A full Clover lawn…. Not as bad as you thought!
You Don’t Have to Fertilize
Clover and other coverage of the same family have bacteria on the nodes in their roots. These nodes snatch nitrogen out of the air - a much-needed element for the fertilization of your lawn.
This is especially enticing to people who are environmentally conscious about putting chemicals on their lawn and having their young children and pets roll around on it - not to mention the savings to your wallet without paying for expensive fertilization treatments.
The secret to having a great lawn without chemicals is Dutch clover. For the past 50 years, clover has been considered a noxious lawn weed, but before that, it was an important component in fine lawns—and for good reason. Clover is drought-tolerant, virtually immune to diseases, and distasteful to common turf insects. And it generates its own food by fixing nitrogen in the soil.
Add clover and other grasses.
If you’re lucky, you already have some clover in your lawn. If not, it’s easy to add it by overseeding, or planting on top of what’s already there. In spring or autumn, rough up the surface of the lawn with a metal garden rake. Mix the clover seed with sand or finely screened compost to ensure even distribution. Sow two ounces of clover seed per 1,000 square feet for a moderate clover cover, or up to eight ounces if you want the clover to dominate the turf. After sowing, water your lawn deeply and keep the soil surface moist until the clover germinates. The result will be a soft, cushy, deep-green lawn that stays lush through spring, summer, and fall.If you can’t give up the idea of an all-grass lawn, you can still go organic without clover. Use the same overseeding technique to introduce a low-maintenance turfgrass, such as hard fescue or sheep fescue, to your Northern lawn. In the South, try buffalograss or blue gramagrass. If you’re starting over, consider an ecology-lawn mix that incorporates turf-type fescue with flowering plants, such as English daisy and yarrow. More than a lawn but less than a meadow, an ecology-lawn mixture can be mowed and used like turf.
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