How to deal with clover in your lawn

Published 10:09 am Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A friend of mine recently told me his yard is overrun with clover. Is there anything to do about it that won’t take an entire vacation, he wondered. In his yard the blooms are everywhere, and things are looking a little ragged. So, I went and talked to some master gardeners, did a little research and I came up with a few basic options to get rid of the clover.

Option 1. Dig it up. (No go. He’s got way better things to do with his time.)

Option 2. Nuke it with an herbicide. (No go. He has kids playing in his yard and wouldn’t want to use nasty chemicals even if he didn’t.)

Option 3. Use an organic fertilizer. Clover is a legume, and as such can fix nitrogen, something other plants can’t. If the grass is fertilized, the idea is that it can grow enough to outcompete the clover. Also, some thing mowing the lawn a little longer will shade out the clover some extent. (This will probably be his choice. It’s not fast, but it’ll be effective over time.)

Option 4. Mow down the blooms when they get too raggedy for your tastes. (This would be my preferred choice if I had clover in the lawn that people can see.)

Option 5. Ignore it. (My choice for the backyard, where the clover is happily going crazy. My chickens like to eat it, so I’m fine with leaving it.)

So, how about you? Do you have clover in your yard? What’s your choice for dealing with it? Comment here or e-mail me.