# Would a neighbor's clover lawn upset you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 5, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439 "2026-07-05T19:15:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/61 "2026-07-06T14:48:58Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > But then we had a drought, and it all died Did you water it during the drought? ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/62 "2026-07-06T14:52:17Z")
I’m tempted to join your pollinator club, what a fantastic service! However my yard has no grass to convert. It’s all wildflowers, clovers, asters goldenrod, milkweed, cinquefoil, black eyed Susan’s echinacea, butterfly weed and on and on. It’s gotten a little out of control, and for me to say that, it’s serious. Also sumac has invaded the side yard and the vacant lot along with hundreds of tiny oaks and white pines, Want some? Bring a shovel. This all got crazy when. I lost a big red oak in the front and the yard went wild in the sun. I live in a rural township so no lawn ordinances, but I’m sure the guy a few doors down hates it. His lawn is perfect, it gets mowed with an electric roomba type mower, he’s a nice guy and doesn’t have to drive past my house to see it. The guy who owns the vacant lot next door left his 1970’s camper behind, it’s slowly getting covered in grapevines. I always wanted to live in the middle of the woods and fields it’s growing up around me now. Until the day the old man dies and his heirs come with the brush hog and make a lot of noise and disturb my peace. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/63 "2026-07-06T14:58:20Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Monoculture can be a bad thing environmentally when we’re talking on the scale of large scale agriculture, but in terms of a typical 10,000 square-foot residential lawn, the impacts are going to be pretty negligible. If only if it were just one 10,000 square foot monoculture lawn in all of North America. Unfortunately, there’s more acreage of lawn space than there is of irrigated corn. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/64 "2026-07-06T14:59:12Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Unless someone was really fed up with having to maintain their grass lawn, it’s hard to imagine that the idea of any other kind of lawn would cross their minds, and even then they’d be going: OK, where do I start? That was me a couple of years ago, in the house I just sold recently. The front yard had very thin and poor soil, which didn’t capture very much water even during heavy rains. I tried to get grass to grow on it properly for years, and it just never looked decent. So a few years back I went with planting clover. That stuff just grew, very little effort needed. For reference, one of my neighbors hated it. I initially decided I wouldn’t mow it until the flowers all died off, but then it kept flowering most of the summer. So I only moved a few times, which left the clover looking a bit shaggy, not the perfectly level grass that my neighbours obsessed over. But it didn’t really grow tall, so I didn’t mind it. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/65 "2026-07-06T16:12:30Z")
I recently bought a house and want to convert at least the back yard into something other than bermuda. Living in central Oklahoma, I’m afraid a clover lawn isn’t feasible here - heat and drought are regular occurrences, as are outdoor watering restrictions. Trees ring the back yard so at least some of it gets shade throughout the day. There’s a ring of dirt that not even the bermuda or crab grass try to grow in, so I suspect some sort of poor soil issue. If anyone has any suggestions on what might work I’d be happy to give it a try. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/66 "2026-07-06T16:21:12Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > in terms of a typical 10,000 square-foot residential lawn, the impacts are going to be pretty negligible. yes, like the rodent in goggles said, it isn’t ONE lawn, it’s all the lawns. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/67 "2026-07-06T17:20:14Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Monoculture can be a bad thing environmentally when we’re talking on the scale of large scale agriculture, but in terms of a typical 10,000 square-foot residential lawn, the impacts are going to be pretty negligible. In terms of one lawn, you’re correct. The problem is that there’s an awful lot of them, and they add up. Or what @Happy_Lendervedder said. (True of an awful lot of damaging things that humans do.) > [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > > [@puzzlegal](#): > > > > But then we had a drought, and it all died > > Did you water it during the drought? Watering lawns during a drought is generally a bad idea. That is, it may be good for the lawns; but if there’s a drought, the water’s needed more for other things. > [@liirogue](#): > > If anyone has any suggestions on what might work I’d be happy to give it a try. About Oklahoma I have very little clue. But I bet your County Cooperative Extension does. Give them a call. (And a donation if you’ve got it to spare; government funding is thinner on the ground most places than it used to be.) