I love Dandelions!

“If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.”

Andrew V. Mason

I love Dandelions! I know its an incredible, bold statement, in some neighborhoods it would be better to love E. Coli than the dreaded dandelion, but love them I do. Dandelions are the perfect color of yellow...happy, warm and buttery. OK maybe butter is the perfect color of yellow, but be that as it may... The flowers are soft and puffy and tickle your nose when you give them a sniff.

The seeds are incredible and possibly the best part of the plant. The poofs beg for a puff of breath to send them on their aerodynamic way. If the poofs are too new the seeds won't fly away easily, if the are too old, just picking them up has the seeds flying in all directions. Occasionally you find that perfect one that has the holding power to stay but the slights breath will send the little parachutes flying into the breeze.

The smell always reminds me of my own childhood and picking huge bouquets of them for my mom. I can remember the feeling of pulling the flowers up and the white sap making my warm hands sticky. My mom always greeted these short lived bouquets with the proper enthusiasm and put them in a jar of water to be enjoyed by anyone around for the next hour before the flowers closed up forever. Now, as a mom myself, I get to enjoy being on the receiving end of these generational offerings and it really does make me smile. Here's the thing, the dandelion is more than a nuisance in the lawn or a beautiful flower arrangement to any mom, they are also very versatile plants. They grow just about anywhere, even in spots where other plant fail because of the heat or foot traffic, they are
very drought tolerant thanks to their long tap root and every part of the plant is edible and purported to have medicinal value as well.

The serrated leaves can be used in a salad, the young plants taste a bit like arugula, the older leaves are bitter and better used for cooking. They can be baked, boiled or sauteed with a little garlic. The leaves are high in Vitamins A, C and K, Carotene, Lutein, Calcium and Iron as well as other nutrients. The leaves are also known as a blood purifier and can be used as a diuretic.

The flowers can be eaten in a salad, made into wine or dipped in batter and deep fried. That's right folks, dandelion flowers can be fermented into a wine. Can your fancy, shmancy rose you labor over, worry over and mourn when it's killed off by random frostbite, be made into an alcoholic drink... or deep fried? Not to mention a rose dies if you look at it wrong... a dandelion barely turns brown with the addition of herbicide or a good stomping. In fact in can be hard to get rid of these stubborn plants as the tap root will easily grow another plant if the whole thing isn't carefully removed.

That long tap root can be brewed into a drink that is something like decaf coffee... although if you've actually had coffee and like it, you might not be really wowed by it. The tea is said to have a lot of benefits including as an anti inflammatory and an aid to digestion.

All these great benefits are why our ancestors brought the plant over to the new world. The botanic name of the Dandelion is Taraxacum officinale which can be translated to mean, "disorder remedy". I might not believe its a panacea for every disorder that affects us or even listed on the net, but the vitamins and minerals are something the plant does contain in abundance.

So the next time you are thinking about spraying a dandelions in your yard, take the time to look at it a little more closely. That plant you hate so much brings joy to kids and there aren't many plants that can lay claim to being completely edible as well as medicinally useful. Yet the highly maligned, humble dandelion can do it all.

Earth Day (picture heavy)

For Earth Day Dee Dee, Lucas and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Denver Botanic Gardens. DBG has hosted a free day to celebrate the Earth for the last few years.  This year the day dawned rather cold, wet and blustery, it looked like we were going to have to spend all of our time in the conservatory just to stay warm and dry.

Since I was worried about the weather we left a little late and stopped by the dollar store to buy umbrellas and magnifying glasses for some extra fun. We didn't arrive at the gardens until about 11AM and at that point the rain cleared up, the sun came out and everyone and their kid arrived at the parking garage at the same time, like some sort of Earth Day miracle.

The gardens were beautiful, it had rained just enough to wash everything clean and leave sparkly drops on all the leaves and flower petals.  The kids enjoyed the puddles and muddy trails that were left behind.   The drops I liked, the playing in the mud and stomping through puddles I could have done without.
Dee Dee and Lucas were a little disappointed about the weather... new umbrellas beg for a good rainstorm. But then Dee Dee pointed out that umbrellas could be used to, "keep the sun off of us!" and everyone was happy.  Dee Dee used hers quite a bit on the trip, Lucas just wanted to swing his around, so he ended up putting it away so I would stop giving him the evil eye. 

It was hard for Lucas to decide if he was a "sthecret sthpy or a sthcientist", he finally decided on scientist rather than secret spy and immediately got to work observing things just like a scientist would.

This year was especially nice because the gardens are hosting sculptures by Henry Moore. I always enjoy when they have art in the gardens... it's like going to an art show without having the stress of taking my kids to an actual "don't touch that, OMG we can't afford that if you break it" art show  Although, in fairness the kids would really have to try to damage some of these sculptures.  I'm not saying they couldn't do it, it would just take a little more effort. 

The Day was fill with flowers, fun and even a little art.   When we left Dee Dee said her favorite part was the umbrellas.  Lucas said his favorite part was parking in the garage.  My favorite part....... well, all of it!

Dinosuars...Where?!? (Picture heavy, because I can)

Saturday dawned as a bit of a dreary day... clouds, slightly chilly and the threat of rain. Despite that, we decided to have an outing to the Denver Botanic Gardens, what with it being a free day and all. What we didn't know is the DBG had been invaded by Dinosaurs which made it way more fun than usual. (OK, its always fun for me... prehistoric creatures or no.) There was also a lot of construction, the parking lot was a big giant pit (literally... it was a hole in the ground surrounded by concrete) and the front entrance looked more like a disaster area than a metro spot of peace, beauty and tranquility. Luckily after oohing and ahhing at the crane,(the metal kind, not the feathered variety) preventing the kids from scaling the chain link fence and distracting them from staring at the construction workers while they tried to enjoy their lunch we made it inside the gardens where things were just as pretty and tranquil as they've ever been. Although my kids were able to take care of that pesky quiet, tranquil feeling:)

Right off we were greeted with hundreds of tulips in full bloom, as well as dozens of other blooming spring bulbs. All the bright colors immediately started to dispel some of the gloom of the day.

red tulips

grape hyacinths

fritillaria

scilla

pretty tulip

more tulips

dutch iris nestled in silver artemesia

daffodills

And there were spring blooming perennials showing their colors.

brunnera macroflora

drumstick primrose

pasque flower

aubretia

anemone

aspens with daffodils

evergreens in the oriental garden

The dinosaurs were made of some sort of colorful material and a few were quite large. Each was accompanied by a plaque that gave information about each dino. The kids were thrilled to run from statue to statue learning a little bit before they darted off again.

I'm not sure what kind of dinosaurs the above are... possibly sillious hammasaurus.

Above are my kids 'acting' scared... yeah they are going to be stage actors, there's no subtlety in their method at all.

there were even dinosaurs inside! As well as a lot of other pretty things. All in all the botanic gardens was a great way to light up a dreary day.