No More Hand Pulling: Remove Dandelions With A Simpler DIY Solution

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YouTuber @CroakyOak is going after dandelions with black iron pipe. He's built a useful DIY solution to stop dandelions from taking over your yard and make them easier to pull out. 

A funny thing happened on the way to creating a better dandelion digger. What might have been intended as an easy, cheap way to avoid the back-breaking work of pulling them out by hand turned out to be a heavy and fairly pricey device that still required bending and pulling. Nonetheless, it's one of the more effective tools for the job. And unlike certain tools you already own that might make weeders obsolete, this one won't make you crouch the whole time.

The key to ridding your lawn of dandelions is their taproots, which can grow between three and 24 inches deep,making them incredibly tough and capable of thriving in circumstances that stymie the toughest turfgrass. Dandelions are rugged but not without their charms. Their taproots make the soil healthier. These members of the Asteraceae family also feed spring pollinators, produce nutritious leaves, and have pretty flowers and a seedhead that is part of a childhood rite of passage. But if you've decided dandelion taproots are the roots of all evil, @CroakyOak's tool is a pretty good way to get rid of them.

The dandelion digger looks something like a pogo stick, and is made of 1-inch iron pipe assembled in 12 pieces with a T-shaped handle, central shaft, and footholds near its base. The base itself is a pointy bit that's been halved lengthwise for six or eight inches, and sharpened at the tip. The finished tip calls to mind the elongated tines of a plug aerator, and that's apt because one of the best things about this tool is that it does a better job of aeration than dandelion taproots. This length lets you insert the tip beside a dandelion and push it down as deep as you can before rocking it and loosening the soil around the root. This loosening makes it easy to pull the dandelion out, taproot and all. 

There are other ways to do this, of course. The video description mentions that this tool is based on "dandelion diggers made by high end European tool companies," but the closest thing we found is the Manufactum stainless steel weeder (around $104 + VAT for the long version). Home Depot also sells a similar but slightly more Prince-inspired Radius Garden 44 in. Root Slayer (around $53). We priced the black iron at Lowes, and it'll cost you about $109 to build @CroakyOak's version, plus a little time with an angle grinder. Probably not a bad idea, if you're determined to rid yourself of those pesky edible daisies once and for all. Of course, you could always save money by leaving the dandelions alone, if you're still unsure whether weeds are ever a good thing.