Here today, gone when I get to it...

I wish I could love them. I know the leaves are great as a spring green; the flowers can be made into wine or even jelly. They're not for me. But, I sure don't want to use pesticides to get rid of them.

Enter the weeding tools. You have a few choices:

• the short, hand-held weeder that pops the leaves and flowers out
• a spray attachment for your hose that uses water to shoot them out, tap root and all
• the long pole weeder that grabs into the plant and with some skill can get the root as well as the leaves and flowers. This is my choice.

After trying out my neighbour Eric's pole weeder, I was sold. So much that when I saw a similar version at Home Depot, I bought it. Once home, I complained to my man that it didn't work. He showed me how. After all, it had been a year since using a pole weeder. Still, something didn't feel right.

Grampa's Weeder is on the left, Vigoro's is on the right.

The one I bought is made by Vigoro for 12.99. You have to aim, push the claw into the dandelion using your arm, and then pull the pole to the side to get the dandelion out. Yes it works, but not very ergonomically. And it hurt my shoulder after about 10 minutes.

Eric's is called "Grampa's Weeder" and it's available at Lee Valley for 28.50. It has a nice design element in that you can use your foot to push the weeder into the dandelion. This makes it more accurate and much easier to use. For the extra money, you can keep digging dandelions all day long if you wanted. Guess it all depends on your desperation.