I too had an over abundance of clover on about 3/4 acre of my lawn. A more serious invasive weed - creeping charlie, or ground ivy, was literally taking over the entire yard. Four weeks after applying Ortho Weed B Gone Max, 90% of both these intruders were eliminated. I bought the concentrate formula in a gallon size and applied it with an Ortho garden hose applicator. Didn't have high hopes of success, but was I impressed by the results . . . (sorry if I'm beginning to sound like a commercial :^).

Not sure if timing is critical with clover, but with the ground ivy, it's best to apply when it's flowering. Slight yellowing of sections of the lawn did occur after a couple weeks, but after my routine late May Scotts feeding, the lawn is now dark green and lush - never looked so great.

I was in the same boat as you, just mow and water and to be honest, water wasn't all that good.

I had a lot of white clover. Some areas I wasn't even sure if there was grass. As you probably know, clover fixes nitrogen from the air so it's good for the soil. Clover also grows better in moist soil with low nitrogen so fertilizing your lawn is an important part of controlling the clover. If you don't want to use synthetic chemicals Scott's Organic Choice Lawn Food seems to be good as well as other organic fertilizers. Two to four applications a year shouldn't be too difficult.

Before I started getting into organic lawn care I used some Bayer Advanced Weed and Crabgrass Killer. It's some pretty nasty stuff and I don't think I'd use it now but man did it work.

I had a little bit come up this year in one area. It hasn't flowered like my neighbors but it looks like clover leaves. I haven't gotten around to it yet but I found this article on killing ground ivy organically with a thatch rake and it mentions it can work for clover as well. Basically you need to try and pull all of it up and it's hard because it's like a vine under the soil. If you don't get it all up it will grow back. But if you fertilize your lawn, mow high and fill in bare patches you should be able to keep it in check.

I was going to get a thatch rake in the fall and if I still have any then I'll see how it goes. I used a three prong handheld cultivator on some ground ivy and it seemed to work well. I'm going to try and hit the thing I think is clover this weekend.

Do a soil test, proper pH can help with weeds too and start fertilizing. A few days a year of lawn care can make a big difference. You may even want to wait on killing the clover until you start fertilizing. When I killed my clover I realized it was the only thing keeping my lawn looking green :) I still have some problem areas but it's doing better than when I was just mowing.

All good info. I'm also thinking that in many areas the only green thing is the clover. FYI, I just fertilized (for the first time) a couple weeks ago. I'm going to be more dilligent from now on.

To archdiver, I am seriously thinking about the Weed-B-Gon. When the clover died did grass take over, or did you have to do any reseeding? Main issue, I have a kid and don't want anything sitting on the lawn for too long, but I really feel a strong compulsion to get rid of this stuff. I'll search my conscience as well as the local garden center and see how I feel.

To organicnoob, do you think that if I just fertilize regularly I can outlast the clover and it will eventually recede? Or did you begin with the Bayer and then after the clover was gone did you decide on a less toxic approach? Obviously, I'm kind of conflicted about tactics. Oh, and that thatch rake article was pretty interesting. I'm going to get one of those.

yardmartyr,
I'm by no means a lawn expert - just sharing a successful solution to a similar issue. For the past few years I have been watching the ground ivy + clover gradually take over more and more of my yard. Ideally, I did not want to use harsh chemicals, for all the known reasons - but nothing seemed to work. The clover I could live with, ivy was a nuisance and spreading like crazy.

After extensive research talking with local lawn experts and online searches, I found WBG to be the most effective remedy. My neighbor, who is totally addicted to his lawn, also confirmed his success with it.

The label claims results in a couple of days. But in reality, we didn't start seeing yellowing of the clover until after a week or so - longer for the ivy. My grass was already healthy + thick from regular feedings and frequent cutting. Coupled with the last feeding in late May, the grass thrived - did not see any significant areas requiring reseeding. Since it also kills dandelions and crab grass - three or four (very small) bare areas where these weeds were very dense, needed reseeding - no bare spots where the clover + ivy were eliminated. You must wait 30 days before reseeding though, according to directions. What little ground ivy + clover I have left will be treated with another application in the fall.

yardmartyr,

If I were to do it over I wouldn't use the weed killer. Both the Bayer Advanced and the Weed B Gone have the same active ingredients. One of which, 2,4-D seems to be pretty bad. Some areas have already banned, or are trying to ban 2,4-D. There's an independent film coming out about a doctor in Hudson, Quebec that fought to get a ban on pesticides and 2,4-D was one of the reasons. Since then, all of Quebec has put a ban on synthetic pesticides for aesthetic reasons. You can also see what the EPA has to say about 2,4-D.

