandelion. We got out our yellow and green acrylic paint, paintbrushes, rocks, paper, and little canvas bags to show our love to the dandelion. We picked some dandelion tops to use as our natural paintbrush and started making dandelion prints.
We used paintbrushes to paint on the stems.
We made signs that read “Save the Dandelions!”
We made dandelion prints on rocks. We are going to share our special dandelion rocks with our friends, neighbors and relatives. A way of spreading Dandelion Love!
We also painted little canvas bags to show our love for dandelions.
Dandelions for Justice I say! Won’t you join us in this crusade to spread the dandelion love?
I’m busy planning future dandelion activities, lore and recipes to share. The posts will be titled Virtues of a Dandelion.
Your daughters are so photogenic – in every photo they are just precious! And I too love the dandelion.
I’ve considered them flowers for a long time– here’s a post I wrote about them with a link to the dandelion song: http://holesinmyshinyveneer.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-which-it-is-explained-why-dandelions.html
I’m so inspired by your blog! Thanks for the ideas!
Yay for you! I make dandelion jelly and cookies and they are yummmmmm-eeeee!
I love it! Hooray for the dandelion!! That is actually the meaning behind the name of my blog/shop…http://wishingstardesigns.typepad.com. When they go to seed they remind me of stars. I like anything you can make a wish on. I can’t wait til my son is old enough to do some of these projects!
I was just going to add that a couple of days ago we had a dandelion day too, while studying the letter D.
I’m glad one of your commentors mentioned dying wool with dandelions. I have natural wool that I’ve wanted colored. I tried kool-aid but wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. I’ll try this.
we are showing our appreciation for dandelions too. in my preschool we are reading the story of the star children. do you know it? if not, it’s a beautiful one and you can find it here http://www.therapeutichomeschooling.org/starchildren.htm
xx
i look forward to more dandelion posts
Hi, just discovered your blog. Made me think of a post my friend put on her blog about here daughter dragging him mom outside, running out under the tree, spinning around and saying “Isn’t it beautiful! It’s like our own flower garden!” I thought that was sweet. I don’t like them on our lawn, though, because I like it when grass is grass. I guess I could harvest them, though!
We studied dandelions last summer & Ben & I both loved learning about them!
How pretty those prints are!
Here’s our dandelion post
Dandelions
So very lovely….what a sunny post for your Spring! I adore dandelions too…even their pungent aroma…..good for so so many things!
and your quote is so perfect!
What a great post! I’m posting some pictures on my blog today of some dandelion bouquets we made. I’d love to link to this post. I hope that’s ok with you.
We love dandelions too. You are certainly right there is lots of lore and activities to do with dendelions. I use them to naturally dye wool and drink dandelion tea each day. Nutritous to eat too.
Just joining the chorus here: saute your chemical-free dandelion greens in a little olive oil with chives and a squeeze of lemon juice — one of my favorite tastes of spring!
I love that you “saved” the dandelions in your yard!!! Our kids have to beg to keep their grandparents (our only next door neighbors) from spraying. Granddad despises them (maybe we need to make signs like yours!). So, I’ve been showing the kids how yummy they are to eat…next up will have to be printing. Yay for the dandelion!!!!!
I love dandelions, especially a handful from my youngest daughter. She picked our first dandelion yesterday.
It is hard not to like this bright colored plant, because it is one of the very first that our children pick for us. A first gift from a toddler exploring for the first time. Save the Dandelion!
Jen
Creative and Curious Kids!
Hurrah! My girls loooove dandelions. As I’m busy learning the spring wildflowers in our part of Ohio, they’re busy pointing out the scads of dandelions everywhere. We’ve been playing “Wildcraft” as well, and they quickly noticed that the dandelion is helpful in so many situations (it shows up as the “cure” for most of the ailments that befall the huckleberry gatherers). My eldest will extol the virtues to anyone who will listen…(we’ve tried the greens in quesadillas and a friend tempurahs the flowers – do you eat them?)
