Enough with the lawn grass, Im going clover !

[phil]

anyone else planted clover before?
my lawn was cut in half by the city, they left me with about a 3 foot wall and my front lawn is pretty small now. No one can sit out there because it's just bloody noisy. The city left new sod but the crows loved the bugs that came with that so they pretty much removed my front lawn.. it has too much drainage so unless I water it according to the watering schedule it dies.

It was just turning into a weedy mess and I never seem to actually water it or mow it much, so it dries out in the summer. I decided maybe just raking out what was left of the lawn and planting clover might be a good idea.

Evidently it's a brighter green. It stays greener longer into the winter, it doesn't need so much water , survives droughts better and it can be mowed to an inch long or left a little longer.. It beats out the weeds better than grass.. one drawback is it may turn brown in the middle of winter.. I guess Ill see.

Not sure if my neighbors will hate me if my clover wants to jump to other yards but I'm giving this a try.. .

The seeds surprised me , Most garden places didn't even seem to carry it. when I did find it, it's almost a hundred bucks for a pound of seed. This is white clover..

the red kind is used for other stuff maybe playground seed or for agriculture.. the white stuff grows lower. It seems to have taken already in my back yard under my plumb trees. ..It probably originated from some playground seed.. that stuff has about 3 to 5 percent of the clover in it ..

One drawback of clover is it isn't good for high foot traffic areas but my front lawn is never used for play so I'm giving this a go.. I planted 1/3 of my seeds and Ill plant it again in the spring if it doesn't like being planted this time of year..

I like crows, but I hate that they dig my lawn up looking for bugs. evidently the bugs they go after don't like clover so it should prevent them from tearing it up again this year.. I never had crows tearing at my lawn until the city sdded it, so I think they gave me this beetle that the crows love along with the sod.

I read that clover adds nitrogen to the soil so from what I found out it seems to actually do good things to the soil and it's possible to revert back to grass.. It seemed like it has so much going for it. I'm not sure why it seems so uncommon to plant clover rather than lawn grass.. Ill let you all know what my results are. If it is a smart idea, Im not sure why everyone else isn't growing it.... but I guess Ill just have to try in order to find out.

Phil

[Old house lady]

It'll certainly look nice when it blooms, and smell great too!

[Margaret75]

I've been over-seeding my lawn with clover and using it in bare spots on my lawn where the grass just won't grow. I love it. It looks nicer than plain grass IMHO and stayed green even during the dry period earlier this summer which made my grass turn the color of straw.

[Nicholas]

Sung to the tune of "The Beverly Hillbilies":

Let me tell a story bout my Fort Lauderdale grass
keeping it green was a real pain in the ass
then one day while I was pulling up some weed,
I noticed that I was starting to bleed

sand burrs....fire ants....no rain....

Next thing you know I'm fed up with planting sod
decided to give xeroscape a serious nod
so I got a bunch of large rocks, walk stones and special plants
and that stuff you sprinkle on mounds, to kill the fire ants...

low maintenance...lots of mulch...plants that stay green...

Its not "Beverly" but now I'm in a different town
the grass is great and it its green all the way around..
Now all I do is mow this lovely grass...
In the summer this s*** grows too damn fast......

Need a mower...a large riding mower....


OK...enough of that. I do have a form of clover or something on the shady, north side of the house, is always green and doesn't need a lot of mowing.

Good luck!

[Casey]

Our native clover comes on strong in June, but it quickly dries up with the first dry spell in July.

[phil]

I guess there are different types. one thing i have read is that it is more drought resistant than grass. I also read that a drawback is it may go brown in winter.Maybe a lot has to do with the local environment. The guy at the garden store where I bought it said he tried it but he didn't look after it and after a few years it sort of just died off. for the most part.
I guess it can appear dead at certain times of the year even though it's root system is healthy. I haven't noticed other clover turning brown so maybe the environment is good for it here. in the past several summers we've had an unusually small amount of rain and with watering restrictions a lot of people like me just let the lawns go brown. The cities have trended towards not using weed killers and weed n feed and watering stuff like that so we are starting to see more natural gardens appear. I've noticed that even in the crowded parts of the city a lot of people are trending toward planting vegetables in the oddest of places.

Our lawns here stay green but don't grow a lot in winter. the moss does well especially if drainage isn't great. It will be interesting to see what happens.. If I like it Ill plant it in the back yard too. One thing I read said it sort of grows to a maximum height so that might suit me well. . I thought maybe part of caring for it might be to allow it to re-seed itself which might involve letting it go ahead and flower but Im not sure if that's the right approach or if there is a certain time of year it can reproduce itself. maybe I'm just looking for excuses not to cut it

It seems to also spread by extending it's rooting system so maybe it doesn't need to actually go to seed in order to stay established. That seemed to be what was happening in the front lawn when I got out there trying to rake up all the grass sod that was left but that stuff had red flowers. it seemed well rooted and seemed to be spreading quite well on it's own but the white clover which I planted was I think a bit tamer of a variety. My neighbor has bees they will probably like it but the bees are not a bother at all , they are honey bees. If the bees like it , it's all the more reason to grow the stuff instead of lawn grass.

I seem to do pretty well at growing giant dandelions my girlfriend gives me dirty looks when I even mention using weed killer on them, maybe the clover will help win the battle for turf, we'll see.

[Don M]

I have white clover in one of my large pastures. I have tried to get rid of it because it makes my horses salivate to the point they drop copious amounts of saliva every time they open their mouths. Clover is also more succulent than grass & the horses get too fat eating it. I have used a broad leaf weed killer on it but it still thrives. it is much more low growing than the surrounding grass so what you have discovered I agree. It seems pretty hearty & stands up to the horses walking on it & eating it too.

[phil]

thanks Don. wasn't sure if it was a weird idea because I don't' see others planting lawns in it, anyway it's sprouting now and Ill see what happens. a lot of lawns around me are attacked by crows looking for chafer grubs, and Ive heard those don't like clover so if nothing else maybe they will leave me alone now. they will literally destroy the lawn by turning it over. I don't blame the crows. some yards they go after, others they leave alone.it's very hiit and miss.

I didn't have problems until the city planted sod so I think they brought them with the sod. I spoke to a neighbor and he said they are coming with a new formulation of lawn seed to adress the issue, with more clover in it but still it's mostly grass seed. I'm not after a perfectly manicured lawn I'd be happy if it just looks ok and I don't have to do a lot of maintenance as Id rather spend the time fixing the house up. - or maybe I'm just lazy