Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

As a side note:

I'm not a botanist or anything. This is just what I've read. But I remember growing up there being clover everywhere. It was vibrant, green, felt great under foot and flourished even in South Texas.

You don't see that often anymore. The claim I've seen is that herbicides commonly used to treat weeds on lawns kill it.

So I bought a couple 1lb bags off Amazon (I think about $10). We had a few weeds since we don't use herbicides (not out of principle or anything, I'm just not that into gardening). Anyways, the clover chokes out the weeds completely, looks great, seems to help the grass grow better, and is just nothing but a positive thing.

Really happy with it. Some of my super-gardener neighbors might not appreciate it. It's never come up. But I like that even during droughts my lawn stays vibrant and green with minimal water.




Was going to post something based on my experience, but when poking around found this article which does a much better job than I could: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/brainwaves/outgrowing-th...


Here is a fitting song to go with that garden. "Don't mow your lawn" by Ray Anderson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGZ6hCy_Pok


We don't use any pesticides or herbicides and we take a fairly permissive approach to our back lawn: if it's green(ish) and consents to be mowed from time to time, it can stay. Among the grass is a lot of common yarrow, creeping charlie (glechoma hederacea), clover, garlic mustard, dandelions, purslane, chickweed, alfalfa, lamb's quarters and so on. I've always noticed that the bees particularly seem to enjoy the clover flowers.


And clover is really helpful for bees. "UNH researchers also have found that white clover attracted the largest abundance of bees, and red clover supported the highest diversity of bees." http://www.fosters.com/article/20160509/NEWS/160509387


Adding this to my guerrilla gardening toolbox.


That brings back memories of being a kid with a large, untreated, clover-choked grass lawn. We ran around in bare feet all summer and at least once or twice a summer would step on a bee and get stung.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: