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newyorkrita

Do you have clover in your lawn?

newyorkrita
13 years ago

I love white clover in my lawn. No golf course perfect chem lawn here LOL. Its funny how things change. When I was a child and you bought grass seed, all grass seed mixes contained about 5-10 % white clover. Not these days. I had to go online and order the white clover seed, which I sprinkled around in my lawn. The only disadvantage is its too risky to go barefoot for fear you step on a bee. The honeybees and bumble bees both love the clover.

Comments (29)

  • aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
    13 years ago

    Love clover in the lawn, it stays green in the summer without having to pour the water on, every couple of years we over seed with white clover. There's also lots of moss, white violets, english daisies and creeping veronica weaving in and out of the clover. There's still a bit of grass in between everything else :).

    Annette

  • lynnencfan
    13 years ago

    We have clover in our yard - love it :) ......

    Lynne

  • natal
    13 years ago

    We have a little patch that popped up by the garden shed this year. I love seeing it in bloom.

  • DYH
    13 years ago

    We have more clover than grass!

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    13 years ago

    Count me in the clover group... The question shoud be - does anyone only have grass...? :-)

  • newbiehavinfun
    13 years ago

    The question is, is there lawn in my clover? I have a clover/violet mixture that passes for lawn. And yes, I have gotten beestings on my feet.

  • hosenemesis
    13 years ago

    I have GRASS. Thick, gorgeous St. Augustine that really looks out of place with my gardening style. I yearn for your lawns filled with clover and violets. How romantic.

    It's DH's lawn.
    Renee

  • keesha2006
    13 years ago

    no clover for me...I am a barefoot girl..and the hidden bee danger is too risky..I love the bees but they have to go elsewhere for the clover :)

  • kathi_mdgd
    13 years ago

    None for me either,in fact i've never seen it here in S.Ca.We used to have it when i lived on the east coast.

    We do however have oxalis,the pink one and what a pain in the patootie.The more i pull ,the more i get,I just gave up!! It gets mowed every week,by the lawn guys,in fact i think that's how i probably got it in the first place.

    I heard paul james say one time,if it's green,just mow it down,and you still have a green lawn.
    Kathi

  • silverkelt
    13 years ago

    White clover here..

    If I build my own place.. I am going to mix white clover with bluets, screw the grass..

    Clover smells great as it cuts, is hardy, spreads without needed seeded all the time, doesn't need as much water.. the bunnies eat it instead of my garden etc..

    White clover may be the single best thing ever.. its in constant bloom right now and SMELLS great.. bumble bees love it..

    I grant you, walking through the posh parts of Portland and cape elizabeth.. I see picture perfect green lawns.. but that is way too much work for me =).. I have too much else to grow except perfect green grass...(impossible in rural Maine (Ive never seen one yet anyways...)

    Silverkelt

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    13 years ago

    Funny this should come up...just bought a bag of Dutch White Clover seed a couple weekends ago. ;-)

    Got a question for those of you who seed clover- do you sprinkle the seed over your lawn, or clear out a patch and seed there?

    I love clover. Like Annette said, it stays green all summer long and doesn't seem bothered when things get dry over here. Read somewhere that clover adds nitrogen to the soil. Maybe that is why the bits of grass near the clover are always so much greener than areas without it.

    I also like violets (not terribly fast spreaders/seeders over here) in the grass. In fact, I have been pulling up little clumps in other parts of the garden to plant in the front lawn.

    Does anybody grow Chamomile in their lawn? I read online where someone had the perennial stuff growing wild in a part of their back lawn. Thought that would be kind of interesting since it has such a nice scent when crushed...
    CMK

  • Annie
    13 years ago

    Another White Clover bunny here!

    We don't have a lot of it...yet.
    I like dandelions too. So pretty.

    I cut white clover for my chicks. They love it!
    It's also great stuff to add to the compost if you don't have chicks or if you have a lot of it to spare.

    I have not had bee problems...they seem to stay busy in the flowers. There is a bee keeper not far from here and his bees visit my gardens daily, bless their fuzzy little bodies!

    I do see bees in other people's lawns where they have a lot of white clover and I have stepped on them and gotten stung when I was a kid.

    I love red clover too. It comes in the packages of wildflower seeds that I plant in the garden - because those flowers really aren't wildflowers. ;)

    ~Annie

  • natal
    13 years ago

    Who remembers making necklaces with white clover when you were a kid?

  • a2zmom_Z6_NJ
    13 years ago

    Do you know why there is no clover in grass seed mixes any more? Because weed killer killed clover as well as other broad leaf weeds and the companies promptly branded clover an undesirable.

    I do have clover. I also have crab grass, creeping charlie (which I am trying to eradicate), dandelions and occasionally, some actual grass. Clover and violets sounds lovely - maybe I should go that route!

  • Annie
    13 years ago

    I encourage violets to grow in the lawn under the weeping willow. Lovely in spring when they bloom. They grow willy nilly throughout my gardens.

    Creeping Charlie and Creeping Jenny are part of my garden's ground covers. It was always in Mother's gardens and I love it. I pull it out when it gets to be too much of a good thing, just like the violets.

  • newbiehavinfun
    13 years ago

    annie,

    I draw the line at dandelions. They are fierce creatures and I wouldn't mind if they never showed their face in my yard. Fat chance of that, though. Can you believe that people farm them here? We even have a dandelion festival.

