Hi,

I have a fairly large lawn at the back of my house in Ithaca, NY, and am
wondering what I can do to reduce the time spent mowing as well as
beautify the place. I'd love to do some interesting landscaping and
plant some trees, but this year I won't have enough money (or time) to
do a whole lot with it. One idea that sounds nice is converting about
1/4-1/3 acre in the back to a 100% clover lawn. But I have a few
questions about it.

Is this the sort of thing that neighbors might object to because it
might spread into their lawn? If so, is there some way I can prevent
that from happening?

Would the large local population of deer be too hard on the clover?

Also, I already have to be fairly vigilant to keep bees and wasps from
nesting in my vinyl siding and window sils. Will this cause problems by
attracting too many bees? I don't mind having foraging bees in the
yard, and will at least a grass lawn within abt 30' of the house for
outdoor recreation and such, but how can I avoid nests near my house?

If I still like the idea, how would I go about converting the grass lawn
to clover?

I assume I need some kind of barrier to separate the clover part from
the grass, probably running around the entire area. Any suggestions?
Also, one corner of the back lawn is having some drainage problems and
is a bit of a swamp this Spring. But I'll make that a new post.

- Topher