Letter D The A to Z of TV Gardening

Hello and welcome to the A-Z of TV gardening, where we sift through

your favourite gardening programmes and dig up a bumper crop

of tips and advice from the best experts in the business.

Flowers, trees, fruit and veg, letter by letter,

they're all coming up a treat on the A-Z Of TV Gardening.

Taking care of a garden isn't easy.

There's always something that needs doing,

even if it's just getting rid of those hated weeds.

Which takes us on to our next subject -

a flower most gardeners consider an absolute nuisance.

This D is for dandelions.

The name dandelion comes from old French, dent de lion,

tooth of the lion, because it was thought that the leaves of the flower

looked just like lions' teeth.

Love it or hate it,

there's no denying the dandelion is a tenacious plant.

Dominic Price gave me the lowdown on the secret of its success.

So, Dominic, is there more than one type of dandelion?

Yes, there's possibly up to 250 types.

No-one can quite agree on the exact number.

But they must all look quite similar.

They do, there's small differences in the leaf structure,

some of them are very jagged, some are quite round,

some are large and some are very small.

Some of them are extremely rare as well.

Why are they so prolific? Look at them stretching out behind us.

They take over whole fields, whole gardens.

Yes, one plant can produce more than 2,000 seeds in a year.

And if you imagine each of those seeds forming a plant

in a single growing season,

they have an ability to take over extremely quickly.

As a child, I remember picking them up and you tell the time, don't you?

-By blowing them and seeing how they blow away.

-Yes.

So that's basically spreading the flowers.

Yes, incredible aerial dispersal system.

The sort of thing engineers would dream of,

lifting up that weight and carrying it for hundreds of miles.

So if someone does have them in the garden and really dislike them

and want to get rid of them, what's the best way?

The best way is to catch them early, if possible.

They form these huge tap roots.

If you can get them while they're still quite small,

they will come up easily and they can be dug up.

It's best to do it when the soil is fairly damp

and just try and do it in one go.

If you break them, you'll probably end up with two dandelions

when you had one before.

And if you can't beat them, I guess you might as well eat them.

I met up with Debs Cook from The Herb Society

for a gourmet dandelion masterclass in soup.

We've got some stock and you need a bit of seasoning

and the dandelion leaves will be the last stage.

Everything sounded very tasty until you mentioned dandelion leaves.

-They'll be fine. Trust me.

-I trust you.

-Then just pop that back on and stir it up a bit.

-Yes.

Dandelion soup is packed with vitamins B, C and E.

20 minutes of simmering, and we're ready for the taste test.

Now, I've tried a few things over the years,

I've had stinging nettles. Which weren't so nice.

But this is the first time I've ever had dandelion soup.

-Do you think I'll like it?

-I think so, yes.

-OK.

All right, OK.

Mmm!

-That is surprisingly tasty.

-See, I told you so.

I don't think I'll look at dandelions in quite the same way again.

-Good.

-This is very nice.

Yum!

So, there you have it.

The virtues of the really rather useful common dandelion.

All that's left for me is to collect a few for my tea.