On 6/24/07 5:55 AM, in article ,
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

"George.com" wrote in message
...
I found a interesting snippet about clover %s in pasture last night. The
source is organic pastoral farming however many of the things discussed
have
excellent transferability to lawns. The particular discussion was about
building herbal lays.

"The first consideration is to rebuild the humus in our soils to supply
carbon. The most important plant to get into your pasture mix is white
clover. This is the powerhouse plant for biologically based pastures.
Fortunately most farmer pastures do have clover, often in conjunction with
ryegrass, but usually not in high enough density being around 20% of the
sward. To optimise productivity clover content needs to be a minimum of
30%
of the sward, aiming for 50%."
http://www.biodynamic.org.nz/guides/ch3env_app.pdf (page 119 in this
guide)
http://www.biodynamic.org.nz/guides/intro_ch1.pdf (an accompanying guide,
very very interesting)

I have a good covering of clover in my lawn. It has developed since I
stopped using broad leaf sprays and cut back on nitrogen heavy
fertilisers.
The clover supplies much of my nitorgen needs now. It has packed quite
densely in some areas but seems to complement the grasses nicely giving a
decent effect on the lawn. Cut out the sprays & the chemical fertilisers &
your lawn can look quite quite nice I have discovered.

rob


Yesterday, I spent a few hours widening a flower bed that had shrunk due to
lawn encroachment and lack of time to keep up with it. The chunks I was
removing were about 50% clover. The soil underneath was the kind gardeners
dream of. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who complains about clover is....

...never mind. Too early for thinking about twits. :-)


I actually leave "clover weeds" alone in the garden while weeding. I'll go
out later and transplant it into the lawn - when I know the rains are
coming.
Cheryl