Clover Is More Than Good Luck

Sure, it’s lucky to find a four-leaf clover in your lawn!  But there are a lot of other valuable reasons to add clover to your yard.

Although traditional lawns were much desired areas of manicured green fescue grass, they require regular application of fertilizer, weed killers, pesticides, as well as frequent watering and mowing.  And as it turns out, all the time and expense devoted to achieve the perfect green lawn is not at all environmentally “green.”

Fertilizers and other chemicals wash off your lawn, into the storm sewers, and eventually flow to the waters that lead to the Chesapeake Bay.  Lawns offer little value to wildlife, can contribute to the decline of the bird population by eliminating their food web, and offer nothing to pollinators.

Yet something as simple as using a grass seed that includes clover can help remedy the negative impact of traditional lawns.  Accepting a less uniform turf will go a long way to offering a healthier environment for you to live in.  A mixture that includes white clover will add Nitrogen to your soil and encourage “good bugs” and pollinators.

Clover’s deep roots help your lawn stay greener and it requires less water.  If you leave your grass clippings on the lawn, clover self-fertilizes because of its high Nitrogen content, which means less expense and fewer chemicals.  Some name-brand seed companies offer specially formulated seed mixes that include clover.

Another way that clover is beneficial in your landscape is to plant crimson clover as a winter cover crop if you have raised beds for vegetables.  If sown in the fall, it crowds out spring weeds from your beds, offers food to the first pollinators of the season when it blooms, and the ladybugs love it!  It also adds rich Nitrogen to your beds when you dig it in after the first frost.  It’s like a shot of vitamins for the soil before you plant your seeds in the spring.

So you’ll definitely have more luck in your yard if you add some clover to the mix!