I’ve heard good things about clover as a cover crop (it helps with the root system and whatnot, right?). But I’ve never seen it in a store before. Where/how does one source some to add to my grow ?
Thanks!
Hello I am in Zone 9B,
I have been reading about companion planting grass and clover and how it reduces the need to supply nitrogen feeds by pulling nitrogen out of the air. I have white clover seeds and have read it is not only great at adding nitrogen to the soil but it is a perennial and comes back on its own each year.
I feel like there is some kind of drawback to it otherwise I would be seeing it more. Almost every gardening showcase I have seen there seems to be a focus on making sure the one thing they are growing is the only plant that makes it. Weed covers, heavy mulch etc...
Is there something I am missing? Is clover too competitive?
If you're like me, your lawn is super needy. It requires seasonal aeration, fertilizer and weed killer, with regular watering and mowing just to keep the grass alive. And if you're unlucky or just busy, and the grass dies, well, then you have the fun task of trying to bring it back, with all the additional weeding and watering and maintenance that comes with it. You're tired of it, but you also don't want to replace your entire yard with rocks or gravel.
I used to think clover was a weed until I decided to stop fighting it and let it grow. It's been a godsend. It's saved me so much time and money that now I actively seed my lawn with it, and I think my lawn still looks nice.
- Clover will fill in areas where grass struggles to grow, leading to a prettier, more uniformly green lawn, and crowding out weeds.
- Clover is resistant to dog urine.
- Clover and grass lawns can handle a lot of foot (or paw!) traffic.
- Clover and grass lawns don't need to have the clover reseeded every year.
- Clover is naturally drought-resistant, low-growing so it doesn't need as much maintenance.
- Clover is naturally nitrogen-fixing so it will actually help fertilize the grass in your yard.
- Clover can't be eaten by Japanese Beetle grubs so it protects your yard from an infestation.
- Clover supports native bee populations since the bees love the white flowers. (If you worry about stings, just wear shoes or mow the flowers).
- Clover seeds are extremely cheap.
Was thinking of sprinkling in some seeds around the base of some established vegetables to give the soil some cover. Any advice on using clover?
I am currently letting white clover take over much of what was previously my lawn. I am slowly converting it to perennial gardens, but the clover is growing around my perennials. I don’t mind the look of it and I am happy to have the clover as it blocks weed growth, but should I worry about it preventing growth of my other perennials in the spring?
The perennials I have at this point mainly consist of canna, crocosmia, and hot poker. I also have some hens and chicks and the clover grew on top of them, but the hens and chicks don’t seem to be stressed by it.
I am in Seattle area.
I planted a brand new bed with clover this year and it (the clover) grew really well but I don't know what to do with it now? The bed is 3'x20' and the soil is clay with compost mixed into it with a hoe.
Does it stay as clover every year and I plant seedlings into the bed next spring and the clover grows around it? Do I turn the clover in to the bed and mulch with compost? Next year I am planting annual veggies in the same bed.
Thank you. Zone 3A as well.
Edit: I'm going to mulch the bed with a thick layer (6") of well composted cow manure and cover with straw for the winter. Next year I will plant into the bed 2" soil block seedlings I start inside. I'll try a variety of species and see what likes it there. If the clover comes up through the thick mulch, it should be much slower than anything I transplant. Thanks you for the help.
My yard has been overtaken by white clover. To me it's an eye sore next to the nice green front yard of my neighbors. But while searching on reddit for how to get rid of it, I feel like I found more praise for the flower (weed?) than anything else. So... Am I supposed to like them? Wife and I don't care about our grass TBH. We do get it cut every week.
So my roughly 30ftx30ft garden plot is starting to get really tiring to maintain/weed (I live next to the woods so I get everything. I'm constantly pulling up 30ft wisteria "ropes", or 10ft pieces of creeping charlie before they snap and I have to find the rest of it, etc). I've been reading up on dutch white clover and it sounds like something I'd want to blanket the area with and then just grow my crops in there like normal. Apparently it's cold hardy, perennial, mow-able, will spread even faster if you let it self seed (which I plan on doing the first year at least), out-competes weeds, is nitrogen fixing, doesn't get that tall even if you ignore it, attracts and feeds bees, and will naturally help the soil retain moisture just by virtue of shading it... Frankly it sounds perfect. But none of my usual haunts seem to have it. I know you plant it in spring; Is this just a bad time to buy so no one has it listed? Only place I can find it is Amazon and the reviews are mixed, but as always with seed reviews it's kind of hard to tell if the seeds were crap or the person planting them didn't do it right. So I guess my first question is where/when do you get your dutch white clover? I'm guessing I'd need about a pound.
My second question is "does this sounds like a good idea to prepare the weed-infested plot?": I was planning on cutting everything in there down as short as I can around November mid-late September, raking all that biomass out and putting it somewhere else for the time being, then soaking the whole area (mostly for thermal conductivity), and then using something like this propane tank weed burner to burn everything too low for the mower to get. Then till the whole thing (still working out how to do that, any cheapish recommendations?) to hopefully bring up some seeds/roots that survived under the surface, then soak and burn the whole thing again. I might plant garlic (cloves) the next day and use the gathered biomass to mulch it over the winter. When spring comes I'll just carpet the area with clover seed. I feel like the overwintered garlic will grow straight up though fledgling dutch white clover, am I wrong?
I would love to just do a proper slash and burn, but the plot is next to two fences, on of which is the neighbors, who has three fig trees pressed up against it so unfortunately that's a no go. I'd also like to avoid using herbicides if at all possible because I want to be able to claim ev
... keep reading on reddit ➡As suggested by abbas56, I'm sharing my notes on these three plants. Do others share the same opinion/findings?
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I've gone and taken samples of red and white clover, and wood sorrel. Here are my tasting notes.
For the texture, I held leaf in mouth without chewing, first one side up then the other.
For the flavor, I took1-3 leaves, slowly chewed for as long as I could since the flavors change over time.
Pictures are here, https://imgur.com/a/Ok8GPSOMy fingers in some for reference.
- Red clover: a. leaf texture in mouth: leaf feels thick in mouth, top is smooth, bottom is sandpapery. b. flavor is upfront bitter, then "green", then very bitter, then spicy, then peppery, then hot. Flavor was the same for small and large leaves. Sample is a large plant. You can see leaves have edges that are not smooth, perhaps hairy-looking, though not serrated like white clover.
- Wood sorrel: a. leaf feels thin, top and bottom smooth. b. flavor is: lemony tartness and nice, then lemony tartness and nice. Flavor was the same for small and large leaves. Sample is a large plant. Leaf edges are smooth, plant becomes "shy" at night and leaves fold.
- White clover: a. leaf texture is thick in mouth. top is smooth, bottom feels textured. b. flavor is green, then spinachlike. Sample was a small plant and could not find large ones. You can see the leaves have serrated edges and a white crescent that is very faint in several.
