A clover lawn?

 My lawn is not of the best. There are plenty of yellow-green patches
where the grass is of poor quality and rather thin. This comes about
partly because I seldom feed it, and the dry weather in the early
summer took its toll. But in other places it is green and lush. Those
areas are full of white clover, and presumably the nitrogen supplied
by the root nodules on the clover is contributing to the effect. As
I'm not a purist about lawns, I have in mind to over sow the rest of
the lawn with clover seed (Trifolium repens, aka white or Dutch
clover). Are there likely to be any disadvantages in doing this?

--
 
Chris

Gardening in West Cornwall overlooking the sea.
Mild, but very exposed to salt gales

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

 On 07/10/2010 11:43, Chris Hogg wrote:

Apparently, a form of micro clover is being offered/promoted as part of
an alternative lawn mix/improver.  It is reported to green up your lawn
and also offer some protection against red thread disease.  Have a
google on "micro clover seed".

The only trouble I forsee (off the top of my head) is the same tendency
to spread into beds and borders as its larger relative.  Whether or not
it flowers and offers a food supply to bees (if this is of interest to
you), I don't know.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

 

Thanks for that. Plenty of hits on Google, with UK sources online.
Apparently Johnson's do a mix containing it, so I'll check our local
garden centre first.

--
 
Chris

Gardening in West Cornwall overlooking the sea.
Mild, but very exposed to salt gales

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

 says...

     An agricultural supplier might be the cheapest source, farmers use
it in pasture mixes. But do make sure the supplier knows you want a
white clover for permanent  sward that will be regularly mown; there are
commercial clovers sold  for short-term leys and haycrops,  which are
not longlived. ( Someone I know made that mistake and ended up with a
summer crop of red, large leafed  clover, 15 " high; fortunately it  
didn't survive mowing or winter)

  Janet

 

Thanks for the reminder. I know I want at least white aka Dutch
clover, Trifolium repens, not the taller growing red clover or a
specially bred variety. I saw on one of the web-sites that this
so-called micro clover is a variety of T. repens, but the picture of
two different sized clover leaves was unconvincing. They could quite
easily have been clover from my lawn vs. clover from a nearby pasture.
I've located a couple of sites that do white clover:
http://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/flower_seeds/wild_white_clover_seed/
http://www.thegrassseedstore.co.uk/index.php
The second does almost everything in the way of grasses, including a
micro clover - grass mix.

--
 
Chris

Gardening in West Cornwall overlooking the sea.
Mild, but very exposed to salt gales

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net