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White clovers infested lawn

11 years ago

Big portion of my back yard lawn is infested with white clovers. I planned to kill them all this summer and over-seed in the fall. However, there is a small vegi garden next to the lawn and I am really concerned about using chemicals. My house sits on a corner lot and the lawn in front yard and side yard is killing me. The lawn need so much watering that I can not possibly keep up. In the summer heat my lawn is all yellow. The big spruces trees are not helping the case of course. On the contrary, my back yard lawn is green, green , green! And I NEVER watered or fertilized. Not much weed problem either except of course the white clovers. So now I am not so sure about my plan. Should I turn my back yard into standard American lawn which will consume too much water and care. Or should I leave it alone. When the clovers flowered, it does scream "neglected lawn". And a friend commented how terrible my back yard looks with all these white dots all over.

What should I do?

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Comments (3)

kimpa zone 9b N. Florida.
11 years ago
If I were to see your back lawn I'm sure I would think it was beautiful. Especially after you told me you never watered or fertilized it. It seems ideal to me. Your friend does not understand natural beauty.

Why create more work for yourself. I would leave it as is and enjoy the fact that you are working with nature, not against it. That is what I see-not white dots but a lack of herbicides. And that truly is beautiful!
dchall_san_antonio
11 years ago
I agree with kimpa. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Let your friend walk in your shoes before condemning your approach.

Back in the 60s, before Weed-b-Gone products made it easy to kill clover, bags of lawn seed always contained clover seed. The seed was a mix of several grass types plus clover. Nowadays Scott's and others have marketed the perfect lawn as one type of grass species which is completely free of alternate plants. It is a matter of perception.

Just for grins I'll post a picture of my lawn on the edge of the Texas desert. It is a St Augustine grass lawn, but your friend might take issue with the height.

{{gwi:79606}}

That grass was about 25 inches high when the picture was taken. It's up about 10 more inches since then. It has not been watered or mowed since last October and has not been fertilized in years. Temperatures run in the high 90s to low 100s every day for the past several months. We just received 2.5 inches of rain over a 3-week period. Prior to that the last rain was in April. The color is good, there are no weeds, no insects, and no disease. This is an experiment to see if I can reach a state of zero-maintenance lawn in the desert. I think it is doable.
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watchnerd
11 years ago
I had a wild patch of white clover and, after realizing how good clover is for the lawn (nitrogen fixer), I actually went out and got a bunch of clover seed and intentionally seeded more. It's never looked better.

Ignore your neighbor, or educate him on the benefits of clover, but don't get rid of it!

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