Question
What is the best way to kill dandelions? i read something here about sugar, does that help kill them also? And i want to lay a few inches of topsoil on a  lawn and wanted to know if i should kill them first them lay down the top soil. I wanted to find something that kills the dandelions and wont kill the grass. Please can you advise me .

Answer
Hi Roland;
Sugar doesn't kill anything.
What it does, is nourish the beneficial microbes that enrich your soil.
Weeds will not grow in rich soil, they like poor soil.
Chemical fertilizers do NOT enrich the soil. They feed all vegetation growing there, including the weeds, and then they wear out, and you have to reapply them.
A good organic program works round the clock, the year round, enriching and improvint your soil, and rich soil grows everything you want to grow except weeds.
I put in that last, because I had wild violets inb my yard, and I loved them, but they are a weed, and when I started using sugar, and put NO chemicals down, the wild violets would not thrive in the rich soil.
Nasturtiums will not grow in rich soil either.
But, then neither will dandelions, crabgrass, johnson grass, dollar weeds, clover, and poison ivy.
Those are some of the weeds the organic program got rid of for me.
I wouldn't kill the dandelions first, I would let them compost and feed the soil.
Mow and if your mower is not a mulchiung mower, go over it again to chop them up finer.
Put down the sugar, and water it in well.
Then put down your topsoil , or put down the top soil, then the sugar and water it well, to a depth of at least 6 inches.
Some of the dandelions may come up, but they wil start to die out right away.
The first time I used the sugar, my yard had seeded with weeds very thickly, as usual, and I broadcast the sugar by hand and watered it in.
In a couple of weeks, there were about half as many weeds, so I went into a frenzy and put more sugar down.LOL
I don't know if that second application of sugar was necessary, but it didn't hurt, and enough sugar to cover is very cheap. Use 4 or 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.
A 20 pound bag of sugar will cover a 50X100 ft. area.
If you use chemical fertilizers, and put too much or put it down too soon again, you can seriously burn and/or kill your grass.
If you use 20 pounds of sugar per sq.ft, it will just be a waste of money, but it won't hurt your grass or plants.
Organics CURE problems, chemical lawn products CAUSE problems.
I use baking soda for fungus. Agricultural corn meal will also kill fungus. I don't use insecticieds because organics makes a healthy enviornment for natural predators of harmful insects like, toads, lizards, grass snakes, to live.
You get a good herd of those little critters started and they will eat all the ants, army worms, slugs, grubs etc that invade your lawn.
Toads love slugs, that makes them best friends to me.
My lizards keep all the aphids off my roses, and they eat orher insecs.
I don't allow any poisons to be put on my yard that will harm them.
I also do not use pesticides inside my house.
I kep roaches, ants, silverfish etc out with herbs I grow.
Read some of my other answers on organics in here.
If you can't find them, or have other questions that are not covered, write me anytime.
Charllotte