The previous owner of this house was not into "manicured suburban yard". This is good, because neither are we, but also bad because there is a profusion of broadleaf weeds – much dandelion, even more false dandelion (Cat's Ear), some plantain…
Please don't remind me that dandelions and their ilk are good for tea / salad / bees / the planet. I know this, but we live with an HOA and some of the neighbors have complained about a bee-friendly yard of happy yellow flowers that can turn into puffy white clouds** that blow across the street into their immaculate manicured lawns of water-sucking monoculture turf grass.
(**Oddly, I have not yet seen a seed ball on any of the Cat's ear plants. How long do they wait?)
By next spring, I hope to have more clover and wildflowers, but this year, we're stuck with a profusion of dandelions and false dandelions. I'm digging them up (which seems to be the One True Safe Way) of eradicating them, but omg there are a lot of them and it's back-breaking work. (People in a gardening group have recommended the Fiskars "Stand Up Weeder" which I have ordered.)
In the meantime, I've learned two interesting things about cat's ear plants:
- They are classified as a class C Noxious weed in Washington state.
- Mowing stimulates flower production. (Given the neighbors, I find this to be lol ironic.)
(Edited to add: heat also stimulates flower production. Boy does it stimulate flower production! Everything else was wilting and these things came up like gangbusters.)
Slightly Off KIlter 
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