What’s a dandelion summer time?

In response to M. C. Beaton, who wrote about it within the cozy thriller, The Skeleton within the Closet (2001), a dandelion summer time is a scorching summer time, foretold by an abundance of dandelion blooms within the spring.

We’ll need to take her phrase for it as a result of I searched and searched on-line to verify a second supply¹ for this little bit of British knowledge however got here up with nothing, besides for many details about dandelion-the-weed, dandelion-the-useful-herb, and a e-book referred to as Dandelion Summer time by Lisa Wingate (2011), which I’m now curious sufficient to learn to see if it confirms this definition or has nothing to do with it.

(I see that Dandelion Summer time gained the 2012 Carol Award for Ladies’s Fiction from the American Christian Fiction Writers. Nicely, there goes my plan to call an award after myself.)

Anyway,

M. C. Beaton wrote in her cozy thriller:

“Nation individuals all the time mentioned if you noticed numerous dandelions, it was going to be a scorching summer time.” “Dandelion Summer time,” mentioned Fell and laughed.

Round right here, when individuals see numerous dandelions they usually suppose, “Geez, that individual doesn’t care about their garden as a result of they let dandelions develop in it.”

Nicely, that merely isn’t true in my case. I care about my garden. It’s simply that I’ve planted 1000’s of crocuses in my garden for early spring bloom, so I don’t use herbicides to kill off dandelions as a result of these chemical compounds would kill off the crocuses too. And no person needs that.

“However the dandelions?!” individuals ask. “What do you do about dandelions?”

I don’t do something about them.

Open your eyes in the summertime and go searching for these dandelions. You don’t see many in bloom within the summertime, do you? I can say from expertise that dandelions flower for less than every week or two within the spring. Then, if you happen to mow them off and maintain your grass reduce three inches or taller, they’ll fade away by early summer time.

I ought to make clear. The dandelions will nonetheless be there—they’re perennial flowers with deep faucet roots—however they gained’t be flowering. They’ll simply be lined up by the garden.

So even with out killing off the dandelions, I feel I’ve a good sufficient garden.

I even have sufficient dandelions to find out if it’s going to be a dandelion summer time, if that little bit of nation knowledge applies to my space of the world.

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If you happen to’d like to listen to me and Dee Nash discuss extra about lawns, this week’s podcast episode is the one for you. If you happen to’d prefer to examine my week within the backyard, try my weekly e-newsletter.

And let me know if you happen to’ve heard of dandelion summers or simply suppose you had a dandelion summer time this yr.

1. I’m now a second supply if somebody searches on-line for “what’s a dandelion summer time!” ↩︎