Nature and Gardening

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All things green, outdoors, and nature-y. Whether it's animals in their natural habitat, hiking trails and mountains, or planting a little garden for yourself (and everything in between), you can talk about it here.

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Has anyone here attempted a clover lawn? (self.greenspace)

submitted 1 year ago by honeyontoast to c/greenspace

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I've heard they're better for pollinators, are more drought resistant, and are easier to maintain.

It's hard to see a downside.

Has anyone here made the change? How'd it go?

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[–] FalseAerobics 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I seeded four types of native clover and some native lupines based on the recommendations of a local professor at the university.

They took a little while to start thriving because kids and dogs kept churning up the dirt and mud, but its starting to take hold. Much greener and more widespread, and softer, than the native grass seed I planted at the same time. It seems to be helping the grass to take hold in the same areas too. We had a solid two weeks where we couldn't walk outside without getting mobbed by butterflies and other pollinators. Its nice to feel like I'm just dumping water onto my lawn for no reason.

10/10 would recommend.

[–] nickajeglin@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really like the idea, but I'm worried about the mud issue. We had a big patch of clover, and it seemed like a canopy of clover leaves with mud underneath, so the dog was always tracking it in. Do you think I might have had a different kind of clover? I would really love to do a full clover lawn, but I don't want a muddy kitchen all the time :/

[–] FalseAerobics 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In our case the mud was because the largest patch we grew on was mostly bare due to how poorly our grass had handled the previous summer and how trafficked it was. I haven't noticed any issues since the clover grew in, except for areas where it was still immature or had been killed before reaching maturity by the kids and dogs, which I just reseeded a week or so ago.

I have noticed that we have multiple layers based on the different varieties though, with some growing taller and some growing closer to the ground. None of them are flowering yet so I couldn't say which they are with certainty. I'm mostly going off the different patterning and leaf shapes. Its possible that contributes to producing less mud, I'm not really sure.