hey there /lawncare. i was hoping to get some advice on my first "lawn." I am contemplating using a weed and feed to kill the clover and fertilize the grass but very curious what the lawn will look like afterwards. once the clover dies do i need to rake it all up or can i go over the yard with the mower and a bagger? Im sure i would need to reseed a lot of areas in the spring but wonder if it will just kill the whole lawn for the rest of fall/winter.
thanks for any help!
by Ripped_Van_Winkle287
31 Comments
What type of grass is mixed in with the clover?
Fire.
Blanket spray T-Zone SE per the label instructions. It’ll take about 3 weeks, so be very patient.
Quinclorac, a lot of fertilizer, and you’ll have to overseed grass
Needs some Nitrogen bro! Clover thrives in a lack of nitrogen but have a soil sample test done to confirm.
Embrace the clover. You live in Ireland now.
That is a lot of clover. Too much to remediate IMO. I would…
– Nuke it with glyphosate in the spring (be careful of your neighbors lawn).
– Wait 2 weeks then scalp it with a mower
– Dethatch to pull out as much organic material as you can
– Aerate it to loosed the soil
– Bring in fresh loam for any leveling you need to do
– Seed with a premium (try Twin Cities)
– Setup sprinklers with a sprinkler controller. I used the Bee Hive controller this year and it was great. I controlled everything from my phone.
I would utilize this winter to watch some YouTube videos on the process to get comfortable with it. Also do some research on the type of grass seed that best fits your need and climate.
Funny, we are planting clover. Clover is better for nature and less mowing
Free Nitrogen
Personally I’d embrace the clover! Sorry that’s no help for your question. I like clover more than grass, and it doesn’t need chemicals. I overseed with micro clover or mini clover to get more of it in my backyard. In a warm area so some of it dies in summer. You mentioned it’s your first yard so sharing in case you want to consider keeping it.
It sounds like you just moved in. In which case, congratulations! My piece of advice for you (that i wish i had) is hold off on yard projects for at least a year. Get to know the property for awhile, and just mow when needed. Understand how water and sunlight play with your property. Sending your soil for testing is a good idea as well so you know what you need to add, if the pH is right, etc.
Before replacing the clover, take a careful look at exactly what it takes to do so and to maintain the lawn afterwords. Do some calculations on cost based on your square footage. Understand that a clover lawn requires zero maintenance to cover the ground in green (apart from occasional mowing). Grass requires constant upkeep, 1-2x/week mowing, multiple times per year of fertilizer and herbicide, regular water. Seeding a new lawn is a big project. After the killing, cleaning, soil prep, seed, maybe peat moss (sorry auto mod), it will require 3-4x/day watering for a couple weeks, and still more watering after that. And I guarantee you that your first seed will not have 100% coverage. If this sounds like fun to you (it does to most of us), then by all means have at it. Just know what you’re getting into. In time you’ll learn that every project is bigger than you think.
I know you want your property to be tidy, but theres nothing wrong with a clover lawn. Personally, I love a bit of clover mixed into my lawn, and clover patches on my property where grass doesn’t do well. It makes the overall grass hardier and patches problem areas nicely. If you want to get rid of it and replace it shortly with grass, yes, you will likely have to rake it up. Grass seed requires good soil contact, and a mower bagger isn’t going to get you there. If not reseeding, you can leave it there to decompose.
Seeding is best done in the early fall for cool season grasses, but I’ve done it very successfully in the spring as well. You should also take note that there is a seasonality to herbicides as well depending on the specific active ingredient and plant you are targeting.
Lastly, if you kill it all off and your seeding is unsuccessful, you are setting yourself up for erosion. I’ve experienced this on areas of my property where I went scorched earth. In less than a year, I can tell that I’ve literally lost ground. That clover is keeping and building your soil for you.
Just throw down grass seed and you’ll have a great mix. I’d leave it. It looks good when mowed
Have you tried frolicking
I just killed my yard intentionally this summer and seeded micro clover instead. It’s evergreen, hardy, doesn’t need much mowing and is beautiful
I love the look of a fresh cut turf grass mono stand as much as anyone but with that much clover already established I’d be tempted to embrace it, make the yard a lovely park-like garden bordered by native trees and shrubs.
Leave it. Lawn care is overrated
Would be nice to keep some clover on the outside and make a little green grass area to mow. Will look really nice and you won’t have to mow the whole yard and string trim a fence line and all that.
nuke it and seed it
I’m jealous. Clover seed is expensive.
Dude… keep it, thats the best fucking lawn you can have honestly.
I wish I had a clover lawn like that. Instead all I get are droughtstruck bare patches every year that get immediately colonized by crabgrass.
I love mowing clover. Nothing beats that smell
Ask the hippies in gardening.
Grass and clover grow well together. Overseed with good grass seed. I planted mini clover to help with bad soil and the combo has worked well.
Plant grass. They get along great. Clover fixes nitrogen from the air to the soil but it doesn’t like high nitrogen, and grass takes nitrogen out of the soil but doesn’t like low nitrogen soils… So the two are kind of symbiotic
Why do you want to kill the clover? It makes for a great lawn, self-fertilizing, low water, moderate mowing, crowds out most weeds.
With a fake pot o gold and a leprechaun
Horses…
Clover leaves have very little fibrous material in them so they kinda just shrivel and disintegrate when they die. I would just seed through the clover. It’ll provide decent shade for the seed to germinate, so as long as you keep the birds away. It’ll probably look amazing after.
Crimson. Over and over.
Bunnies