Ohioguy wrote:
Most people don't want clover in their lawns because of appearance.
Evidently that is the case - I got a laugh when I went to the
Scott's website and saw a picture of Dutch White Clover, and a
description of it as an annoying weed, and that you should fertilizer
your yard more (probably with Scott's fertilizer, right? :-) and it
will eventually go away.

I actually planted my last lawn about 50% to dutch white clover,
because I like the stuff, it doesn't seem to grow as fast, and it
never needed fertilized or watered. I like the flowers from
dandelions as well, but I'll admit that they can take over.


I like the clover in my pasture becasue the stock love it and it is
nutritious. I like the clover in my lawn because it looks great in spring.
Why would you want to destroy this:

http://s1086.photobucket.com/albums/...Spring%202011/

This idea that a lawn with clover is somehow inferior is nonsense.


I grew up on a farm where the yard was always about 50% native
plants, including various wildflowers left over from when it was more
wooded. There was no way I was going to put down herbicides and kill
off all of those violets, spring beauties, or deertongue (glacier
lilies), for example.

While the lawn may not look like a golf course, I think the
diversity of plants makes it more resistant to various problems.


This is a point that many people do not understand. I love the fact that I
have 4 or 5 kinds of grass, plus clover plus several other "weeds". This
means that I have ground cover under a wide variety of conditions not just
when it suits the monoculture.


If the lawn has sufficient nitrogen it will get thick enough
to crowd out the clover.

I would prefer for the clover to fix the nitrogen naturally, and
then provide a little extra to the grasses. I'm going for low
maintenance, low cost, and low environmental impact. If I could eat
grass, I could justify spending more time and money on the lawn. However,
I would much rather spend the time and money on my fruit
trees and other things that I can eat. That is probably my farm
background talking, because I'd also rather let a couple of sheep
loose in the yard, rather than mowing. (which would also give us free
fertilizer at the same time) Can't get away with that around here,
though.

A much more balanced approach. If you can't have sheep how about geese?

David