Beginning around April Fools’ Day—an appropriate mark on the calendar, given my mission—I decided to rid my daughter’s lawn of dandelion flowers and the subsequent powder-puff balls. They were everywhere after I first cut the grass, bright yellow flowers and tufts of white seeds ready to be borne by the wind to breed more dandelions, and I’d had enough. My daughter and her husband are readying their house for possible sale, and a yard prickled with these pests might leave prospective buyers shaking their heads before they’d even set foot in the house.
From the very first day, I realized the difficulty of this fight. The yard consists of about an acre of grass, and I lacked the tools, the time, and the energy to dig these nuisances up by the roots. Besides, a yard marred by patches of raw dirt would look as bad, or worse, than the dandelions.
