Clover Lawn - April 27 2009

After I broadcast my seeds 2 weeks ago, I also planted 2 seeds in an indoor pot I have. This way I could monitor my seed growth from indoors in optimum conditions. (So I thought) my seed sprouted in about 4-5 days in my pot but I was not seeing any growth outside.

I remember after sowing the Dutch White Clover into my lawn the weather was very moist to light rain and sunny for 3 days afterwords. I figured that I had killed the seed, so I found one on the soil and brought it inside and also planted in my pot.

Almost 3 Weeks Later
We have had some really heavy rain the past few days and I noticed some Dutch White Clover Sprouts in my yard!


Looking good! I will continue to post more images of my clover lawn

Lawn Clover Seed

You can get Lawn Clover Seed at your local feed/seed store. There are different kinds of seed that you can get for your lawn. The most common lawn clover seed is 'white dutch clover'. This Clover grows less then 6" tall and has small white flowers.

The white flowers of this lawn clover can attract bees, but this can be avoided by mowing a few times during flowering season. The flowers are also fragrant.

I purchased my Dutch White Clover lawn seed from eBay. You can get it from multiple sources online but check your feed store if you don't want to pay for shipping. Clover seeds are generally not found in home improvement stores with grass seed so dont bother looking.

I spent about $12.39 for my lawn clover seed. This is enough to cover my 10,000 sq sf. front grass lawn.

Clover Lawns

Sound Strange? Clover lawns used to be a standard in lawncare 40+ years ago. With the dawn of herbicides and pesticides available to consumers, we now live in a pure grass world.

Back then grass seed was rated based on how much clover was mixed with the grass seed. The higher the clover mixture the more expensive the seed was. So why do we feel the need to maintain pure grass in our lawn? Are we succoming to the urban peer presure without knowing it?

We see comercials for the next best thing in lawn care, and how we can achieve a better lawn with less work. The best tools, the newest seeds and equipment, it's all so tempting and appeals to our wants to maintain a great lawn. But what you don't see on TV is someone planting Clover, Why? because there is no business interest in it, if word got out the grass companies would be ruined quickly.

Clover Lawns are making a comeback! What is a clover lawn? When you see clover in your lawn next time, don't curse and call it a weed. That clover is working hard to help your lawn! Clover is known as a Nitrogen-Fixer. Clover pulls nintrogen out of the air and puts it in the soil in the form of ammonia, nitrate and nitrogen dioxode.

How does that benifit your lawn? Your lawn needs to be feed just like any other plant. These days we go to the store and purchase a weed killer/fertilizer mix and spread it on our lawn. This will give your soil what it needs to thrive for a short time only, once you stop this routine you will soon see more and more unwanted weeds growing in your lawn and your grass will look unhealthy. Clover works naturally to provide these nutrients to your soil constantly. Imagine Clover as a little grass gremlin that sneaks around underground and feeds your grass healthy foods.

Ok, now for some scary statistics:
2001 67 million pounds of chemicals are placed on US lawns annually
2009 80 million pounds of chemicals are placed on US lawns annually

Ok, I'm not a tree hugger.. but DO YOUR RESEARCH PEOPLE!
http://www.chemicalbodyburden.org/whatisbb.htm

"..There are hundreds of adverse health effects that can arise from exposures to chemicals or metals. These potential effects include cancer; high blood pressure; asthma; deficits in attention, memory, learning, and IQ; Parkinson's-like diseases; infertility; shortened lactation; endometriosis; genital malformation; peripheral nerve damage; and dysfunctional immune systems;autism.

For example, sometimes a chemical attacks and damages or kills cells the tissues in the body. Some chemicals attack the genetic material in the nucleus of a cell, causing damage directly to the DNA, which may create an inheritable defect that is passed on to the next generation. This can lead to gene mutations, which can set in motion a sequence of events.."

Speachless? There are thousands of websites out there with information linking pesticides to health issues just do your own searching. Are you dealing with a health issue? Google it with the word pesticide or herbacide next to it.

What about ingrediants that are not on the bag of your fertilizer?
What? Nonsense companies are forced to list everything used in their product right? Yes they are, but are they obeying the regulations?

Recently the EPA ordered a stop to Scotts Miracle-Grow for 19 more products that were mislabeled. What was in them that needed to be stopped? They don't tell you, but we probibly already spread it on our lawn.

In this Blog I will be documenting my own conversion to a low maintinence lawn with Dutch White Clover. Check back often!