I was just thinking about this very thing and actually took pics of my little one playing with dadelions today. I don’t get why people hate them so much. I think they just make the lawn look prettier, actually. If all could only see through the eyes of a child. I get bouquets of dandelions daily. Why must people cause so much stress in their life? Why does every lawn have to be perfect? I find more beauty in imperfection…Actually, come to think of it a lawn without dandelions is less perfect to me.
I am a dandelion lover but not for their happy flower because it attracts bees which can kill me. I love them because of their tap root which rots in our dry and arid soil and promotes aeration, good water absorbtion, drainage and dirt food. So they are welcome in my garden and I keep my distance when the bees are hungry because bees are very important to our enviroment.
Awww… you guys are so cute, fighting to save the dandelions:)
I let dandelions grow in my yard.
I’m not too thrilled when my neighbors spray chemicals around to kill them;(
We love to blow the dandelions in summer! Plus, dandelion greens are highly nutritious and tasty.
I agree..dandelions are great! I wish our neighbors felt the same way. I spend a lot of time digging them out of my yard, because I won’t use chemicals on the lawn. I know if I let them stay, and they spread to the neighbors lawn, they’ll be out there spraying the poison around which is something I hope to avoid. I like to challenge my kids to see how many dandelions they an pick in a set amount of time…that way the flowers don’t go to seed.
We too are chemical-free and dandelion-full. We think they are pretty flowers. You’re doing a great thing — can’t wait to read more.
You´ve got my vote! Great post!
Dandelions have always been my fav flower! We’ll be doing some dandelion paintings soon…what a fun idea!
I’m so sad you live in Ohio!! Goose and your girls would have the best times together!
Dandelions are a cheerful little flower, aren’t they? And quite hearty, too! I love all the prints you did with them.
Okay, okay, you and I would have fun, too!
dandelions are wonderful our neighbors make dandelion tea and steam the greens with a bit of salt and butter and they are pretty good. Dandleions are very rich in vitamins too.
And who can resisit the sunny yellow face, your also right many of the flowers now sold used to be considered weeds when I was a kid.
You all are sooooo awsome!
Any friend of dandelion is a friend of mine. I love that quote by Emmerson. I used to have it on a bumpersticker on the back of my old car.
However, dandelion’s virtues HAVE been discovered, they’ve just been forgotten and ignored. Funny thing is, if people would just give up their obsession with lawns cut no higher than a quarter inch, they wouldn’t have any dandelions to worry about. These plants can’t compete with high growing meadow plants and herbalist who don’t grow lawn usually have to look elsewhere for this, one of their most loved plant allies.
Save the dandelions!
I have a felt project coming up that I think you’ll appreciate,then.
What a lovely idea! The baby loved dandelions too – we don’t need to use chemicals on our lawn as she picks them all! When I was little I used to mash up dandelions in jam jars with water then dye little scraps of cotton a murky green colour (not the yellow we’d hoped for!). I’m rediscovering my love of natural dyeing at the moment and whenever I see a dandelion it reminds me of my childhood experimentation!
oh my gosh you guys are so cute! We absolutley LOVE dandelions too! I was just telling someone how they make the sweetest bouquets from my children & who can resist putting one behind their ear? I took a picture the other day that has become one of my favorites & it displays my children playing in the yard which happens to be sprinkled with yellow & white dandelions! such a cute post :0)
Lisa, you are absolutely right, there are lots of good uses for dandelions. We like to make dandelion crowns.
hubby drinks it for liver health.
I’m not sure if I like them spreading though…esp. when they take over my grass. We don’t use chemicals to get rid of them either.
Dandelions have a special place in my heart. Once when I was about 4yo I picked one and tried to give it to my mother. She knocked it out of my hand and said, “Put that nasty thing down!” I was of course, crushed–and said through my welling tears, “But it’s a flower for you.” Her response, “That’s not a flower! That’s a weed!
Needless to say that was the last time I EVER gave my mother flowers, and most of my childhood I hated the outdoors.
It makes me sad that I think of that story just about every time I see a dandelion, but it also makes me love them all the more because they are so under appreciated by so many.
Hear, hear! We love dandelions too. Maybe we’ll do some dandelion rock painting soon as well. Looks fun!