HoneyBerry
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Posts: 1216
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:10 pm
Location: Zone 8A Western Washington State

lawn alternative

I'm thinking about replacing a small section of scruffy lawn* with clover. I'm thinking about using Dutch White Clover. I also plan to plant a few small trees amidst the clover. I'm pretty sure this is what I want to do, but would appreciate any comments and shared experiences. Not the entire yard, just part of it. I don't like using chemicals and lawns are so high maintenance and chemically needy.

* the lawn is scruffy because it is chemical-free, dandelions galore

Please excuse my typos. Tiny keyboard and predictive text. It's not me - really.

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applestar
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Posts: 30550
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

There's apart of my front lawn where creeping thyme (Mother of Thyme) is taking over surprisingly well. I'll take a picture later today and post.

If you do any amount of walking in the area, white clover can be easily damaged (LOOK damaged) -- I'll see if I can take a picture of that kind of an area too.

I have another area where yellow sweet clover is I think currently looking good, but it's a sort of a flux area where I'm trying to establish Buffalo Grass. The two as well as the existing lawn grass surge up and look as if they are dominant depending on the season and when one or the other is dormant -- winter, spring, summer drought.

HoneyBerry
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Posts: 1216
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:10 pm
Location: Zone 8A Western Washington State

I looked up creeping thyme and found a bunch of other ideas too. There are lots of nice groundvovers. I like dwarf chenille with the red fuzzies. I might do a mixture of groundcovers. There is no foot traffic except for what is required for maintenance, which I'm trying to minimize anyway. I could throw in some foot paths to get around walking on the hlover. Bees love clover and I like that. The spot is about 35' x 15' rectangular along the road. I'd plant some daffodil and tulip bulbs throughout. Wouldn't that be nice? This is the same spot where I'm thinking about planting some small trees for the birds. I need low maintenance. I work full time and I'm not a youngster anymore.



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