Clover’s been here for years, but Miniclover® is getting a new look as an alternative to a traditional lawn.
The traditional lawn — neat, green, and free of weeds — has dominated American yards for decades. But a growing awareness of the environmental impacts of outdoor water consumption, herbicide and pesticide use, fertilizer runoff — plus the time and expense of lawn upkeep — have some homeowners seeking lawn alternatives.
For decades, clover has been relegated to weed status. But prior to that, clover was considered essential for lawns and was a standard component in lawn seed mixes. With the development of herbicides to rid lawns of broadleaf plants — which had no effect on grass but killed everything else, including clover — it was branded a weed.
Today, as interest grows in more natural, diverse, eco-friendly ground covers, clover is making a comeback.
Enter Miniclover® (Trifolium Repens), a green, fast-growing, and hardy ground cover that can help create a thick, lush lawn and requires less water, chemicals, and maintenance than turf grass.
Not be confused with invasive white Dutch clover, Miniclover® has smaller leaves, fewer flowers, and a lower growth habit, and can blend discretely with the appearance of an existing lawn.
A perennial, drought tolerant white clover, Miniclover® only grows to approximately 4 – 6 inches tall, making it an ideal lawn alternative, or to mix with lawn grass. With all the benefits of regular white clover just packed into smaller leaves, adding 2 – 5% of Miniclover® to a grass seed mixture will result in a much-improved lawn. Its ability to pull nitrogen from the air and fix or convert it to a usable form by the plants makes it a great companion for turf grass varieties, making them more drought tolerant. This quality benefits the turf grass plants, as well producing a healthy, dense, and naturally fertilized clover lawn that will require very little fertilizer maintenance.
12 Benefits Of Miniclover®
- Conserves water. Water once per week, after established.
- Nitrogen fixer. Takes nitrogen from the air and “fixes” it in the soil, eliminating need for nitrogen plant food.
- Never needs herbicides. Most herbicides kill clover.
- Drought tolerant. With long, deep roots, stays greener longer, is resistant to drought/tolerates wet conditions.
- Flowers once in summer. Blooms can be quickly eliminated with mowing.
- Erosion control. Dense, interconnected roots keep soil in place on slopes.
- Controls weeds. Growth habit via stolons, which grow horizontally along the ground, helps suppress weeds.
- Low to no maintenance. The more it’s cut, the smaller the leaf size. Without mowing, only grows 4-6 inches tall.
- Thrives in sun to partial shade.
- Stands up to foot traffic. Does well in compacted soil, fills in bare spots quickly.
- Unaffected by dog urine.
- Stays green longer than grass. Considered semi-evergreen or evergreen, can stay green year-round in areas where winters aren’t too cold.
According to Troy Hake, president and owner of seed source Outsidepride.com, people are noticing.
“I’ve been in business for 21 years — this year, Miniclover sales were up by 67% , a mind-blowing increase and indicator that consumers want to renovate their lawn and are taking quick, tangible action in accomplishing the task by renovating lawns using Miniclover,” comments Hake.
The mini clover seed mix sounds like a good idea in theory when seeding a brand new lawn, but either in that use or used to overseed an existing lawn, what about the complete weed population in a given lawn.
You can’t have it both ways.
Until the general public is ready to accept a green lawn with weeds too, the mini clover idea is not acceptable in my view.
Even with a new lawn seeded with a mix including mini clover, what happens when the homeowner complains about the annual weeds in the summer, like spurge, oxalis and purslane?