In one of the areas where I had pretty heavy clover, I now seem to have a fungus, you can see pics in this thread. It's been like that since the clover disappeared. Not saying the weed killer caused it, but that area had more grass than clover and I'm having a difficult time fixing it or reseeding it.

There's some other weed there that I'm slowly hand pulling for now but it was much worse. The clover was the big thing I wanted to get rid of. I wasn't even sure there was ANY grass in some areas.

So if I had to make the choice again of green lawn with clover or brownish lawn without clover, I'd probably go with the clover. From a distance, you don't see clover leaves, just the white flowers, so if you mow more frequently you can get rid of that.

I don't think that just fertilizing will help get rid of it. It might choke it out over a few years, but I don't think you want to wait and find out. If I were doing it again, I'd try to manually remove as much as I could, mow the grass high and frequently and overseed with some good grass seed in the fall.

You probably feel like I did at the time. The reason I started caring about my lawn was because I was so fed up with the clover. Fed up probably isn't strong enough. I was disgusted with it. I would mow the lawn and in some areas it just seemed pointless as there didn't seem to be much of any grass, just clover.

Man, sounds like we have the same lawn and the same attitude toward it. I am frustrated about the clover in front and the creeping charlie in back (yep, got that too!) is driving me insane. For the charlie I am seriously considering smothering the grass along the perimeter and turning it into beds, with just a small square of yard in the middle. For the clover, well, I really do prefer to go chem-free. So I'll try the thatch rake on it and make it my weekly workout. Here's a question: what do you all consider frequent mowing? I mow once a week. Is more often preferable?

The general consensus is that you shouldn't cut more than 1/3 of the grass at any point. So if you cut at 3" you should cut it when it gets to 4.5". Different grasses grow at different rates and your soil, watering, fertilizing and temperature will effect how fast it grows.

I recommend you go to www.extension.org and find your local county cooperative extension office. I think the website detects your location by your IP address and shows your local extension office in the upper left hand corner. You can also click the "Select a different insitution" link and then enter your zip code to find it.

Most offer soil testing services. If your lawn hasn't been maintained for a long time, it's quite possible that there's something in the soil that needs to be corrected. Something like the pH, amount of calcium, magnesium, organic material, etc. Correcting any problems you have could make a huge difference.

Sorry, this is probably a better link for finding your local cooperative extension office.

Thanks. I looked it up and as it turns out the extension office is just 10 minutes away. I didn't even know.

YardMartyr, I can appreciate that a lawn being overtaken with white clover may not be what you had in mind, from an aesthetic standpoint. Perhaps you can tolerate some clover? I really like the change in texture, and slightly different green tone provided by the occasional colonies of clover in my lawn. I maintain control of the clover with very careful, judicious use of broadleaf weedkiller. I wrote about it in a June 5, 2009 post on Heirloom Orchardist.

Just thought I'd post an update. I used the handheld cultivator as a test on some clover and ground ivy. Did a number on both. Should be easier with the thatch rake since you can do it standing.

I put some more details as a comment on that page about how to remove ground ivy if you're interested.

If you get the thatch rake I'd be interested in hearing how it turns out for you. I might still wait till fall to deal with it unless it gets worse.

I was pretty amazed how easy it was. Pulled up some other shallow rooted weeds too.

That's very encouraging. I went and bought a thatch rake today, but didn't get a chance to use it. Now I'm all stoked to get started. I'll report back. By the way, that EPA report on 2, 4-D makes it seem somewhat benign, at least in the sense that it biodegrades fairly quickly. That is, if I'm reading the report correctly. Not that it matters, because I'm committed to this rake for a while. But, should the clover kick my butt, well, maybe I'll just have to reconsider...

2,4-D is terrible at killing clover and ground ivy. When the product was invented, clover was considered a desirable part of the lawn. It was unintentional that it harms but rarely kills clover unless numerous applications are made.

You want to use a product that contains 8% Triclopyr, such as Ortho Chickweed/Clover/Oxalis Killer or Ortho Brush-B-Gon Poison Ivy Killer. Both are identical, although the application instructions are different. You can use either, but use the instructions off of the CCO Killer bottle. Ground Ivy is also well-controled by CCO Killer, although it will take a few treatments 14 days apart.

I've used WeedBGone over the past 3 years to control clover and some funky ground ivy. I use a small one gallon sprayer or one of thjose 32 once zep spray bottles and just spot spray. I don't like just hitting the entire yard with the hose end applicator, no need to do that and it is less affective.
I've found that if you walk back and forth using your lawn mower's lines as a guide, you can spot spray all the clover and weeds only. It takes a bit longer, but walking is good for you and less poison on the yard is better also.
Two applications 7 days apart did the trick for me, seems like every spring I have to do the same thing.