How to have a clover lawn

The short answer is no. In fact, clover might be good for your lawn, since it requires less water, fertilizer, compost, herbicide, and weeding. One of the most popular lawn alternatives is white clover (Trifolium repens), also known as Dutch clover or Dutch white clover.

When adding clover to an existing lawn, first mow it close and remove any thatch to allow the seed to fall to the soil surface. To sow clover alone, mix it with enough sand to facilitate spreading. About 2 ounces of clover is needed for every 1,000 square feet of lawn.

To add clover to an already established lawn, begin by mowing close to the ground and raking out any thatch that developed over the previous growing season. If your lawn needs aerating, now is the time. Your clover seed will benefit if sown after a thorough aeration.

Easy-to-grow clovers do not require mowing, but they help keep the lawn green and create a nourishing playground for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects.

Because clover takes nitrogen out of the air and soil and makes it available to your lawn, it helps the lawn grow healthier and more pest-resistant, and reduces the amount of fertilizer required.

Reason 2: Clover Prevents Weeds

Clover, with its umbrella-like leaves, shades the soil better than blades of grass do, so it, creating a less optimal environment for weeds. If you have Clover in your lawn, you can even mow at a more normal mowing height (2.5 inches).

Annual or Perennial

Perennial clover will self-seed too, but it spreads consistently through its creeping root system. Some perennial clovers will die back in hot or cold weather, but new growth will emerge from the roots the following growing season.

Clover is a broadleaf, compound weed. It is a perennial, which means it dies back during the winter but will return in the spring.

Planting Time:

If you plant when temperatures are warm, clover seeds will germinate in 7 – 15 days.

Fertilize Your Clover

Most often the best fertilizer for clover will recommend around 300 lbs of 0-20-20 per acre annually. Many choose to fertilize at planting time and then during the spring annually thereafter.

In flower beds, clover can be kept at bay by using a thick layer of mulch. This will keep the seeds from germinating. If white clover is already established in your yard, controlling it can either be done through hand pulling or by using an herbicide.

Most companies will claim a lifespan of three to five years on their perennials. However, if you care for them properly a perennial stand can last for many years.

The best two chemicals to kill clover are MCCP (Mecoprop) and Dicamba. Between the two, Dicamba can be harsh on the environment, so MCCP is preferred for lawn care. Most lawn weed control products or weed and feed products contain MCCP and a combination of various other chemical herbicides to target other weed pests.

Why is clover taking over my lawn? Clover can take over your lawn in the right conditions—low grass, the wrong soil pH, compacted soil, and poor nitrogen levels are excellent growing conditions for clover.

Using too much seed is a top 3 mistake when planting food plots for deer. Set the spreader low and cover the same area 3 times if need be, but don’t lay it down too thick as you will run out of seed, and the areas you over seed clover in will choke themselves out.

Depending on rainfall, a good stand of clover should be cut at least 4 times a year. If you cut clover past this height it will put a lot of stress on the plant. Always keep an eye on the forecast and plan your cuts around a heavy rain, this will allow it to bounce right back.

Most of the time, when a shamrock plant appears to be dying, it is actually just in need of an off-season, or a time in which it can rest. It grows from a bulb and is a perennial, so if it is dying at the end of a growing season, simply cut off the dying or deceased portions and wait for the new growing season to start.

Bacterial blight or bacterial leaf spot, caused byPseudomonas syringae, is a minor disease of red clover. During cool, wet weather at any time during the growing season angular, dark brown-to-black blotches may form on the leaflets, petioles, stipules, stems, and flower pedicels.

Grass-selective herbicides (kill grasses only) include clethodim (clethodim, Arrow 2EC, Select Max) and sethoxydim (Poast 1.5L, Arrest). Broadleaf-selective herbicides (kill forbs only) include 2,4-DB (Butyric 200).