I am in the third year of my quest for a whole clover yard and am I ever glad I have gone this route. I live in zone 6b, have a heavily sandy soil yard, a moderate amount of sun and rain, and live in a subdivision in which every yard is a poisoned pristine golf course. I am in favor of a natural yard where no poisons, pesticides or herbicides will ever be allowed. So when I moved in I became the owner of a previously highly poisoned very sandy yard with short grass and no natural life left in the "soil". The first three years I didn't do anything to my yard because it was full of poisons and too unhealthy to deal with. All we did was mulch mow and leave the clippings on the grass to help with the rebuilding of the microbiome, worm population and all the natural things that a healthy soil and grass needs. When a yard is used to being pumped full of poisons to kill weeds and fertilizers to put something back into the soil so grass will struggle along, when you stop both of those processes your soil has nothing in it; all the natural microbial life was killed off so weeds have their moment in the sun since they are wonderful opportunists and will grow no matter what. The yard had lots of weeds mixed with the struggling grass for all three years and my neighbors were tearing their hair out with horror; crabgrass was rampant, dandelions, and many weeds I don't know the names of. We mowed a lot to keep it under control while we waited for the poisons to be swallowed up by time, rain, and the newly arriving natural helpers in the soil. We had a man come by once a month to spray the "lawn" with spray of a mix of earthworm castings and water. And we mulch mowed. Then after a couple of years I began to toss white dutch clover seed here and there once we'd mowed low. I learned that if you mow low, sprinkle the area with enough water to get the soil moist, toss clover seed down, stomp them down by walking over them, and water three times a day for 15 minutes (morning, lunchtime, and dinnertime), in 4-5 days your seeds will be germinated and given another day or two of a little water will be able to take care of themselves. I just did this in July in a dry patch in my front yard and it is, after two weeks, green and healthy and has already put up with having the mower go over them twice. If you can do this in the heat of July you can do it any time. The seeds just need to be kept, like grass seed you're trying to germinate, in a continual state of moistness. If you fail to remember to water your seeds they will not germinate. So what are my results after all this? An absolutely perfectly beautiful lush deep green clover yard, full of health, never browns out in the hottest part of the year, pleasant to walk on, cool and thick. Our lawn is almost weed free where the clover is and you have to look hard to see them, the soil is full of the natural things that are supposed to be there, when children and pets are outside we can all sit on the "grass" like the good old days and look for 4 leaf clovers, because it is real, honest to goodness harmless natural soil, grass and clover. We have a creek in back and at least from our house, there is no poisonous runoff because because of the clover no matter how much rain falls the water percolates down into our yard and there is no runoff into the creek- and no poisons to run off anyway. Our "grass" is the greenest in the neighborhood- especially in July and August when their lawns are browning ours is all green still. The weeds are mostly memories, and have been crowded out by the stronger clover, when we mow the grass is lush and thick, and all day long that clover is putting nitrogen into itself and the soil and building up the sandy soil to higher levels of health. When we mulch mow all it's benefits are being put back into the soil beneath it, It is now a happy yard and even our neighbors are happy...even though they think we're nutty and don't have any interest in growing clover and still think of it as a weed. We make sure to keep the clover lawn mowed to the point where it looks like a regular lawn so they don't have heart attacks and from their viewpoint it just looks like a very healthy very green lawn unless it flowers which I let it do occasionally because it's pretty. In back it's just allowed to be a flowering place that feeds the bees, butterflies, rabbits and other wildlife and improves the soil. One more added bonus, the rabbits, and like all who have them we have too many, used to eat every new planting in the yard, but now that they have their favorite, clover, they leave all the other things alone so I have flowers all over again. They are deep in the clover from sunrise to late in the day, and if rabbits could smile, they would be. I sure am.
I am in the third year of my quest for a whole clover yard and am I ever glad I have gone this route. I live in zone 6b, have a heavily sandy soil yard, a moderate amount of sun and rain, and live in a subdivision in which every yard is a poisoned pristine golf course. I am in favor of a natural yard where no poisons, pesticides or herbicides will ever be allowed. So when I moved in I became the owner of a previously highly poisoned very sandy yard with short grass and no natural life left in the "soil". The first three years I didn't do anything to my yard because it was full of poisons and too unhealthy to deal with. All we did was mulch mow and leave the clippings on the grass to help with the rebuilding of the microbiome, worm population and all the natural things that a healthy soil and grass needs. When a yard is used to being pumped full of poisons to kill weeds and fertilizers to put something back into the soil so grass will struggle along, when you stop both of those processes your soil has nothing in it; all the natural microbial life was killed off so weeds have their moment in the sun since they are wonderful opportunists and will grow no matter what. The yard had lots of weeds mixed with the struggling grass for all three years and my neighbors were tearing their hair out with horror; crabgrass was rampant, dandelions, and many weeds I don't know the names of. We mowed a lot to keep it under control while we waited for the poisons to be swallowed up by time, rain, and the newly arriving natural helpers in the soil. We had a man come by once a month to spray the "lawn" with spray of a mix of earthworm castings and water. And we mulch mowed. Then after a couple of years I began to toss white dutch clover seed here and there once we'd mowed low. I learned that if you mow low, sprinkle the area with enough water to get the soil moist, toss clover seed down, stomp them down by walking over them, and water three times a day for 15 minutes (morning, lunchtime, and dinnertime), in 4-5 days your seeds will be germinated and given another day or two of a little water will be able to take care of themselves. I just did this in July in a dry patch in my front yard and it is, after two weeks, green and healthy and has already put up with having the mower go over them twice. If you can do this in the heat of July you can do it any time. The seeds just need to be kept, like grass seed you're trying to germinate, in a continual state of moistness. If you fail to remember to water your seeds they will not germinate. So what are my results after all this? An absolutely perfectly beautiful lush deep green clover yard, full of health, never browns out in the hottest part of the year, pleasant to walk on, cool and thick. Our lawn is almost weed free where the clover is and you have to look hard to see them, the soil is full of the natural things that are supposed to be there, when children and pets are outside we can all sit on the "grass" like the good old days and look for 4 leaf clovers, because it is real, honest to goodness harmless natural soil, grass and clover. We have a creek in back and at least from our house, there is no poisonous runoff because because of the clover no matter how much rain falls the water percolates down into our yard and there is no runoff into the creek- and no poisons to run off anyway. Our "grass" is the greenest in the neighborhood- especially in July and August when their lawns are browning ours is all green still. The weeds are mostly memories, and have been crowded out by the stronger clover, when we mow the grass is lush and thick, and all day long that clover is putting nitrogen into itself and the soil and building up the sandy soil to higher levels of health. When we mulch mow all it's benefits are being put back into the soil beneath it, It is now a happy yard and even our neighbors are happy...even though they think we're nutty and don't have any interest in growing clover and still think of it as a weed. We make sure to keep the clover lawn mowed to the point where it looks like a regular lawn so they don't have heart attacks and from their viewpoint it just looks like a very healthy very green lawn unless it flowers which I let it do occasionally because it's pretty. In back it's just allowed to be a flowering place that feeds the bees, butterflies, rabbits and other wildlife and improves the soil. One more added bonus, the rabbits, and like all who have them we have too many, used to eat every new planting in the yard, but now that they have their favorite, clover, they leave all the other things alone so I have flowers all over again. They are deep in the clover from sunrise to late in the day, and if rabbits could smile, they would be. I sure am.