Usually the people I encounter are considering a lawn made up entirely of clover - no other plants… a monoculture. Now, a clover lawn could mean you are intentionally adding clover to your lawn, or it could mean you are planting only clover. alexandra) and southern dogface (Zerene cesonia) butterflies.A lot of people tell me they’re interested in switching their traditional grass lawn over to a clover lawn. philodice), Queen Alexandra’s sulphur (C. shasta), eastern tailed-blue (Cupido comyntas), orange sulphur (Colias eurytheme), clouded sulphur (C. They’re a host plant for caterpillars of gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus), greenish blue (Plebejus saepiolus), shasta blue (P. When in bloom, clovers attract a wide variety of bees, butterflies and wasps. The botanical name for Dutch white clover is Trifolium repens. Although trifolium refers to its normal habit of three leaves, it may have four, five or more leaves. Watch where you step (or wear some shoes!). I’ve been stung on lawns with clover … not because I was attacked but simply because I stepped on a bee. Check the producer’s recommendations.Ī word of caution, if you or someone in your family is allergic to bee stings take care with clover in your lawn. New varieties of microclover are said to withstand foot traffic much better. Most people recommend 15-20 percent clover in your lawn. Clover, by itself, does not stand up well to foot traffic. Microclover is the way to go if you want a smoother looking lawn because it’s smaller and doesn’t clump. The best clovers for Connecticut lawns are Dutch white clover and microclover because they’re low growing. Larger pollinators, such as bumblebees, have no problem with the larger florets of red clover, a bushier variety. The best clovers for honeybees include White Dutch Clover and Alsike Clover because their small florets are easily accessible to the bee’s short tongues. If these two gentlemen recommend clover that’s good enough for me. What a shame! Free nitrogen, wonderful texture, doesn’t need a lot of water and it’s green.” Jeff Lowenfels, author of the Lord of The Roots Trilogy (aka The Teaming Series), says “The only reason we don’t have more clover in our lawns is because the herbicides that kill dandelions also kill clover. Importantly, if you’ve got clover and leave your grass clippings in place when you mow, you can probably get away without having to fertilize your lawn.Īccording to Doug Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope and The Nature of Oaks, clover pumps nitrogen into lawns and is a great indicator that you’re not using broad-leaf herbicides. Ben Franklin touted it and George Washington planted red clover as a cover crop. White clover has been used as forage from Colonial times. It is now naturalized pretty much everywhere in the US. Bees helped spread the clover and may have helped it spread to some areas before they were even settled. It came over with early settlers perhaps intentionally as forage for livestock or with honey bees, perhaps accidentally with cattle. Native plant purists will point out that clover isn’t native to North America. All are important fodder plants, green manures, and cover crops, and clovers also fix nitrogen.” In other words, clovers provide valuable ecological services. The Xerces Society states, “Considered the most important group of honey plants in North America, clovers produce nectar yielding large quantities of light mild honey with enormous commercial appeal. In addition to clover ( Trifolium spp.) they include goldenrod ( Solidago spp.), lupine ( Lupinus spp.), milkweed ( Asclepias spp.) and mint ( Mentha spp.). Migrating swarms are said to have reached Connecticut in the mid-1650s.Ĭlover is listed by the Xerces Society – – as one of the top five plants that benefit pollinators. Honeybees were reportedly first imported to Virginia in 1622 and to Massachusetts in 1638. Like clover, honeybees are an introduced species. What I didn’t know is that clover is good for bees, butterflies, moths and other pollinators. I always knew there was a connection between bees and clover because clover honey has been around forever. In those less enlightened times, people didn’t necessarily want to attract bees and other pollinators to their yard, and who knew that in 2020 we’d be trying to create biodiverse ecosystems? The chemicals were meant to kill dandelions, plantains and other “weeds” but they also killed clover. It was a traditional part of lawn-seed mixes until people started using broad-leaf herbicides. I remember clover in lawns when I was kid back in the 1950s and 1960s. I had recently finished a story about the positive aspects of dandelions and was enjoying not chasing around after them when, all of a sudden, it struck me that we had a lot of clover in our lawn. An interesting thing happened this spring.
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