I’m not the biggest fan of white clover as a lawn alternative, and this area here is one example of why. I’m in Iowa (zone 5B), where we get freezing temps for most of the winter. When you combine that with shady conditions, a lot of the areas where clover is taking over in my lawn look like this in spring time. Those whiteish vine looking things are clover rhizomes, just now finally starting to wake up.
This is a high traffic area of my yard which is also shady and on a hill, so it’s a challenging spot. I’m trying to add some native sedges, nimblewill, and path rush to see if that works better. What makes this harder is that the clover will start to green up and take over here in a month or so, so I need to fight the clover to try and get another plant started instead.
To be clear, this is a small part of my yard. And I have a lot of native landscaping in the rest of the yard to help pollinators.
by CharlesV_
5 Comments
Pros, free nitrogen for your soil
Cons, it’s not the greatest looking thing when it gets tall and unmowed, especially when it’s mixed with lawn grass. Also, it serves to benefit invasive insects that do not have associations with native plants.
Con on a slope it is very slippery when wet
Pros- good for the soil, good for pollinators, easy to establish in most places, walkable
Cons- not native to the US but that’s basically moot at this point, won’t hold up to heavy traffic/dogs and kids running on it
I have more things. Clover, self-heal, short grasses that I encourage plus things I control somewhat like dandelion, those little daisies, narrow leaf plantain and other weeds. I try to prevent the things I don’t want from going to seed
My white clover greens up much faster than grass in the early season, needs zero fertilizer, and requires a ton less watering during hot weather. It can get a little long/shaggy, but it stays about 10-15 degrees cooler as well. The dogs absolutely love it, and it’s better than a monoculture.
ETA: it also crowds out weeds 👌