Tony wrote:
zxcvbob wrote:
Frank McElrath wrote:
I have a bad clover problem here in the DC area. As much as I hate
to use chemicals, I may have to. We are planning to take a 3 week
vacation starting at the beginning of August.

Would I do damage to my grass if I sprayed a weedkiller on right
before we left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?



Fertilize lightly with a high-nitrogen fertilizer with no phosphorus.
Keep the grass mowed, and don't water it too much. (clover likes
moist, low-nitrogen soil with lots of phosphorus.) The grass should
overtake the clover in the hot summer months.

I agree with this completely. Clover, in general, indicates soil with
poor nutrient level, especially nitrogen.

Not so. Here it is part of a mixed pasture that includes some heavy feeders
who like nitrogen, eg kikuyu.

Farmers of yesteryear knew
soils where clover and Queen Anne's lace thrived were nutrient poor,
and they would either compensate with green or conventional manures
to be able to plant crops there, or simply would not use that piece
of land for cropping.

Here clover is seen as a bonus and it is encouraged and in some cases seeded
into the pasture. It is nutritious and loved by both horses and cattle. If
your pasture grows clover you certainly would use that land.

Improve the conditions for the lawn grass, and
the clover will get choked out automatically.



Not necessarily. At certain seasons clover grows better than grass at
others not so well. I have had clover in the spring so thick the pasture
looked white and you could hear the hum of the bees wherever you went.
Later in the year the same paddock produced abundant grass as the clover
retreated, the paddock has dense coverage (except in drought) and shows no
sign of choking out the clover which comes back each year.

You are giving clover a bad reputation which is not deserved but I doubt the
OP is concerned about grazing animals so this is not really that relevant.

David