Did my first bit of yard work today and it got me thinking about something I was mulling over last summer: Converting from a grass lawn into a clover lawn. Doing a google search turned up the tidbit that clover lawns are trendy this year. I guess clover lawns used to be an American tradition in the early 20th century, too.
The benefits of clover lawns are numerous:
- Don't have to water (as much)
- Don't have to cut as much
- Is generally softer than grass
- Relatively pest free
- Don't have to fertilize
- Clover improves the soil by releasing nitrogen back into the soil
- Stays green longer
- Clover is aggressive and can grow dense enough to keep out weeds
- Resistant to dog urine
It all sounds great, but I doubt I would be able to just wait for the existing clover patches to take over my whole lawn as it might take a century or two. Yep, it seems that I would still have to kill the existing weeds and overseed with clover to really get somewhere. It's a shame because I'd like to do the least amount of work possible (aka "none").
If this year, clover could be ultra-aggressive and take over the lawn, weeds, grass and all, I wouldn't mind. Wouldn't mind at all...
I think it’s a great idea. I’m working on a mint lawn myself. It spreads faster than clover I’m told and the smell when you cut the grass is very nice – minty in fact.
Candace
I’ve been working on it since you sent me that clover lawn url last year. By “working” I mean sending my mental energy to encourage the clover to grow. Not so much physically going out there and planting anything. I hope that by having to cut it less I’d have less allergy problems.
One additional thing you may want to consider when thinking about a clover lawn is foot traffic. Clover does not tend to be as hardy to foot traffic as turf, nor will it ever be tight enough to crowd out grassy weeds. The intended use of the area should be a driving factor in any plant decision. There are many, many groundcover choices out there to replace turf, but in areas of a lot of traffic, grass is still king.
I started replacing my beat up lawn with white dwarf clover last year (by overseeding). It looked wonderful in the fall, survived the winter and came back nicely in the spring. I got nice clover flowers through June, July… But now something seems to have happened to the poor clover. It’s almost all dead and dry and the clover that has survived is losing its colour, with stipes across it. A bit of research on the Web led me to believe that it might be a genetic disease from the seeds, something called white mosaic virus.
http://ss.ngri.affrc.go.jp/disease/de36.htm
The only info I can find is all about crops and there doesn’t seem to be a way to fix things.
I can’t believe I’m going to have to seed grass after all! I hope the clover will come back next spring…
Has anyone here used a dwarf clover lawn or garden spot to cultivate a bee colony?
My husband & I are interested in keeping bees as a hobby, any info would be helpful. Thanks!
TeriPen@hotmail.com