Hello! My wife and I moved into out first house and are wondering wtf to do with this yard. My father in law paid for the first months of grass cutting, but the guy left all the trimmings on top and my yard is dead currently (we had huge patches of grass all around the yard, guessing it got smothered but I’m not sure). I am finally buying a sprinkler and have a decent mower and weed eater.
In the case where my grass doesnt grow back, could I just plant clover or another groundcover and be fine? I have been wanting to do a more natural clover/groundcover lawn, but scared too if the mowing cycles are off.
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Midwest Native Plant Society is a good resource for going with native plants.
Depending on the drainage in your yard some rain gardens or dry creek beds might be an idea for filling some of the bare patches.
Clover and walkable thyme (wooly and several other varieties out there would work) are good for walking areas. Clover is fairly easy to get started replacing grass: just overseed it in the fall, seed on top of the last snow of winter, and overseed again in the spring. I have 3 or 4 types of thyme in my yard that look great in their little spots but could easily be planted and allowed to spread into ground cover.
Sedum/stonecrop is great drought resistant ground cover that looks cool. If you have enough shade: consider moss for less trafficked areas.
I’ve used Sedum Tiles in several gardens around our yard and the walkway up to our house. They grown in well and will spread out well.
I’ll try to remember to take some pictures when I get home.
There’s low growing clover varieties IMHO, and clover has proven to be much more drought resistant here (Germany) than grass. It also improves the soil quality.
It also improves the soil quality.
If your referencing it’s nitrogen fixing capabilities, I believe the clover has to die for it to be available to other plants.
All said, out of all the plants you could have in your lawn, clover is a good one!
According to Wikipedia they do some magic in their roots, while living: “As legumes, clovers fix nitrogen using symbiotic bacteria in their root nodules, and are used as an alternative or supplement to synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.”
Right, but as far as I know, that nitrogen isn’t bio-available to other plants until the clover dies. The nitrogen is produced, just not usable.
Ah yes, understood. Well, it will be a nice ground cover until that time comes.
My lawn has grass, clover, and violets, with a few other random plants. The violets are great and look nice and don’t really need mowing. The clover and grass eventually require mowing, but not moreso than just pure grass.
Do you happen to know which type of grass and clover you have? A neighbor just cut back their natural lawn and it looks so good. I’m sure it will take a few cycles to get a decent yawn
Not sure what type of grass, it was there when we moved in. White clover