  • lavender_lass
    13 years ago

    The joke here is that is you water and mow...it will look like lawn, eventually! LOL

    We have clover and lots of other weeds, but they look pretty all together and go with the farm-style of the house.

    CMK- I saw a lot of chamomile in the lawns on the west side of the state. I think it likes all the water. I hope you get it to do well in your lawn :)

  • token28001
    13 years ago

    I have a little patch of lawn in the back. The rest is almost all clover.

  • loisthegardener_nc7b
    13 years ago

    Good grief, yes. And red clover, creeping charlie, false strawberry, dandelions, sheep sorrel, violets, plantain, queen annes lace, and oh yeah, grass. DH is allergic to chemicals so we have never sprayed or had anyone else spray for almost 20 years.

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    13 years ago

    -LL, I hope so too! That would be so lovely having that scent waft up from the lawn when you step on it! I have also read online of 'alternitive' lawns made out of plants like wholly thyme (might have to scroll down a ways): Wooly Thyme Lawn Sub

    Forgot about the Erigeron (fleabane)! I have seen it growing as a 'weed' in lawns over in western WA too. Love the daisy-like flowers. Might have to consider ploppin' a few of those in as well. You can see the fleabane in this pic I took a few years back in Seattle...so nice to have a bit of color in the lawn!
    {{gwi:692313}}
    CMK

  • roper2008
    13 years ago

    I have white clover. The thing I like best about it is, the wild rabbits
    like it better than my vegetables. I have 2 rabbits in my backyard.
    They don't touch my cucumbers, lettuce or beans, just the clover.

  • silverkelt
    13 years ago

    CMK,

    Rent a aerator from a hardware store, do the part you want to seed over.. no need to rip it all up.. this will allow pockets into your soil, overseed and keep moist..

    I agree with the bunnies.. that is exactly the best reason to grow clover =).. We have wild rabbits as well.. never touched anything except the clover...

    Silverkelt

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    13 years ago

    Thans for the info Silverkelt! I planted a wee bit of seed out in some of the patchy parts of the lawn last night. Can't wait!!
    CMK

  • susie_gardener_2007
    13 years ago

    I don't have clover in my present yard, but in the past I've lived where we had clover and I would always wait until after Easter to mow the yard. Clover makes the best hiding place for Easter eggs. And the kids never got stung by a bee. There's some really pretty red clover that grows in the medians and sides of the highways here in the spring. I love clover.

    Susie

  • louisianagal
    13 years ago

    Really, thanks for asking! I do love clover, I think people think that is crazy, but it is so pretty and gives a cool feeling in summer. I just seeded it over my lawn which is mostly bermuda grass, as for as the grass goes. But I do have lots of wildflowers etc in there too. What I hated was the dallisgrass, which would send up tall black seed heads. That was my main reason for overseeding clover, to compete with the dallisgrass and it is working pretty well. A couple weeks ago I was mowing with the old riding mower, and I sort of ride willy nilly not in straight lines all the time. I looked back and there was a big curvaceous swath of clover wrapping around my fountain and shepherd's hook bird feeders and going around and between several beds. Sort of like a big narrow curvy island. I let it be, did not mow it. It looked so good for a couple weeks then the clover flowers got brown and weeds were coming up so I mowed it down. I am having a wedding here Saturday, but after that I will do another swath, my husband and I just loved it! Try it!
    Laurie in Mississippi

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    13 years ago

    Yes, clover and anything else that wants to grow in the lawn. Dandelions, violets etc. I do like the look of a flowering lawn, but too many violets and dandelions start to look weedy to me. I try to spend some time removing some every year. I think the grass and the clover do a good job fighting it out and there is a good balance.

    Since I accept the clover and other plants, I have started to think, why not deliberately try to add flowers to the lawn. Last fall I started planting crocus and chionodoxa into the lawn and they flowered this spring. I really liked that and I hope the chionodoxa will spread. I'm going to try to keep adding more every fall. I would love English Daisies but I tried them one year and they didn't come back.

    I do have to amend what I said about the violets. There was a white violet all over the yard when we moved here 30 years ago which I'm not fond of. It has large coarse leaves and the white flower is nondescript. Just doesn't appeal to me. I planted a violet called 'Queen Charlotte' that is a violet odorata and boy is it fragrant! It is in my shade bed and has started moving into the lawn. Now that I would never pull out! It is a pretty purple color and the fragrance is lovely. I hope it seeds itself all over the lawn while I keep pulling out the white one.

  • organic_kitten
    13 years ago

    I have lawn in the clcover.
    kay

  • roseberri, z6
    13 years ago

    We have 5 acres in the country so we don't have a lawn, mostly clover(red and white)violets(white and purple), dandelions, Queen Anne's Lace, wild yarrow, Hawkweed, wild grasses of all sorts, a darling little wild flower called Venus' Lookinglass, and daises,I love it all! Oh and in spring,spring beauties and grape hyacinth that spread here from the 100 yr. old cemetery next door.
    I once saw a person's yard in town , it was a n old style farmhouse and they had a row of white daisies at the foundation of the house with a short white fence and white clover all through the yard. It was darling!
    roseberri

  • gardenbear1
    13 years ago

    Clover in my lawn its more like what is that grass doing there, my back yard is all most 80% clover now and I grow it for the looks and that I don't have to mow a lot and I have a little friend who likes it, he eats the clover and not my veggies

    Bear

    {{gwi:692314}}

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