Most lawn owners know clover but they treat it as a weed. People want to get rid of clover from the lawn as it works as a weed.
Before removing the clover from the lawn, let's understand the clover first. It will become easier to remove it from the lawn.
Clover removing from the lawn in USA
Let's understand how to identify clover. Following are terms that may help you to know clover-
Clover identification
- Leaves
Generally, each clover is found with three or four leaves. These leaves are curved(round) from the edges and close at the vertex.
- Flowers
Clover flowers grow after full germination. Generally, clover produces white flowers but there are yellow and pink flowers as well.
- Height
The average height of a clover is 5 to 6 inches and it can grow up to 8 inches above the ground.
- Color
Clover is shiny green color leaves. These leaves look very attractive in sunlight.
- Nature
Clover is aggressive and invading in nature.
Is clover bad for the lawn?
In the case of clover, there are some advantages and disadvantages that can be helpful for you to decide whether bad or good for the lawn.
Disadvantages of having clover
- If you see the results of clover on the lawn, you can 70% call it a weed. It makes trouble like other weeds make on the lawn.
- Clover has flowers during growth, that invite bees on the flowers. These bees may bite pets and humans too.
- A few lawn owners afraid and claimed that they saw snakes in their clover lawns many times. They said collectively that clover invites snakes in summer as clover provides them shelter and less heat.
- A single clover can be enough to spread it on the entire lawn. It invades the other plants in its way and covers them completely.
Advantages of having clover
- Clover maintains the nitrogen for other plants around. It reduces the requirement for nitrogen-containing fertilizers and increases the quality of the soil.
- Because of its deep roots, clover can be green for most of the period a year. It doesn't get dry or dormant till things don't go against it.
- Clover is good enough to call a live mulcher for the soil if they grow alone. They can easily maintain the natural soil moisture and afterlife, they decomposed in the soil and work as organic fertilizers.
- It is seen that clover can handle higher temperatures or drought for a good period. They can survive longer in a lack of irrigation water. Although there are chances that with very low moisture, their leaves can get less shining and green still they live longer.
Is Clover a kind of weed or grass?
Well, you can't ignore that people believe that clover is a weed or a grass. In reality, clover is not but works similar to grass and weed.
It is too difficult to make and arrange turf of clover. They are also difficult to handle once they spread in the area. They are as difficult as a weed to remove from the lawn.
How to get rid of Clover weed?
Following are steps and requirement guide for you to deal with clover from the lawn
- Identify and mark the weed
So by following the basic identification, find out all the clover areas from the lawn. Mark all of them and start the process of clover removal.
- Safety PPE kit
One very common mistake people do in hurry is not using protection on their hands. face, nose, ears, and hairs. In lawn weeding, it is important and necessary to use at least a cheap PPE kit before starting weeding and fertilization. It protects you from harmful chemicals in the body.
A basic lawn PPE kit includes hand gloves, safety glasses, nose mask, ear plugs, head cover, and body cover made of a thin layer.
- Use of Clover weed removals
There are multiple ways to deal with clover from the lawn but in most of them, only two main methods are used. Pickup from hands and use clover to remove liquids.
By using your hands, you can easily pick them with roots but on bigger lawns, it is difficult physical work if you do it alone. Also, you can leave some roots in the ground possibly that may invite clover again.
The use of clover weed removals can remove the clover permanently but it can kill the grass also. So better to use it carefully and accurately. Generally, these liquids use through the long pipe sprayers that you need to make a solution with water. Follow the instruction of using quantity from the bottles or packets of clover weed removals. ac
Following are some clover-removing liquids available on the market-
- Scotts weed killer
- Ortho weedclear weed killer
- Bonide(BND0613)
- Vinegar+water+soap
- Corn gluten
- Aerate the soil after removal
After removing the clover from the lawn, you have to apply some practices on the lawn to recover lawn grass on it. First, aerate the soil properly by using a proper aerator tool. The aeration process is very useful and deciding in lawn grass recovery.
- Use fertilizers and post emergents
After aeration, use organic fertilizers or compost in the clover-removed area. It is always better to analyze the soil pH of the affected area and then decide on the fertilizers.
You can also use post emergents in that area to make a barrier for a time to stop clover. These emergents should not overuse in rest of the lawn intensionally or by mistake.
- Regular mowing
Now, after all the recovery, mow the lawn properly and maintain the moisture and fertility in the soil.
Regular mowing improves lawn grass performance as sunlight directly affects the grass.
Causes of Clover in lawn
Clover can appear on the lawn for multiple reasons. These reasons may be from outside or from inside of your lawn. Following are some possible reasons for clover on the lawn-
- Low nitrogen level
Too much dependency on fertilizers decreases the natural percentage of nitrogen in the soil. Overuse of fertilizers results in poor quality of the soil.
This is the ideal condition for clover to appear. Although they work to balance nitrogen deficiency their appearance brings many other troubles.
- History of soil
If a land has a history of clover in past then it may appear again on the lawn. It doesn't affect that even you renovate the land quality but clover may appear again.
- Through air
From your neighbor or locality, if clover presents somewhere, then it can be a possible reason for clover on the lawn.
Their seeds can come on your lawn by air contact as they are
- Seeds mixture
Sometimes, hybrid grass seeds or ordinary seed packets become a reason for clover on the lawn. Hybrid seeds may have some symptoms of clover. It can also be a possible reason that your seed packet may have a few clover seeds mixed.
Only a few clover seeds are enough to spread clover on the entire lawn.
Is it necessary to remove Clover weed?
It depends on the choice of the lawn owner. Practically, clover is not harmful in lower ratios than lawn grass. Experts suggest using 10% clover seeds complementary with ordinary grass seeds.
Clover has many advantages if someone looks beyond it as a weed. Clover balances nitrogen access for its neighbor plants or grass and decreases the percentage requirement of fertilizers.
Some people say that it is living mulch in the soil but people can debate on it. If clover works as mulching then it may restrict the sunlight to the soil. But lawn grass requires sunlight most of the time in the day.
Mulching is not in favor of lawn grass. It also keeps the moisture in the soil for longer periods. This may lead to moss on the lawn. In many cases, it invites bees and snakes on the lawn which can be threat and harmful to pets and humans.
So there are advantages and disadvantages to clover on the lawn but in the end, it is your choice to let them grow or clean them as a weed.