Clover Lawn

For many years now, my relationship with lawns has been a fickle one. Although there is nothing better than walking barefoot through a cool, soft lawn in summer, they really suck up water and fertilizer (read time and money). Thus, in an effort to save time and resources, I decided to let my lawn go dormant last summer. It was great, I never watered and rarely mowed. They only downside was that when it grew back in fall, there were giant and unattractive bare patches.

Therefore, I am going to try a new tactic this year. I have decided to install a clover lawn. To do this I mixed grass seed with clover seed and allowed them to germinate together. The only work this lawn will require will be mowing. I will end up watering less and rarely if ever fertilizing. When the clover fixes nitrogen from the air, it also contributes to the fertility of the grass. Although I am not thrilled about having to water the lawn, at least I won't have to fertilize it anymore. Furthermore, supposedly by mid summer, I can stop mowing it and let the clover self-seed.

Like all of my experiments in the yard, I am planning on starting off skeptical and waiting to see how it turns out before getting too excited. So far (as odd as it sounds), simply getting the clover (a weed!) to even germinate has been challenging! I have probably over seeded the lawn with clover seed about five times now. I am just beginning to see sprouts coming up, but only in some areas. Based on a website I found (http://www.versicolor.ca/lawns/docs/clover.html) if I keep at it, over a period of a few years, I can achieve a perfect blend of grass and clover that is fairly low maintenance. Or, I might decide that this low maintenance approach is too much maintenance and go back to not watering it in the summer!