Replacing Your Lawn with Clover
Many folks are looking for alternatives for their lawns these days, whether its to attract more pollinators, cut down on maintenance and fertilizing, deter chafer beetle or just to try something new. Clover has long been available to home gardeners to utilize, but there are variations in the types available. The key features of the common clovers available are as follows:
Micro Clover
Micro Clover is a special type of white clover that was developed for use in lawns. Left alone it will grow to about 6-7” high so it does require regular mowing, which will also encourage the foliage to grow smaller and with greater density. Micro Clover provides nitrogen fixation, is drought tolerant once established, handles foot traffic well and it grows densely so it leaves less room for weeds to take hold.
It is also a good option for folks who have had European chafer beetle (clover is a legume and adults are not attracted to it, so they will lay eggs elsewhere). Grows well in sun to part sun. Micro Clover has fewer blooms than other clovers, especially with mowing, but it will bear blooms. If starting a lawn from scratch, it is recommended to use Micro Clover at 5% of the total seed weight.
White Clover
White clover is larger than Micro Clover and can be used as a cover crop as well as a lawn alternative. A perennial legume as well, it will be a deterrent to chafer beetle and will help fix nitrogen in the soil, is also drought tolerant once established, is said to tolerate shadier spots better, but it will not have the same compact/dense nature of Micro Clover, even when mown. White blooms are attractive to bees so, when used as a cover crop, turn into the soil in spring after flowering.
Red Clover
Red clover is used more for soil improvement (fixing nitrogen), as a forage crop in pastures and as a pollinator plant (bumble bees love the blooms! While it is easy to grow, thrives in a variety of soils and is drought tolerant, it is used more as a seasonal crop rather than a lawn solution.
Clover also appreciates having well drained soil to grow in, so aerating and sanding your lawn is a good idea before you seed, but at least rake up the soil area to open it up. Seed must be in contact with soil to germinate. Just like regular lawn seed, you must keep seed moist the entire time it germinates.