Clover is from the legume family and has the special ability to fix nitrogen. You can take advantage of this quality and establish a full lawn of clover, or perhaps a mixture to improve diversity, texture, and maximize the benefits of various species. If you prefer a full carpet of grass however, we understand it may be an unwanted guest in your landscape. When our focus is to remove it, we look at the environmental conditions promoting its growth, and make adjustments to give your grass the competitive advantage. If there is clover in your lawn, it is due to low nitrogen availability in your soils, causing your grass to struggle. If you do not want clover in the lawn, we can remove it before it overtakes your lawn and garden.
Nitrogen Depletion
If clover is growing in your garden, then it’s a sure sign that your soil is depleted of Nitrogen (the most important macronutrient). Clover can also be identified by its cream flowers that bees cluster around. If you want to attract bees to your garden, we can make many recommendations for perennials and shrubs to add, that bees will love. For example Arctostaphylos manzanita, or Monarda species (Bee Balm). Check out this beautiful pamphlet for more information on encouraging pollinators to your garden.
Enrich Your Soil
The good news is that we can guide your garden soil back to good health, safely, without risking your health. Our FertileTea, teeming with microorganisms, serves as an immune system for plants and helps transport nutrients enriching your soil, which in turn will feed your plants. Once the landscape is healthy again, the plants will thrive, the soil will be replenished with nitrogen, and clover will no longer dominate. We can help you to get rid of clover in your lawn once and for all!.
Shallow Rooted
After our FertileTea treatment, the grass will be healthier from all the beneficial nutrients – it will grow thicker and stronger, crowding out the weeds, and removing clover from your lawn. Clover has a shallow root system, and once we encourage the other plants and turf to fight back, clover will not stand a chance!
Organic Pre-Emergent Treatments
Earthdance Organics recommends use of organic pre-emergent herbicides to treat weeds. Corn gluten meal is used to prevent new seeds from growing roots when they germinate. The shoots that grow, will die quickly with no root support.
Organic Herbicide Treatments
Treatment with organic herbicides is safer than conventional weed killers. They have low toxicity and break down quickly, making it safe for your family and pets to enjoy the yard. These are used to treat any weeds already present. When used in conjunction with the pre-emergent herbicide, the combination can be very effective.
Holistic Landscape Approach
Clover can also show up in other parts of your landscape, such as planting beds. Restoring the health of your soil discourages clover from getting established. Installing groundcovers or bark mulch is a low-maintenance method to help crowd out weeds and maintain soil moisture. These additional steps are all part of our holistic landscape approach.
Help for Vegetable Gardening
Do you want to stop clover from creeping all over your vegetable beds? Clover can also cause problems in your vegetable garden. Our FertileTea solution combined with Nitrogen-fixing cover crops, such as fava beans, will help to conquer the clover. These will replenish the soil with Nitrogen, making it less attractive to weeds, and helping you to grow healthy and tasty vegetables.