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/68 "2026-07-06T17:45:20Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > > > > [@puzzlegal](#): > > > > > > But then we had a drought, and it all died > > > > Did you water it during the drought? > > Watering lawns during a drought is generally a bad idea. That is, it may be good for the lawns; but if there’s a drought, the water’s needed more for other things. Right. I don’t believe in growing stuff that needs routine watering, unless it’s a food crop. But also, it would be really wasteful to water my lawn during a drought. I confess, i wish i had watered a couple of trees that i lost to the drought. Hand watering was legal even during the worst of it, and I’m pretty sure that would have been enough. But there’s are an awful lot of plants that i didn’t water that survived. They are more suitable for my yard, because they don’t need supplemental water. Honestly, i expect the fescues to be okay in a drought. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/69 "2026-07-06T17:48:35Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Watering lawns during a drought is generally a bad idea. That is, it may be good for the lawns; but if there’s a drought, the water’s needed more for other things. > > liirogue: That is absolutely true. That being said, if the ground cover hasn’t fully established it’s roots before the drought happens, the ground cover will die. It wasn’t the fault of the clover (or grass) that it died. Clover, once established, is pretty drought tolerant and makes grass more drought tolerant too. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/70 "2026-07-06T18:05:11Z")
In a drought, we put several 1-gallon buckets in the shower or under the tap while the water is warming. We use this for watering. If it’s a very bad drought, we switch to Dr Bronners or Camp Suds and use the grey water from dishes, too, though that’s infrequent in our area. We plant as much that’s not grass around the yard as we can. Two days ago our crocosmia flowered, and today a hummingbird found it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/71 "2026-07-06T18:09:27Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Your opinion. I’ve seen neighborhoods where the front yard is mostly clover and I don’t care for it. "De gustibus non est disputandum > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Moreover the people who let it run over with clover also tend to let it run over with dandelions and other weeds, because any weed treatment that kills broadleaf weed also kills the clover. And so? Grass is a weed also. Dandelions are pretty. But I dont care for a 100% clover lawn either, no monocultures. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/72 "2026-07-06T18:32:16Z")
Mine was pretty well established. I had a lovely clover lawn for a year before the drought, anyway. 🤷‍♀️ ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/73 "2026-07-06T19:16:57Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > And so? Grass is a weed also. Dandelions are pretty. See previous statement vis-a-vis “I do not care for it” ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/74 "2026-07-06T19:26:39Z")
My first thought was zoysia for Oklahoma; O.K.State mentions it as a possibility but also seems high on Bermuda and buffalograss. [https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/selecting-a-lawn-grass-for-oklahoma](https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/selecting-a-lawn-grass-for-oklahoma) Having had experience with St. Augustine, I wouldn’t recommend it, mostly because of its coarse texture that isn’t especially attractive or pleasant to walk on. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2026, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/75 "2026-07-06T22:02:53Z")
I wouldn’t care if a neighbor converted to clover, and would welcome the pollinators it attracts. But the problem with clover here in Texas is that it’s only around in the winter. Clover, fescue, rye grass, and bluegrass are used for winter over-seeding and cold weather livestock forage. They all wither and die in the summer heat. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/76 "2026-07-07T13:08:49Z")
**TruCelt** that is what I understand. Several folks as well as HOA have mentioned it. Only been in the house 6 months and not really worried about fact checking it. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/77 "2026-07-07T13:25:00Z")
Where i live, winter is the difficult weather season. And we just don’t expect green lawns. Snow, or dormant brown plants are expected. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/78 "2026-07-08T22:24:25Z")
We have bark, rock and drought tolerant landscaping - and a fence. What my neighbors do doesn’t affect us. [Are you talking about this?](https://www.americanmeadows.com/products/microclover-seeds-pelleted?variant=46472282702063&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22360522777&gbraid=0AAAAAD_wT-42FQs0PFY0OwUs2MGGl53MO&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-5-Nqo_ElQMVTxqtBh1JmDmWEAQYASABEgINnfD_BwE) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/79 "2026-07-08T23:48:04Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > [Are you talking about this?](https://www.americanmeadows.com/products/microclover-seeds-pelleted?variant=46472282702063&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22360522777&gbraid=0AAAAAD_wT-42FQs0PFY0OwUs2MGGl53MO&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-5-Nqo_ElQMVTxqtBh1JmDmWEAQYASABEgINnfD_BwE) That makes me want to go roll around in it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439/80 "2026-07-09T01:36:06Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > That makes me want to go roll around in it. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/srOd82nsWps/hqdefault.jpg "Vould you like to have a roll in ze hay?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srOd82nsWps) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-neighbors-clover-lawn-upset-you/1031439.md?page=5)