Clover Lawn Update, and Clover in History
August 5th, 2008 · 3 Comments
Clover lawn, nine months later
This is the first summer season for the clover lawn. Time to assess. It’s been about nine months since I started the white Dutch clover experiment. When we moved into the house last September, we were dealing with new construction and the crappy “landscaping” that comes with that, as well as the summer-long drought. Our yard was a weedy rock-and-clay expanse that got worse with every passing day and every passing rain shower. The lack of groundcover caused even the slightest rain to erode the yard into the storm drains.
This summer began well enough, rain-wise. But soon we started experiencing this weird phenomenon—storms began narrowly missing us, many by mere blocks. While our friends and neighbors were enjoying soaking rains, our house was cursed beneath a persistent hot sun. Sounds funny, I know, but you gotta have a little rain!
In spring, the front lawn was a Technicolor green combination of fescue and clover. Today, the fescue is brown and in some places completely turned to dust, but the clover, surprisingly, is still green. It does get limp in the hottest part of the day, and we have lost a few small patches in some challenging areas, but you can see by the photo above that it’s hanging tough. If it survives August, our hottest month, we’ll be in good shape. I’m reseeding this fall with more clover seed, and adding other varieties for more color. No grass seed, though. We’ve decided to create clover paths and plant oases of tough perennial grasses, knockout roses, and maybe a little rudbeckia instead of fighting for grass in this super-exposed spot.
TIP: I’m reducing my mowing frequency to every other week or so and letting the clover grow taller between cuts. The clovered areas that I don’t mow are super lush and thicker despite the heat and drought. I think letting the clover grow as it pleases during the hottest part of the year might be the secret to helping it thrive. Of course, I don’t live under the tyrannical thumb of an HOA, so I can get away with managing my lawn as I please.
If you’ve found this post by Googling “how to kill clover in lawn,” first check out this article from the August 5, 1912, edition of the New York Times. Then, reconsider killing that clover. Then tell your grass-snob neighbors who think your lawn should look like a putting green to mind their own dang business!
Now reviled by many, white Dutch clover was once the darling of the landscaping industry
Tags: Clover lawn
3 responses so far ↓
1 jess // Aug 5, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Thanks for what I’m (mis)appropriating as an endorsement for our bio-diverse philosophy of lawn cultivation. I am pleased to share that we have great patches of white clover thriving in our lawn among the sweet clover, common plantain, indian strawberry, blue violet, dandelion and yes, grass. It ain’t exactly pretty but it stays green!
2 dan // Sep 12, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I’m thinking of doing the same thing. Two questions. First, why mix it with fescue? Second, how does it look in the winter?
Thanks!
3 Iris // Sep 12, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I encourage you to try clover. I’ll do another update sometime next week. The recent rains brought new thick clover patches in what was hard, dry clay all summer. Miraculous!
I mixed clover and fescue because they’re complementary. The clover thrives when the soil’s nitrogen level is low, and over time adds nitrogen. When nitrogen levels increase, the grass will do a little better than the clover but won’t kill it all. The grass uses up the nitrogen, then the clover takes over and the cycle repeats. (You don’t need to fertilize a fescue/clover lawn.) Basically you don’t want a monoculture in your yard or garden because that’s not healthy or natural.
Last winter into early summer, the clover was almost embarrassingly green and thick. Our winter temps don’t get much lower than 20, and even then not very often, so while the grass is brown the clover goes nuts.
During the heat and drought of summer, the clover eventually pooped out in full-sun areas. However, it came back with a vengeance with a little rain. (Shaded areas stayed green year-round.) Interestingly, having the fescue mixed in definitely helped the clover bounce back, possibly because there was a bit of thatch to keep the ground from being scorched bare.
Outsidepride.com has the best prices on white Dutch clover seed in bulk. I’ve used it both with and without inoculant and got the same results, so I think it’s okay to skip it if you want.
Good luck, and send pictures of the results if you go for it!