Let 'em Grow: White Clover

It's like a lot of other things Aunt Bett said to me, 'Let 'em grow' didn't always make sense. My mom never liked all the white clover that grew in patches in our front yard, never mind the blooms that made the most wonderful crowns and necklaces.  One day Mom was pulling up clover by its roots; Aunt Bett came along and told her it would be best to let it grow. I thought for sure they would end up in the middle of a family feud right in the front yard.

I understand it a little better now. The clover was the best thing for our yard, built on the side of the mountain and more likely than not to wash over into the road below if the spring rains came hard and fast. At the time, I just thought Aunt Bett loved her clover crowns so much she wanted me to make more of them.

Truth is, white clover, Trifolium repens, forms a good erosion controlling cover.

I noticed something important in the severe drought that covered the far western corner of Kentucky this summer. My yard was bare in many areas where grass usually grows, but throughout, there were clumps of clover, happily blooming just as if it weren't 110F and bone dry out there. Those clumps stayed green all summer long, while everything around them became brown and crunchy, including my neighbors' professionally tended grass. And bees, honeybees were all over my clover!

I've discovered that clover is a good way to have a greener lawn, one that needs less water and hardly grows tall enough to need mowing. It needs no fertilizer, it attracts beneficial insects, it reseeds itself, it blends right in with other grasses, so why would anybody try to get rid of it?

I've also found it is the most important pasture legume, the most nutritious forage for all classes of livestock. I suspect Europeans brought clover seeds with them mainly for that purpose all those years ago and when they got here, worked with our Native Americans to use it as a food and as medicine for themselves. It's a valuable survival food for us as well as our livestock; the Cherokees used it to treat fevers and colds.

Clovers are not only abundant and grow most anywhere, but are also high in proteins. For centuries the fresh plants have been added to salads and any other meal that consists of leafy vegetables, especially soups. Most experts say that clovers aren't easy for humans to digest raw, but boiling the plants for a few minutes can remedy that problem. Dried flowerheads and seedpods can be ground up to make a flour and mixed with other foods to add some much needed protein.

Some plants work quietly behind the scenes doing important things while we don't even notice.  White clover is one of them. It forms a relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, meaning it takes nitrogen from the atmosphere, places it into the soil, and bingo, the soil then fertilizes other plants!  It's simple really, you just co-seed with your grass. If your grass dies in a drought, like mine did, the clover will keep right on growing, enriching the soil as it grows and looking nicely green while doing it.

Actually, since it establishes a deeper root system than regular grasses, it deals better with heat and drought, right along with acting as erosion control. That's another reason I had green spots of clover all summer when a lot of others had nothing but brown crunch.

It does flower of course, but those little white flowers don't grow on very tall stalks. The flowers attract and feed honeybees and they in turn keep the pollination of your crops going.  If you don't like the white flowers, then keep them mowed, but you'll miss out on some valuable pollination. As the flowers age, they get a pinkish tint and that's when I notice more honeybees on mine.

Some call white clover a weed, and maybe so, but there is some interesting thought that indicates clover's natural nitrogen fixing properties help reduce leaching from the soil.  I know those who sell herbicides might call it a weed and expect you to buy a chemical to get rid of it. I think I'd rather have the honeybees and the naturally fertilized soil than to pay lots of dollars for synthetic chemicals that could be harmful to me and to all around me. And besides, all the chemicals ever made won't keep your grass green during drought, but clover stays green through even the driest of summers if it is well established.

Most say that clover should be frost seeded, planted in early spring, but others think a good time to plant white clover is in the fall, giving it time to get established before spring rains begin to wash away soil. Fall is just around the corner, you might want to give it some thought. If planted in a moistened area, it gains a good deep foothold and will continue to spread even during dry seasons.  And just in case you decide to try, the established seeding rate is about 2 pounds per acre.

White clover?  Let 'em grow!

Images courtesy of bonitin and Zencat and can be found in ATP's database.