My Spring Gardening Experiment - Microclover Lawn

There was an earlier discussion (by Joann & Spud I think) talking about what would be the most dog pee tolerant grass. In that discussion someone mentioned that clover is suppose to be very tolerant. That got me thinking and googling clover seed. I found several sites that talked about microclover and fescue grass seed mixtures. Microclover is about a third of the size of regular white clover and will not grow higher than the fescue and is a natural fertilizer for grass as it puts nitrogen back in the ground. According to Outsidepride.com it will grow in North American garden zones 3 - 9. We live in zone 7. I thought to myself, "What the hey, let's give it a try. Anything has to be better than mud pit we have in the back yard now.".

This is what our backyard looked like before seeding with a fescue and microclover mixture (excuse the rocks... we are in the middle of fixing our spill fountain):

In early April we put down the seed mixture. It has sprouted and just about ready for its first mowing. This is what the backyard looks like now:

You can see the new clover and fescue starting to thicken up.

I will continue to post pictures over the summer to show progress (if any) of what I hope will be my new green, dog tolerant backyard.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by F, Calla & Luca on May 22, 2010 at 6:31pm

This is great to read about. I use tall fescue to overseed or patch and it does well for my purposes. I also have a wide variety of weeds including lots of clover. Since I just mow in terms of lawn care for the most part, as long as it's green I'm fine with it. But maybe this mix would be an improvement. I will be following your experiment closely. Thanks for posting!

Permalink Reply by Nancie & Gracie Doodle on May 22, 2010 at 7:16pm

When you say "dog tolerant" are you referring not turning yellow when the "girls" squat and pee? I will be following this too! Great experiment.

Permalink Reply by Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey on May 23, 2010 at 5:34am

Yes, referring to not turning yellow from dog urine. Also this strain of clover is supposed to spread via its root system and is supposed help the fescue hold up well to traffic. I have read a couple of articles where many European sports fields are now being sodded with the microclover/fescue mix. I tried to find microclover sod but from my searches the sod is only available in Europe.

Permalink Reply by F, Calla & Luca on May 23, 2010 at 8:50am

So what exactly did you seed and where did you get it?

Permalink Reply by Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey on May 23, 2010 at 9:49am

I got the seed mixture.

Permalink Reply by Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey on May 23, 2010 at 3:49pm

I ordered online the Shade mixture from Earth Turf (http://www.earthturfco.com/collections/all) as I have a very shady backyard. But Earth Turf offers a couple different seed blends. So if you have a sunny established yard you may like Overseed blend. Hope this helps.

Permalink Reply by F, Calla & Luca on May 23, 2010 at 8:53pm

Thanks, that's very helpful. Also, if you mow weekly, which I do, do you think the microclover is an advantage over the ordinary clover which "plants" itself in my yard. I just wish the plantains, dandelions, etc. didn't plant themselves as well.

Permalink Reply by Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey on May 24, 2010 at 6:52am

I think it depends on how low you are cutting your grass. I believe that regular white clover is not a happy camper if you like to cut your grass really low. Where as mircoclover is small enough that low cutting is not supposed to effect it. DH and I have a running battle on how high to set the mower. =) He likes really low and I prefer to keep the mower at the recommended 3". This year he finally agreed to keep the mower at 3" for my lawn experiment (Phew, only took 22 years to convince him).

Here in the sunny south we are coming into our hot season so the fescue will slow down growing. Therefore, we will probably cut the grass every other week or so. It won't be until fall that we will have to start weekly mowings. Hopefully the microclover will be well established by then.

Permalink Reply by F, Calla & Luca on May 24, 2010 at 7:00am

Ah, that explains a lot. I always cut very high , probably 3&1/2 inches. so I probably will just keep overseeding with fescue and leaving the clover to do it's own thing. Thanks, Nina.

Permalink Reply by Sharee & "Hope" Peterson on February 27, 2012 at 9:34pm