Spring Salad by badlyricpolice
Dandelions are good in salads and sandwiches. You can cook with the leaves. The flowers can be used to make lemonade, beer or wine. The roots are made into a tea. For interesting dandelion recipes check out this blog.
If you consider the dandelion a weed and want to get rid of them, to do so is difficult because the dandelion seed can be windborne for several miles. Also, the dandelion has a long, strong taproot that is capable of penetrating the soil to a depth of 10 to 15 feet, though it is most commonly 6 to 18 inches deep. Solitary new dandelion plants along fence rows, roadsides, flower beds, and in turfgrass should be dug out. There are tools specifically for digging out dandelions- Amazon.com carries a number of these.
You must be sure to get the entire plant, taproot and all before dandelions produce seed. Monitor the area for several months to make sure that removal is complete. It is said that if you leave a small part of the taproot in the ground, a new dandelion will emerge.
TheGardenLady does not recommend the use of chemicals to get rid of dandelions, but if you have so many dandelions that you cannot pull them out by hand, read what one extension has to say about the best time to apply chemicals and which ones to use.