Looks like foliar thrips? (judging by the damage and black poop all over the leaves.) They can be quite damaging. I'm not sure what will work for them and help keep the plant still edible. You can try neem oil and coating all of the leaves. You'll have to wash it off before harvest though. Systemic pesticides might help, but you won't be able to eat the leaves safely. In the short term you can try submerging the plant in water or neem oil/ water, but again, this might either kill it or render it less edible. You might be better off tossing and restarting fresh if growing for edible plants. Personally, I am amazed people buy seeds and cultivate this plant. When I see those seed packets in the garden centers, I always wonder if such varieties are different in some way than the thousands I see growing wild in our area. Are they hybridized to taste better? Do they bolt at a slower rate? Are they less likely to self propagate/ take over a garden? Just wondering what makes it worth buying such seeds vs, harvesting some wild dandelion seeds from outside and growing those. Just curiosity.

I think I saw through yardtractor's comments, and found them humorous. He hit all the antiquated high spots from back when the only version of organic gardening was Rodale's approach using 100% compost. I would add stinky since a lot of people use manure based compost which was often not completely composted. You would have to go back to pre-2005 to really get into the flame wars between organics and synthetics. Lots of people on lawn forums around the Internet were banned for life. And I agree that a lot of nonsense is repeated as fact on the forums. I prefer to use photos showing results and let the reader decide what to do. For example this photo taken by former Lawn Care forum participant, mrmumbles, shows his zoysia lawn about 30 days after spot treating with alfalfa pellets. You don't have to look too closely to see the improved color, density, and growth provided by a true organic fertilizer (not compost). But back to the OP... Are you in love with that large tree in the middle? If so then I would suggest creating a planting bed around it and fill the area with something that will hide the roots. Go to my member page and look at the trees in my yard. The three trees on the right are surrounded by "cast iron plant" for about 4-6 feet out from the trunk. The one in the back did not have roots at the surface so it was left alone. Whatever you do, if you bring in soil to cover your roots, do not bury any of the trunk of the tree. Leave some of the root flare showing and stop with the soil. Yes you did not use enough seed, or you did not keep it moist everywhere. You did seed at a poor time of year, so if you want this fixed, get ready for late August. That's the time. It will give the new grass plenty of time to develop roots which can resist the summer heat. Also the summer annual weeds are not germinating in August, so your weed pressure diminishes a lot. Sometimes it is expedient to spot spray with chemical herbicides and get on with your lawn life. You will still benefit from having been on an organic fertilizer program and continuing with that afterward. I call it tough love. They used to make a foaming Weed-B-Gone that was amazing. You could leave a spot that looked like shaving cream on individual weeds. There was absolutely no overspray and nothing touched the soil. Don't know why they don't sell it anymore. It would wipe out dandelions in 2 days. In the mean time practice deep and infrequent watering, mulch mowing at a high (highest??) setting, and fertilizing.

CPBs are a mystery to me, one year there are none and the next they go hog wild. Some years I have ladybugs out earlier than others relative to the CPB but don't see much correlation to the severity of the CPB problems from year to year. too bad I can't turn the chickens loose in the spuds, they'd do more damage than the CPBs. Dr. Whitney Cranshaw from CSU once explained to me an insect that they have problems with on tomato along the Front Range of CO. The appearance of the insects had everything to do with south winds at a certain time of the spring or early summer, no winds, no problem that year. Sorry, can't remember the insect. As far as educating people about any growing method I TRY to shut up unless asked and watch for responses both verbal and non before proceeding. You can lead a horse to water you know. Ever try to force a horse to drink? Why try knowing what the result may be. The modern organic movement is still very new with relatively little empiric testing to serve as it's foundation but there is an enormous amount of anecdotal evidence. That is not to say it has no merit, it most certainly does and deserves study. Until organic has a broader, more solid foundation I cannot preach to anyone as to it's superiority over conventional practices. However, if I find something that works or find that someone has I'm happy to try it myself or share the information. My fruit orcharding is in the slow process of converting, hopefully to completely organic, It will take time as there can be severe disease and insect pressures and I make mistakes. And then there is the weather.

Robber fly (Asilidae). The whole family is predatory, and they usually look like they mean business, although they're totally harmless to us humans (as long as you don't try to pick one up; if you physically handle one sometimes they may bite to make you go away). They're also totally indifferent to us. They're just more of the creatures we share the Earth with who don't know anything about us and don't care to.