White Clover versus Fescue: A Cultural Examination of the Green Stuff
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 11.15.05
Irv's food for thought provoked social unrest. It was break on my summer job, during which conversation had once again drifted to lawn care. Being something all the guys were thought to have in common, lawn care came up every week. One historic Monday, Irv could hold his silence no longer. "I had to re-seed my dandelions this weekend" he said. Stunned silence. "They all died..those beautiful yellow flowers died in the drought" he explained, his face in deadpan. Unbearable expressions from the rest of the crew sent us back early to our work stations that day. And so it goes wherever native grass flourishes, and even in places where it does not, like Arizona. Do something different to your lawn and others think you're crazy, even if the result is beautiful and, environmentally speaking, an improvement. Could we Americans finally be ready for some lawn variety? As if to anwer this question, the parties behind the "Oregon Hill Land Wars" have displayed true scientific and artistic bravery in removing all lawn grasses, sowing the yard with 16 pounds of White Clover seed. Unlike Irv's co-workers, the neighbors of the clover covered lawn appear not to have been offended. Green-think and common sense, it seems, has spread like clover in partial shade. For proof that cultural evolution can be occur in America, have a look at the blog which documents all the goings on.
We're impressed. Looks great and no bee problem is in evidence.
No mowing needed. The clover reportedly came back after a drought (see the weblog for documentary pics) and no weed invasion is in evidence.
I wish Irv were around to see it.
TreeHugger thanks Professor Peter Baldes for tipping us off to Jacq's project and to both of them for answering our questions about bees and so on.
Here's another alternative to the typical lawn:
http://www.edibleestates.org
"An ongoing series of projects to replace the American lawn with edible garden landscapes responsive to local culture, climate and landscape."
Two years ago, I decided to replace a section of my front lawn with clover. The traditional grass was being attacked by white worms (grubs) and it looked terrible. I also hated the noise of lawn mowers and wanted an alternative to grass.
I overseeded over the existing lawn after aerating it a bit but also added a little bit of soil. I watered everyday for a week and beautiful little clover plants quickly showed up. They didn't flower the first year, survived the Canadian winter very well (province of Quebec) and came back full force in the spring. My lawn was green when everybody else's was still yellow and dry from the winter.
It flowered on the second summer, we mowed it regularly (but less often than grass) and it came back again. I didn't water it once and let nature take care of it but then we had a long drought and intense heat for weeks and a lot of the clover died, giving the lawn big, dark patches.
People at my local garden center told me that it may not need much water but that I should water it once a week during intense heat and drought.
I waited a few weeks but it didn't come back so in the late summer I reseeded again (mixed with about 20% grass seeds) and it's back to its beautiful, green, lush look! It was green until this morning, when the snow covered everything.
The complain I might have is that it doesn't spread as much as I was told it would be, so I had to put a lot of seeds in and take care of a few bare patches again. The clover is so dense that I get a lot less weeds than before. No fertilizer of any kind is needed. I didn't have a bee problem (I tend to mow it before it flowers too much) and the neighbors didn't complain since it looks nice and green and well kept, even if slightly bumpy.
I'll take better pictures next summer but you can have a look at a section of it here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nivuniconnu/14417182/
We loved it so much we repeated the experience in the backyard, where grass was struggling because of the presence of two large maple trees. We seeded a bit more grass in the mix this time because of higher foot traffic in that area (about 70% clover, 30% grass) and the result is quite nice:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blork/50129685/in/photostream/
Lack of care turned our lawn int mostly clover naturally.
I've also seen thyme used as a lawn.