Clover
Apparently I have turned into a suburbanite. I had the opportunity to maintain a (small) lawn, and I decided to plant it with clover instead of Kentucky bluegrass. For years I have claimed that clover is a superior groundcover to grass:
- As a legume it adds nitrogen to the soil.
- It stays green even in drought, which is usually very noticeable by August.
- The flowers are pretty, and nicely contrast against the green leaves.
- Bees like the aforementioned flowers.
I could not understand why people did not abandon grass for clover. Well, now I know. As a ground cover, clover has some distinct disadvantages:
- Grass looks okay when cut, regardless of how tall it has grown. Clover really looks good only when it is short. Otherwise mowing the lawn leaves you with a lot of ugly spindly stalks and not many leaves.
- Clover leaves (especially for red clover) grow very large.
- Although it is not that difficult to germinate clover it takes reasonably good soil for the embryos to take root.
- Unless the clover germinates thickly it does not look that good.
Overall I still prefer clover to grass, but it is clear that clover is more maintenance than I thought. Overall I think that lawns on private property are mostly a dumb idea.