Friday, July 04, 2008

Dutch White Clover

Dutch white clover is a low-growing, attractive ground cover that can be planted with grass, with wildflowers, with other ground covers, or on its own. It can be walked on or mowed, and it grows in full sun to part-shade. It doesn't require fertilizer or herbicides, and it replenishes nutrients in the soil. It tolerates dog urine. It stays green in summer even when grass goes brown and dormant (as in my town, where we have severe restrictions on outdoor watering).

Dutch white clover was once in common use, but fell out of favor when herbicides became popular and the "putting green" style of lawn became the fad. Now that we're finally moving away from that model, it's a good solution to suppress weeds in a grass lawn or to plant in difficult-to-grow areas or, well, for anywhere. It can even be used to suppress chinch bugs.

Dutch white clover is distinct from wild clovers, which tend to grow higher. At Ontario Seed Co. (a Waterloo-based seed company and hardware store) you can purchase dutch white clover in small packets for $1.95 up to 2 kilo bags for $16.95. (It doesn't take a lot: two kilos should cover a couple of acres.)

For more information, see:

* Cornell University page on Dutch White Clover
* Nova Scotia site on establishing Dutch White Clover

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3 comments:

Northern PoV said...

Great advice.
It fixes nitrogen and is best for a lawn when well mixed with a hardy grass,
Most people cut their lawn too short, esp. in the hot months - if you cut at the max height of the lawn-mower you retain a better greener bio-sphere that requires less watering.

BTW, I have always seen it called "all sykes" clover, and yes usually in tiny packages.
I ordered 2kg specially (years ago - I was controversial at the time as a suburban lawn owner) from a feed/farm supply ... and an older woman saw me picking it up and said "that's funny, I'd forgotten but Pa used to say 'always throw in a handful of clover seed in the grass seed'

Anonymous said...

There are many kinds of clover but most are used for forage crops and are substantially taller than White Dutch. Among these forage types are: ‘Ladino,’ ‘New Zealand’ and ‘Alsike.’

Alsike clover grows 15-30 inches high!

White Dutch or Common clover is low growing - less than 5 inches.

White Dutch clover is hard to find in area seed stores that specialize in conventional grasses. Many carry clover but don’t know what kind. You may wind up with a higher growing clover than you want. White Dutch is readily available on the Internet. Search for white clover on almost any search engine and you’ll get shopping choices.

Anonymous said...

There are many kinds of clover but most are used for forage crops and are substantially taller than White Dutch. Among these forage types are: ‘Ladino,’ ‘New Zealand’ and ‘Alsike.’

Alsike clover grows 15-30 inches high!

White Dutch or Common clover is low growing - less than 5 inches.

White Dutch clover is hard to find in area seed stores that specialize in conventional grasses. Many carry clover but don’t know what kind. You may wind up with a higher growing clover than you want. White Dutch is readily available on the Internet. Search for white clover on almost any search engine and you’ll get shopping choices.