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Ask The Yard Doctor

Clover Lawn?

15 years ago

I'm so confused. In my 25 years of home ownership, one of the 'lawn goals' (as set forth by the 'lawn experts'!)was to remove clover. Several years ago we were struggling to get that traditional northern weed free lawn, gave up trying on our own and hired one of the big guns aka Chemlawn. Many weeds were eradicated. We switched to Scotts Lawn service with 4 treatmens per season but even that bothers me - I hate the chemicals.

Now I'm reading clover is desirable in a lawn? As a lawn by itself? Truth or propaganda? Can I just stop the lawn service and allow nature to take it's course to reintroduce the clover or do I take a more proactive role?

I'm interested to hear experience with this, especially from anyone in a climate similar to mine. Pros cons opinions and suggestions welcome.

Thanks so much - Deb

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Comments (2)

joepyeweed
15 years ago
Prior to the development of broadleaf herbicides, a premium lawn mixture contained clover.

Once broadleaf selective herbicides were available to target other weeds, clover was selected out too.

If you are using weed and feed type products then you won't have clover in the lawn; or if you do, it tends to be clumpy and can degrade from a uniform turf appearance.

The key to co-existing with clover is having it distributed evenly throughout the lawn so you don't have visible clumping.

Clover has advantages and disadvantages in the lawn. Clover fixes nitrogen in the soil, is shade tolerant, drought tolerant and doesn't grow very tall. Clover attracts bees and can cause grass stains on clothing.
gardeniack_flowingdesigns_us
13 years ago
I have a clover lawn and love it. It does fix nitrogen in the soil, is drought, shade, and pest tolerant, can thrive in the triple digit summers we have, doesn't turn yellow with dog potty spots (that is a big one) and stays green in summer and winter. Yes it attracks bees if you let it flower but if you keep it trimmed there are very few flowers that would make a difference considering our yard is full of flower beds that the bees are in anyways. It takes a little while for the clover to croud out most of the weeds and grasses but we do put some grass seed down periodically because the clover seems to thrive more with cometition. As far as grass stains, as kids we always had grass stains so no biggy for me. Again I love it and know it is not for everyone but it is really beautiful and such a viberant green.
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