Here’s my favorite dandelion weeder. It’s a simple thing called a “spud” and I love this particular one.
My grandfather owned it and then my father owned it and now I own it.
Now, this tells you how long it lasts.
- It has no moving parts.
- It has no serious costs other than the original purchase price that’s lower than most fancier gadgets.
- It doesn’t break down.
- It simply works.
You put the forked prong against the root of the dandelion (as far down as you can) and simply lean or push against it.
The metal cuts the dandelion in half and you flip the green part out of the ground. Leave it on the lawn to dry out or rake ’em up and dispose of them.
As with any mechanical weeding system, you won’t get all the root the first time around. But I take great pleasure in noting that most herbicides don’t get all the dandelions either.
You do have to repeat the process once more as soon as the dandelions have resprouted their leaves.
This second go-round will usually wipe out most of the weeds but the odd one will have enough energy in the roots to produce a third set of leaves. Get that set, and you’ll have no dandelions in your lawn.
The trick is to make sure you get the new leaves *just* as they finish unfolding so the maximum amount of root energy has been used to produce the leaves but the leaves haven’t started replenishing that root energy. We want to deplete root energy so do watch your lawns.
The dandelions will not start up at the same time so you’ll be able to do them as they recover from the first pushing.
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And this is my dandelion weeder of choice for the environmental effect it has.