Clover, a Comeback Story

Clover, a Comeback Story D uring the 1950s clover went from a vital component of a healthy lawn to a noxious and despised weed. The downfall of clover can be traced back to the commercial release of the herbicide 2,4-D, in 1945. Shortly after its release chemical companies undertook an intensive advertising campaign to convince the public that a weed free lawn was an essential part of responsible homeownership. Which incidentally could be easily achieved with regular applications of 2,4-D. Today lawns are the largest irrigated crop in the United States, an acreage 3 times greater than corn. They receive 1/3 of all residential water consumption, an estimated 9 billion gallons of water per day. The desired weed free condition requires homeowners to apply ten times more chemicals per acre than farmers. It’s time to consider alternatives to reduce the cost and environmental impact of a lawn. One small but significant alternative is to reintroduce clover. Clover will reduce the need for fertilizer, herbicides, irrigation water and provide a valuable food source for native bees. Clover, a nitrogen fixer, has the ability to utilize atmospheric nitrogen for itself and neighboring plants. Its deep roots allow it to stay green with significantly less irrigation. The blossoms provide high-quality pollen and nectar that is essential to the survival of native bees. If anyone in your home has a serious allergy to bees it is prudent to keep clover out of your yard. Clover does have several disadvantages. It is not as durable as grass and does not hold up to foot traffic. Depending on how it is maintained, it can have a patchy and untidy appearance. It goes dormant and provides limited ground cover after the first frost. Goal: Hybrid Lawn! It has become my gardening goal to transition to a hybrid lawn. A lawn that takes advantage of the benefits of grass and clover, and avoids all of their limitations. How hard could it be? Grass looks best in the spring, until the warm temperatures of early summer. Clover looks best from early summer until the first frost. To accomplish my goal, I need to encourage the grass in spring and allow the clover to dominate in the summer. Where to Begin? My first step was to reintroduce clover. I began experimenting with overseeding, which does not require the removal of the existing grass. Simply mow with the lowest mower setting, dethatch, broadcast clover seeds, rake lightly and keep moist until the seeds sprout. I soon discovered that frost seeding is a better and easier method to overseed. Clover germinates at very cool soil temperatures (38 °F to 42 °F). Simply broadcast the seed when the snow cover is off and the lawn remains frozen. Freezing and thawing cycles will make the seed ready for germination when the soil warms. I overseeded with White Dutch clover because of its drought resistance, lifespan and short growth habit. Recently a variant has been introduced with a lower growth habit, fewer blossoms, better drought tolerance and improved tolerance to mowing. This variant is patented and is sold under several product names like Microclover® or Miniclover®. Well, how’s it going? After overseeding much of my lawn, I’ve conducted experiments with fertilizer, mower height, mowing frequency and irrigation. I am looking forward to an experiment with the new white clover variant. My experiments have confirmed that clover is truly a short-lived perennial and requires annual reseeding to minimize the “patchy” appearance. Fortunately frost seeding makes this a trivial task. It was not a surprise to learn that an application of nitrogen in the spring was necessary to “green up” my grass. Areas where I applied about half the recommended rate were sufficient to wake up the grass and low enough to avoid damaging the clover. No additional applications have been required. When the clover begins to dominate the grass, I raise the mower to its highest setting, about 4 inches. This height allows many of the clover blossoms to remain undamaged. The higher mower height also reduced mowing frequency. Mower height has a significant impact upon the appearance of clover. Clover has a plant characteristic known as elasticity which allows it to be almost trained to an acceptable growing height. If clover is mowed to a height of 3 inches, it will head back out and stop growing at approximately 4 inches. The more clover is mowed the smaller the leaf size, conversely the less it is mowed the larger the leaf size. After more than a year of experimentation, my goal of a hybrid lawn is still a work in progress. I’ve learned that introducing clover by overseeding clover is easy. However, achieving and maintaining a lush and tidy appearance is a significant and unnecessary challenge. While I have not achieved my goal of a lush, eco-friendly hybrid lawn. I have been encouraged by the potential. I am starting to see what is possible. I’ve discovered that experimenting with a hybrid lawn is more enjoyable and rewarding than maintaining a mono-culture grass lawn.