How to Turn Your Dandelions into Sunflowers

Is your garden full of dandelions or sunflowers? A list of chores to do or opportunities to enjoy? My son taught me the difference.

The spring rains greened up our yard in a hurry; we also have a nice crop of dandelions. “We really need to do something about those” my husband commented one morning. “One more thing for the to-do list,” I thought to myself.

I’m always my own worst enemy with to-do lists.

Besides all the things I want to do out in the garden when spring rolls around, there’s no shortage of things that “should” be done. You see where this is going. If I’m not careful, the garden to-do list becomes impossible to tackle. It can become downright paralyzing.


Both of my children were born in the spring. Those years, I really couldn’t tackle anything on the to-do list; I was either too pregnant or tending to a newborn. Those were the first spring seasons I hadn’t spent in a flurry of outdoor activity. And the world kept turning and my garden kept growing– but not always in a good way. Which bothered me. A lot.

I have an ugly tendency to look out on my garden and only see the chores to be done; I have an incredibly difficult time just enjoying the season and my garden. Please don’t tell me that any of it looks nice– I will only point out what still needs attention.

I think we all get sucked into whirlwinds of chores and being “productive”, especially this time of year. It gets worse as other activities take up our time, leaving us with tragically small bits of time to work on the garden.

We all want to be productive. We love our gardens and nature too. But is there a point where the to-do list, and all the things we “should” do get in the way of loving our gardens? For me the answer is yes, definitely yes.

Last spring my son turned three just before my daughter was born. Waddling my nine month pregnant self around the yard with him, he presented me with dandelion after dandelion, squealing with delight with each one he saw. “I love you mama here’s a bee-utiful sunflower for you!” he’d exclaim with each one he found.

After the first couple of “sunflowers” I was getting a little nervous about how many he was finding in our yard. My mind raced, fueled by anxiety and pregnancy hormones–  “When were we going to find time to deal with this?…  Our neighbors will all hate us if these dandelions go to seed… There’s no way I’m spraying herbicide while pregnant… If I could see the ground I could dig them out… Maybe if I sat down on the ground and leaned over to the side I could do it…. But how would I get up?”

At one point I felt like I needed to tell him the truth about the flowers he was picking.  I tried to tell him that the flowers were really called dandelions and they weren’t supposed to be growing in the grass. “No no mama, they’re sunflowers! They’re yellow like the sun so they’re sunflowers. And they’re beautiful and I love you!” I couldn’t argue with that.

Maybe the dandelions weren’t so bad.

After my daughter was born I sat outside with her when she was barely a week old. My son ran all over the yard, determined to collect all the “sunflowers” for me. It was dusk on one of those perfect spring evenings– neighborhood kids zipping by on bikes, the hum of a lawn mower in the distance, the peeping of frogs in the pond behind our house. I sat on our patio with my newborn daughter and a growing bouquet of “sunflowers”, probably the purest expression of love if there ever was one.

The stream of anxious thoughts I had had a few weeks before was gone. I was enjoying the moment, no to-do list anywhere in my thoughts. It was wonderful. I just wanted to sear every bit of this evening into my memory.

“You have to keep your sunflowers forever” my son told me. I took a picture in my kitchen that night so I could:

Flash forward nearly a year and life has changed a lot for me. While I’m no longer working full-time outside of the home, I’m as busy as ever trying to grow this blog and keep up with my house, husband and kids.

One day this week everything seemed to just crash and burn. Nothing had gone as planned. Baby Girl wouldn’t nap, she just clung to me like Velcro. I was bound and determined to clean up our living room and kitchen plus make dinner. My need to feel at least somewhat productive includes more than just my garden– and I always seem to make that to-do list a little bigger than what I can realistically do.

Baby Girl finally settled down for a nap. Life was looking up.


In the middle of making dinner my son wanted to play catch outside. “Just for a few minutes” I told him. Baby Girl was sleeping and dinner simmering away. I had a window of time to be productive. The to-do list was taking priority. We threw the ball back and forth a few times; I was antsy to get back to my pots on the stove. My son disappeared around the corner of the house.

I was a mess from the day– baggy sweatpants, hair haphazardly pulled back, and I was wearing house slippers. I was a vision of loveliness I hoped no one saw.

Out of nowhere my son reappeared, exclaiming “I found a sunflower for you!! You have to put it in your hair!”  I carefully placed it behind my ear. At the same time my son slipped his hand into mine and said, “I love you mommy! When we get married I want you to wear lots of flowers in your hair!”

That snapped me back to the present, away from the almighty to-do list.

I keep going back to this moment in my head. It was so pure, so beautiful. This is what I want. These moments. Forget the to-do list. This is why I left full-time work. When my son is a cranky teenager, remembering moments like these will get me through.

And yes, when the time comes I will remind that cranky teenager that there was a point in his life that he wanted to marry me.

That evening I was beautiful even with my stringy hair , sweatpants and slippers standing in my yard with a dandelion sunflower behind my ear.

I hope that all of you can find those moments, where you can set down the to-do list and turn your dandelions into sunflowers.

If you liked this post, please subscribe to Grounded and Growing today and receive your copy of “15 Tips to Become a '15 Minute Gardener'” so you can spend less time working ON your garden and more time enjoying being IN your garden.! It’s absolutely free. When you join the Grounded and Growing community, you’ll finally take the garden off your “To-Do” list and allow yourself time to enjoy your garden and savor the peace and serenity there. I tell subscribers about new posts as soon as I hit ‘publish’ and send weekly-ish updates on what’s going on in my garden– good, bad AND ugly.

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