They’re definitely not fields of dreams, as far as some are concerned.
Dandelions are rearing their yellow heads across Calgary, alongside roadways and alleys and infiltrating parks and many neighbourhood lawns.
“It’s impossible to get rid of them,” said Scott Stoner, a horticulturist with Blue Grass Nursery and Garden Centre. “You’d have to nuke the entire planet, and even then they’d most likely come back.
“They do run amok because of the environment we have created — the low grass and we keep feeding them and watering them.”
Stoner says if lawns or parks are kept healthy and thick, dandelions can’t compete. But once they get hold, you need to resort to stronger measures. Spraying herbicides helps, as does a natural, non-toxic alternative using corn gluten meal. But there’s no substitute for the back-breaking work of digging them out by hand, one by one.
Dandelions some gone to see fill a community field in Calgary’s Renfrew neighbourhood on Monday May 29, 2017. Gavin Young/Postmedia Network
But not everyone considers them a pest.
Dandelions are a great source of food for bees, and young leaves can be added to salads. A weed to some, it makes a fine wine to others.
“A lot of these weeds, like dandelions and quack grass, were brought over by European settlers,” said Stoner. “They are both a beneficial, useful plant — and a weed.”
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Officially, dandelions, like quack grass, are considered a nuisance, but they are not included in Alberta’s Weed Control Act. There is no provincial requirement to control them (beyond a city warning if they’re over 15 centimetres in height), so without the heavy hammer of fines, some residents let them take over.
The current proliferation might appear as if the city has done the same. But it is treating them with a mild herbicide and has embarked on some test projects, including voracious goats, as alternatives to spraying everything in sight.
