The classic problem of a clover lawn is that it attracts bees when the flowers are out, which can be a hazard for kids, pets, and even adults. Many people don't seem to mind this, but I would mind.

Also, if you ever go to sell or rent your house, you'd be looking at the need to kill all the clover, reseed, and wait for the lawn to re-establish, which might take a whole season. Or use sod, which is bigger $. No realtor would be happy trying to convince a potential buyer of the advantages of a clover lawn, though from what I've read, there are many.

I have never had a clover lawn, and I don't mean to try to take you off of your project, but I agree with Dave. Also, I have read that clover causes much worse "grass stains" on clothing than grass does. Just something to consider if you will have children playing in the area I guess.

I loved clover as a child (looking for the four-leafs according to the rhyme, etc.), and I think it can be very nice to look at. I personally just think it has too many problems to serve as a lawn.

But if you plan to go ahead, I'd do the following:

1. Stop watering and fertilizing the existing grass

2. Scalp the grass with a lawnmower every week or so

3. After scalping, spread clover seed, though I don't know how densely.

4. If the clover doesn't take to it easily, consider acidifying the soil a bit, which I think favors clover over grass.

The biggest hurdle will be keeping out other weeds, which are favored by the same conditions. You might be in for a lot of hand-pulling, as it might take years for clover to take over an acre of grass. As far as I know, every broad-leaf herbicide will also kill clover, but I'm not certain of that.

On the plus side, I believe it's true that you'd never have to water or fertilize, or mow, again. I hope it works out for you.

Thanks for all of the advise. It is really helpful. Basd on your advise I think that I will do a small portion 150sqft for a clover patio. I don't know what fescue is. I'll look it up. I'll scalp, acidify and seed there. That way I don't need to move my lawn furniture to mow. I'll see what it's like. Then I could decide. My lawn is now a mixture of grass, clover, small wild flowers with pretty blue/purple flowers and the only ones that I really despise are the broadleaf weeds which I sometimes pull but they have won.

We overseeded our lawn last year with dutch white clover, and it looks nice. It did not come back quite as thickly this year, however, so I'm not sure I'd take the plunge and do the whole lawn at once.

It does help the lawn retain a greener look during our dry summers. I did notice more bees, but it wasn't a problem. My two year old runs around on the lawn all the time and the bees don't bother him. I think too many people have bee phobia. Unless you have an allergy problem, I think this worry is overstated.

BTW - the blue flowers are probably speedwell. I have a ton of it in the lawn too. I leave most everything except the purslane and try to keep the dandelions somewhat under control.

I over-seeded with Dutch white clover 4 years ago, and it increased yearly, and was wonderful last summer. This spring nothing is left- we had an odd winter, dry as a bone until Dec, then 2" of rain, followed by 3 ' of snow, that lasted until late March. Killed all kinds of things, and I'm just now seeing some very sparse clover return. From dormant seed, I would guess. I'll order some more. Found this site, seems like a good price.

Here is a link that might be useful: clover seed source

David--Do you know the pH of your soil? I know most of the intermountain west is alkaline, but I also know there are areas that are acidic. I always thought DWC needed acidic conditions, so I planted strawberry clover, which is more alkaline tolerant, but not as drought tolerant.

bpgreen, soil is generally 7.5 ish, the clover that occurs 'naturally', as in comes in with the irrigation water, is the Dutch white. We also get other varieties that show up, some blowing off the trucks from the seed company up the road, some coming in with the water, but the Dutch White seems to dominate.

I was going to ask you about your experiences with the strawberry clover - does it spread, is it a true perennial, and how has it faired? I can always add some to the mix.

Also, an interesting phenomenon following this weird winter, the western wheat grass is now the dominate grass species in all the road side borrow ditches, even shoving out the brome grass. Its now forming seed heads, and the stuff is everywhere. Do you notice anything similar in Utah?

I think I seeded the strawberry clover last year and I've still got some. It doesn't seem to hold up as well in heat/lack of water as I had hoped.

There are a number of fields near here that have a lot of western wheatgrasss, but I think they were dominated by it before and I just didn't recognize it. I've got a few spots around the edges of my lawn that are hard to get to and they're tall with seeds. I think I'm going to let them keep growing and drop their seeds to add to the lawn. I may go around to some nearby fields and collect some wild seed, too. I think the wheatgrass is finally starting to take over my lawn.

I just over seeded another 20 lbs of clover seed. What ever tiny beastie is snarfing up my lawn is expanding - I still can't figure out what it is, I do all the recommended things, like pull it up and look for things on white paper, and once I found snails. The extension agent thought it was mites, and I didn't water enough, however with 20 acre feet of irrigation / season on two acres, I'd say that wasn't the problem. I water deeply once a week, mow it high, and come back a week later and where the tire tracks of the mower went (walk behind 4 hp) the grass is dead. I'm seeing the same thing in town now, and my neighbors are having issues as well.

Anywho, I hope the clover takes hold again.

If that fails, these things are on sale...

Here is a link that might be useful: next step in lawn management

Fantastic idea. We have an all Clover yard in Massachusetts And so does my brother in the state of Maine. It attracts bees here and there but they don't bother us. The biggest thing is it does not attract ticks and that is far more important. It looks great it is softer than grass and it only grows to a certain height. Clover is very very underrated. I will never go back to a grass lawn.

Keat, any photos of your clover lawn?

I know this is a very old thread, but with recent updates. So I'll add my two cents. I've heard standard white 'Dutch' clover can beat out lawn grass, especially if it is 'weak.' So I used MiniClover from Outside Pride. It appears to be identical to Dutch clover, just smaller. Check out their web site for more info. It's also sold on Amazon.

MiniClover, "Trifolium repens", and White Dutch Clover, "Trifolium repens", are the same plant. This is one of the reasons to use the scientific names instead of the common names.

I planted crimson clover in a tilled yard. no chemicals. it came up in two days. i used straw as a covering. crimson is an annual and a winter kill below zero in my region. if you let the flowers reseed it could carry over another year. clover adds a ton of nutrients and nitogen to the soil. 3 weeks later, (2 days ago) i dropped tall fescue seed. that’s the plan heading into late october. the clover is now 3 inches tall and a great cover to cradle the seed and keep it from wandering.

If you don't want to deal with the bees just cut the clover before the flowers come