Wednesday 1 October 2014

Dandelions And Permaculture - Why A Permaculturist Loves Dandelions?

Hello! Permaculture people love dandelions - why do you think that is?

Have you ever blown puff balls of dandelion seeds?  I remember that it use to be one of my favourite past time activities as a kid.  Friends and I use to pick dandelions and blow 'puff balls' in to the wind.

I was never told then that dandelions were edible and they had so many great advantages.

What is a dandelion?

A dandelion is a herbaceous plant that is found as a 'weed' all over the world.  See description here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum

Benefits of dandelions

  • Edible, highly nutritious plant (vitamin C and A. B-6, Iron)
             -- mostly used are leaves, flowers and roots e.g makes a great tea
             -- young leaves and flowers in salads
             -- roots great for roasting and eaten as vegetables
             -- obviously using dandelions only were they haven't been
                 subject to sprays and pesticides

  • A tap root of dandelion brake up compacted soil and allow better water penetration and also aerates the soil.  Also a taproot delivers nutrients and minerals from the deep down on to the surface for other plants that have shallower root system. 

  • Bees love its flower

Disadvantages

  • If you love your lawn then you probably don't like dandelions, as they spread quickly by seeds.  But even then you should thank dandelions by telling you that the soil under your lawn may be compacted and needs aeration.

But who wants to have a 'perfect' lawn anyway :-)

Here I found a couple of great videos for you to enjoy!

The first video is from Paul Wheaton titled with Dandelions In Permaculture and the second video is from Neil Bromhall titled with Time Lapse Dandelion Flower To Seed Head .

Hope you will enjoy them as much as we did :-)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnYle_Zkgfs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ_QqtXoyQw

So, what do you think of dandelions now? :-)  We'd love to hear your thoughts in the box below.



Heli & Allan
     


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