Hello! My wife and I moved into out first house and are wondering wtf to do with this yard. My father in law paid for the first months of grass cutting, but the guy left all the trimmings on top and my yard is dead currently (we had huge patches of grass all around the yard, guessing it got smothered but I’m not sure). I am finally buying a sprinkler and have a decent mower and weed eater.
In the case where my grass doesnt grow back, could I just plant clover or another groundcover and be fine? I have been wanting to do a more natural clover/groundcover lawn, but scared too if the mowing cycles are off.
There’s low growing clover varieties IMHO, and clover has proven to be much more drought resistant here (Germany) than grass. It also improves the soil quality.
If your referencing it’s nitrogen fixing capabilities, I believe the clover has to die for it to be available to other plants.
All said, out of all the plants you could have in your lawn, clover is a good one!
According to Wikipedia they do some magic in their roots, while living: “As legumes, clovers fix nitrogen using symbiotic bacteria in their root nodules, and are used as an alternative or supplement to synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clover
Right, but as far as I know, that nitrogen isn’t bio-available to other plants until the clover dies. The nitrogen is produced, just not usable.
Quick source as I’m making dinner
Ah yes, understood. Well, it will be a nice ground cover until that time comes.
Dutch (white) clover is a pretty popular, drought resistant, and low-growing type. Good point about clover improving the soil! It’s a nitrogen fixing plant.
Will need to look into more clover types. Just worried i will need to cut the lawn down a tad before they fully grow