Keeping ones lawn weed and clover free takes a lot of care. And, so many home owners want their lawns to be like a large green carpet, free of weeds. This effort requires an abundance of irrigation, and the use of fertilizers and grub and insect pesticides, as well as spending money to hire a landscape company to tend the grass. If you let the clover take over the grass, you may want to cut back the clover flowers once they turn brown and before they go to seed, so they don’t spread to a neighbor’s property.

I actually recommend to my clients that they keep their lawn looking natural and organic by letting clover flourish in the grass. White flowering clover grows quickly to six inches high, and can spread to other garden areas, but it does add nitrogen to the soil. Nitrogen is an important nutrient for grass, but grass uses up the natural nitrogen supply in the soil pretty quickly. Clover takes nitrogen from the air and deposits it into the soil via its roots. Growing clover is a good choice because this nitrogen doesn’t leach from the lawn or change the soil Ph.

Clover is a hardy plant requiring low maintenance and infrequent watering. It competes well against weeds, and attracts honeybees and other good insects that are essential to plant fertility. I think the best alternative lawn is to plant the new petite leaved white flowering microclover and grass seed together for an organic lawn. Microclover is low growing, blends well with the grass, and prevents weed growth. For more information about microclover and grass mixtures go to http://www.earthturfco.com/pages/how-earth-turf-works