As our gardening season comes to an end this year, I have been thinking about next year. Because, why wouldn’t I be thinking about and planning for WOW garden 2026.
The big plan for next year is to add pollinators to our landscape, because bees and butterflies are vital to a healthy and productive garden. However, there is one sunny little outlaw that regularly grows in our yard that just so happens to be a wonderful little pollinator. I wrote a blog post about it several years ago. You know the one.
The Dandelion
The question is, what is a dandelion? Is it an unwelcome weed or a lovely little flower? It was time to find out.
I started with a simple search: “What is a weed?” And what did I get? A parade of articles on marijuana, cannabis, pot, and—yes—weed. Not quite what I was after (though that’s a post for another day). So I refined my search to “definition of a weed.”
Boom. Webster delivered:
Weed (noun): A wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants.
According to Webster, if I want dandelions in my yard, they aren’t weeds. At least not completely. They will compete for space in the yard, so I suppose I can say they are half flower and half weed.
But I digress.
Let’s talk dandelions. These golden rebels are more than just invaders of grass and the landscape I spent way too much money on. They’re ecological MVPs. Bees adore them, and if bees adore my yard, they just might visit my garden and if they visit my garden, they will pollinate my fruits and veggies. That means more food for my family. Win-win.
And it gets better.
Dandelions are nutritional powerhouses—yes, actual superfoods.
Their leaves, flowers, and roots are edible and packed with vitamins. And a study from the University of Windsor has shown some very promising results from use of dandelion root extract (DRE).
- 95% cell death rate in leukemia and colon cancer cells within 48 hours and no harm to healthy cells
- Aggressive and drug-resistant chronic myelomonocytic leukemia cancer cells dying after treatment using DRE
No human trials have not been done yet, but the early research is promising.
So, while dandelions are considered a weed, they are so much more. Having been used in traditional medicine for centuries, when those cheerful yellow blooms start popping up, I won’t be reaching for the weed killer. I’ll be reaching for a salad bowl. Or maybe a shovel to plant a whole bed of them.
Because if loving dandelions is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
worldofweeks 
yes, dandelion is edible. I saw my elderly neighbor in German reach over the playground fence, pull up a large one and tuck it into the fence on her way to the shop across the street, then pick it up on her way back and take it inside with her. I assumed she was going to eat it. But I have tasted those leaves, and found them in my fancy salad at a banquet in Hawaii. Bitter. Really bitter. I’ve heard that the young leaves in spring taste better, but haven’t tested that. If you find a way to make them taste good, I’d like to know it. My grandmother made Dandelion wine in her younger days, and kept it for “medicinal use”.
I made a Honey Dandelion cake one time. One of my kids loved it, but they love honey. Those of us who don’t like honey much, didn’t enjoy it. No bitterness, just honey sweet.
I’d never have thought to put dandelion in a cake. I will have to look for dandelion recipes to see what they are good for. Still, I think I’d have to be pretty hungry……