I’ve heard they’re better for pollinators, are more drought resistant, and are easier to maintain.
It’s hard to see a downside.
Has anyone here made the change? How’d it go?
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I seeded four types of native clover and some native lupines based on the recommendations of a local professor at the university.
They took a little while to start thriving because kids and dogs kept churning up the dirt and mud, but its starting to take hold. Much greener and more widespread, and softer, than the native grass seed I planted at the same time. It seems to be helping the grass to take hold in the same areas too. We had a solid two weeks where we couldn’t walk outside without getting mobbed by butterflies and other pollinators. Its nice to feel like I’m just dumping water onto my lawn for no reason.
10/10 would recommend.
I really like the idea, but I’m worried about the mud issue. We had a big patch of clover, and it seemed like a canopy of clover leaves with mud underneath, so the dog was always tracking it in. Do you think I might have had a different kind of clover? I would really love to do a full clover lawn, but I don’t want a muddy kitchen all the time :/
In our case the mud was because the largest patch we grew on was mostly bare due to how poorly our grass had handled the previous summer and how trafficked it was. I haven’t noticed any issues since the clover grew in, except for areas where it was still immature or had been killed before reaching maturity by the kids and dogs, which I just reseeded a week or so ago.
I have noticed that we have multiple layers based on the different varieties though, with some growing taller and some growing closer to the ground. None of them are flowering yet so I couldn’t say which they are with certainty. I’m mostly going off the different patterning and leaf shapes. Its possible that contributes to producing less mud, I’m not really sure.
Consider adding dandelions with your clover. They’re pretty and if you harvest the leaves (similar to arugula) and flowers (tea, salad, even wine) they are quite controllable and you save money at the grocery store.
We get a lot of dandelions here anyway so they’d probably end up mingling whether intentional or not - Now I did hear a while ago that all the parts of the dandelion are edible, and that the flowers are delicious fried, but I’m a little afraid of eating things from the lawn because the neighbourhood has a lot of roaming cats and they… use… my garden frequently, which puts me off nibbling on them.
I was thinking of intentionally growing them in a raised planter though.
I just found out the other day that there are colors other than yellow, i saw seeds for pink and also white dandelions the other day on a seed site
