Has anyone ever done this? Known someone who’s done this? We have a east/south facing front lawn on a fairly steep hill; it gets blazing sun all day and little moisture, and the grass is really crappy looking. I could water the bejeebers out of it to try to green it up, but that’s not going to happen. Here’s a nice comparison picture - the lawn on the left actually looks better than my lawn most of the time. I’m also discovering that a lawn that’s mostly clover needs much less mowing - with our steep hill, that’s a huge plus.
I like that idea. I’ve been slowly reducing the amount of lawn that I have because - among other things - I hate mowing. But also because I think lawns tend to be wastes of energy and water. Clover is nice because it fixes nitrogen in the soil and really does stay green all the time.
A few years ago my lawn was 90% Creeping Charlie. People would come up to me to complement how good it looked. Of course, from a distance it looked like really really bright green grass.
Yep, I’d go for it. I’ve been mowing my yard from scratch, I haven’t sown any grass seeds, so we’ve got the battle of the grasses, quite a few different types, but the nicest part is some sort of green thing that closes up at night, and doesn’t need to be mowed as often as the grass (or some of them) I’m hoping it will gradually take over. Chamomile is nice too, but I’d have to plant that in. Of course you can’t let your cows graze on the clover, it will turn their milk.
**Joey P **- how did you get rid of the Creeping Charlie?
When I googled it (I got the idea from a brother-in-law who has a bunch of clover in his lawn), it seems to be a thing that people sometimes do. I was hoping some of you would let me know how it turns out.
We’re also thinking of mixing some creeping thyme in with the clover seed. Once you expand your mind to the idea of more than grass planted in front of your house, things get interesting. I still can’t quite embrace the dandelions and thistles growing out there, though.
The people before us did not mow the grass and were… basically white trash. There were massive dead zones where a pool, a couch, a gazebo and a fire pit had killed the grass. I’ve been mowing the grass regularly (aka, whenever it starts to look a little shaggy to me which reminds me, I need to do it again) and I threw out a bunch of grass seed at the start of this season in the hopes of getting something going.
At the start of the season we had a field of yellow, and managed to get rid of the dandelions (by picking them… constantly) and now it seems to be a mix of grass and clover. So it can be done here, and I think it looks quite nice IMO. The clover can get somewhat tall sometimes (nowhere near as tall as grass, but it does get shaggy looking) and of course bees like it but I haven’t noticed an excess of them around. I’d rather have clover over the dandelions or scraggly half dead grass any day myself. Thistles get pulled as soon as they are spotted, I like having an area for my son to run around!
After trying countless different weed n’ feed type products, I finally gave up all called a professional lawn service. It took them about two years. They do 5 applications per year. I also had/have them aerate and overseed every spring. On top of that, they may or may not (I never asked) have been putting something extra down to get it under control. The people I linked too did a great job. Also, I don’t know if this is common or not, but with them, any time you have a problem with weeds they’ll come out and take care of it, free of charge. In fact, I just noticed a big patch of Charlie creeping back in from the neighbors yard and they came out and sprayed it. I know some people like the ivy/clover look, and I’ll admit it smells good when you mow it, but for me, it’s worth $150/year to get rid of it.
I don’t do jack on the lawn except have someone cut it a couple times per month. But if you go with clover, I think that is a ground hog magnet. There is a lot of clover in my yard and the ground hogs have taken over. It must be good eattin’ too because they’re all nice and plump.
I have considered this many times, and it pops back into my head every few years. I’ve never been able to find any information about how the clover does over the Winter. Does it stay green through the cold or go dormant? Do you have to keep mowing it all year long?
We don’t have ground hogs here - not worried about that. One downside that’s mentioned of clover is that it attracts a lot of bees so it’s not great for kids - we don’t have kids, and if the bees keep local kids off it, that’s just a bonus.
I don’t know how clover overwinters - the weed kind that we already have in our yard doesn’t seem to be fazed by winter.
I threw sweet clover in the back yard after the flood to get something growing there besides the plantain that started covering the whole lawn. The clover grows faster than the grass, so don’t expect to mow less. Clover is a good addition when there is heavy traffic.
My back lawn seems to be about 80% clover and other weeds. In the heat of the summer it definitely looks better than the front which is treated grass. IMHO except maybe a week in the summer, it needs to be cut as much as the front.
Like bananas, but starchier? I thought these were trees?