Translation of わき in this sentence


I'm reading a beginner book with short stories and simple sentences. I'm
having trouble understanding the translation of this sentence.

In the story a girl is walking down the street and then:

> 歩道のわきにタンポポがたくさんさいています。

I understand that:

歩道 - sidewalk  
の - possessive particle  
わき - ?  
に - location particle  
タンポポ - dandelion  
が - subject particle?  
たくさん - lots  
さいています - blooming (from context)

From this, I understand that are lots of dandelions blooming 'on someplace' on
the sidewalk. My problem is with the わき part, I did find the word 脇 (near,
by), but my dictionary doesn't says that it is usually written in kana alone.




> > 歩道のわきにタンポポがたくさんさいています。
>
> I understand that:  
>  歩道 - sidewalk の- possessive particle  
>  わき - ? に - location particle  
>  My problem is with the わき part, I did find the word 脇 (near, by), but my
> dictionary doesn't says that it is usually written in kana alone.

Generally, many of us prefer わき in _hiragana_ , but it's the writer's choice.  
わき alone can't function as anything in a sentence, but together with に, わきに
describes a detail.

わき itself is 'side', but with the help of に, わきに means 'by/near'.  
Here we have 歩道の to modify わき, so it's saying "at the side of the sidewalk"
(By the sidewalk).




> > 歩道のわきにタンポポがたくさんさいています。
>
> I understand that:  
>  歩道 - sidewalk の- possessive particle  
>  わき - ? に - location particle  
>  My problem is with the わき part, I did find the word 脇 (near, by), but my
> dictionary doesn't says that it is usually written in kana alone.

Generally, many of us prefer わき in _hiragana_ , but it's the writer's choice.  
わき alone can't function as anything in a sentence, but together with に, わきに
describes a detail.

わき itself is 'side', but with the help of に, わきに means 'by/near'.  
Here we have 歩道の to modify わき, so it's saying "at the side of the sidewalk"
(By the sidewalk).

