Clover % in lawns

[George.com]

I found a interesting snippet about clover %s in pasture last night. The source is organic pastoral farming however many of the things discussed have excellent transferability to lawns. The particular discussion was about building herbal lays.

"The first consideration is to rebuild the humus in our soils to supply carbon. The most important plant to get into your pasture mix is white clover. This is the powerhouse plant for biologically based pastures. Fortunately most farmer pastures do have clover, often in conjunction with ryegrass, but usually not in high enough density being around 20% of the sward. To optimise productivity clover content needs to be a minimum of 30% of the sward, aiming for 50%."

(page 119 in this guide) (an accompanying guide, very very interesting)

I have a good covering of clover in my lawn. It has developed since I stopped using broad leaf sprays and cut back on nitrogen heavy fertilisers. The clover supplies much of my nitorgen needs now. It has packed quite densely in some areas but seems to complement the grasses nicely giving a decent effect on the lawn. Cut out the sprays & the chemical fertilisers & your lawn can look quite quite nice I have discovered.

rob

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Yesterday, I spent a few hours widening a flower bed that had shrunk due to lawn encroachment and lack of time to keep up with it. The chunks I was removing were about 50% clover. The soil underneath was the kind gardeners dream of. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who complains about clover is....

...never mind. Too early for thinking about twits. :-)

[Cheryl Isaak]

I actually leave "clover weeds" alone in the garden while weeding. I'll go out later and transplant it into the lawn - when I know the rains are coming. Cheryl

[timothy]

Besides the nitrogen effects on the surrounding lawn, it is a great food plant for bees, butterflies and others. If you like clover.... then you'll love adding thyme to your lawn. Smell great while you mow.

[Ron Hardin]

A minor disadvantage of clover is that it drags a scythe into the dirt, if you mow with a scythe. On the other hand you get a very satisfying pile of leaflike cuttings from the stroke, so it's a tradeoff.