the dandelion takeover

The snow melted, the brown grass started turning green, and with it a billion yellow flowers started to emerge from the ground-- I have never seen as many dandelions as I have this spring here in Sachem. Dandelions dotted the grassy lawns, and within the white fences of the playground areas the density of these weeds was about 20 times higher. It was...impressive.

The yellow blooms stuck around for a while, then they all started turning into the fluffy seed pods. One afternoon during what seemed like peak fluffy-seed-pod-ness we ventured out, me taking pictures and the boys playing amongst the weeds. First, they did the traditional blowing of the seeds (likely why the place is covered to begin with).

See? I wasn't kidding about the ridiculous amount of dandelions.

Then they discovered a much more effective method of dispersing the seeds...kicking with their feet.

Lastly, they finished off the afternoon by gathering up all the now (mostly)empty dandelion stems to bring home and leave in a pile by our front porch. Zach's wondering if we'll have a mass of dandelions growing in that spot next spring...