clover

 Hi the group. I have some questions about garden work. This is my
first house and I didn't have any gardening experience before.
I've seen a lot of clovers on my front yard. I'm afraid they will
eventully kill the grasses. I haven't yet put down the Scotts' 2nd
phase stuff (called Turf Bulder with plus 2 weed control), due to the
weather reason. But I plan to do it this wkend.  On the product
description, it says it will control the white clover. Do you think it
will kill those annoying clovers? Is there any other way to get ride
of them? I'm afraid to manually remove, since it will tear up my lawn
too.
Thanks

 Clover is one of the nicest things one can have in a lawn.  It is a nitrogen
binder, which means that it actually helps fertilize your lawn.  Plus, it is
a very very difficult plant to remove totally from your lawn--it will take
several applications of herbicide to do the trick.  This is my humble
opinion, but I would think twice about removing it and rather think about
trying to live with it.

Philosopher

 Agreed.  Clover used to be commonly included in grass seed mixes, until
herbicide companies started promoting the concept of a monoculture lawn in
order to sell more product.

I find that the wild rabbits prefer clover in the lawn to almost anything
else, and it helps keep them out of the vegetable garden.

Sue

--
Sugarchile@earthlink.net


nitrogen

 
yes. And groundhogs and deer too. It is good to have clover around.

 Clover will not kill the grass. Clover is beneficial to a lawn. The
people who object to it probably don't like the white flowers. If you
are in a community where everyone has a perfect lawn, they probably have
lawn services to do the dirty work. If everyone doesn't have a perfect
lawn, why should you be different?

Manually removing weeds will indeed leave a hole in your lawn. For about
a week. The grass, assuming it's healthy, will move in and cover the
hole fairly rapidly.

[rant] You really have to ask yourself: what are you going to do with
your lawn? Are you going to use it or is it just for show? If it's a
cosmetic feature of your property, then just let whatever's green grow
there. It will all look the same from the road. If you are going to use
it (kids playing, barbeques, lawn parties, croquet, whatever) you want
to match the grass surface to its intended use (heavy use from kids,
short trimmed grass for croquet, etc.). If the kids are going to play on
the lawn do you want it covered with pesticides for the insects and
weeds? Live with the imperfections. [end rant]

Don't cut the grass too short. Longer grass will shade out weeds more
quickly and is more resistant to browning in the dry summer months.




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