White Clover Lawn

June 23rd, 2012

What if I told you there was a way to have a greener lawn, that needed less water, less fertilizer, attracted beneficial insects, and yes, it would be greener? Would you believe me? You should. White clover is the answer to this riddle.

A white clover planted lawn is sometimes called an ecolawn, you simply overseed or co-seed white clover with your grass. White clover is one of those magical plants that form a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen fixing bacteria, which means it is able to take nitrogen from the atmosphere and place it into the soil which in turn fertilizes plants. A lawn that fertilizes itself, what a good idea!

White clover also establishes a deeper root system that typical grasses allowing it to better deal with heat and droughts, staying green even when nearby grass gets brown. The green of white clover closely matches that of most grasses allowing it to blend in almost seamlessly.

White clover will flower, and at times in summer you’ll have white blossoms rise slightly above the foliage, still pretty low. These flowers can attract and feed honey bees, which will happily also pollinate your crops and fruits. They can also attract parasitic wasps, the kind of wasps that eat aphids, not the kind that stings people. If you really dislike the white flowers, you can mow them, but I say keep them.

White clover can take foot traffic and mowing, though it grows lower than what your mower setting should be. It is soft underfoot and certainly does not hurt to walk barefoot on. It may also shade the soil better, thus stopping weeds.

Yes… weeds… some people would call white clover a weed, while others plant it on purpose, and some manufacturers even include it in grass seed mixes. Manufacturers of herbicides will call it a weed, and kindly sell you a chemical to kill it. I won’t say I’ve never used herbicides, I have, but they haven’t killed my clover. However the manufacturers typically claim they will kill clover so if you do add clover to your lawn you should avoid using broad post-emergent herbicide sprays in the future. Instead use spot treatment sprays, or mechanical methods of weeding. Pre-emergent herbicides of course wouldn’t affect it once it is already established.

Once planted your clover will crawl slowly over your lawn, expanding over a course of years. So you do not need to seed the whole lawn to eventually reach full coverage. It isn’t really meant to replace grass entirely, though such a thing is possible, but rather to coexist, with blades of grass jutting up between the shamrocks of clover.

If you cannot find white clover seeds locally, Amazon.com has some available.

Posted in: Gardening, Planting Ideas, Troubleshooting »

8 Responses to “White Clover Lawn”

Maery Rose Says:
June 24th, 2012 at 4:56 am
I’ve been looking for ways to attract bees and have a more natural and hardy lawn. This looks like a simple change to start with.
kl Says:
June 24th, 2012 at 12:50 pm
We have a lot of clover in our lawn (renting a house, apparently they never planted anything when they built the house). It attracts A LOT of bees. And I do mean a lot. I would never do that on purpose.
Simon Smith Says:
June 25th, 2012 at 6:27 am
I really like a lawn with white clover – though I know so many who make it their mission in life to get that “perfect” lawn and spend a lot of time and effort getting rid of it. Personally, I think the little white flowers are lovely.
Torie Says:
July 9th, 2012 at 5:06 pm
I have to agree with kl, it does attract a lot of bees as well as wasps. The down side to this is that my kids don’t want to play outside for fear of getting stung! My 8 yr old has already gotten stung this year. The clover green leaf by itself would be fine if it didn’t flower, but that is not how it grows. This is so very frustrating!
Mia Diaz Says:
July 10th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
What a great idea I never knew that white clover would be a good thing to add to my lawn Thanks
Jennifer Says:
August 29th, 2012 at 4:56 pm
we and neighbors always had clover in our lawns, and it was always so soft and green, didn’t get brown and ugly. this was 40-50 yrs ago, and in recent years I’ve suggested this to people. We never had the other broadleaf or other weeds. yes bees but we were outside all summer playing and in the pool and never stung.
Kristi Gilleland Says:
April 7th, 2013 at 10:02 pm
I ordered a lot of seed. I figure the bees NEED some help, and my soil does too.
Richard S Barreras Sr Says:
June 3rd, 2014 at 4:32 pm
I have 2 hives in my back yard, planted white clover in the front in May and will plant same in the back in Sept. Have 2 preteens in house haven’t been stung yet. I love the bees use honey to give at Christmas and use the bees to sting my arthritis, bee venom works great on my hands. 3 stings to the area affected and pain leaves. Though it does itch for a few days. Make sure your not allergic.

Different strokes for different folks