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microclover overseeding is it possible?

Hi All,

I'm just looking for opinions on overseeding existing lawns with microclover in Vancouver BC. I'm getting super mixed opinions when chatting with locals as well as on online forums. Just wanted to see feedback here too.


We have a 1.5 year old established south east facing lawn. It is very bright in the summer for 3/4 of the day. There are a reasonable number of damp spots due to us being creekside and a spring running under the home. We are considering running french drains but that is likely a project for the future considering world pandemic woes. In the meantime we are considering overseeding with microclover as a strategy to even things out a bit as well as to get rid of chafer beetles. We believe we may be a the start of this being a huge issue in our yard. Neighbours on both sides currently have destroyed lawns. We do see lots of crow activity and they've pulled some up. When redoing a small section as a garden bed we found two grubs.


Some of the information I've read online implies that overseeding with microclover is quite hard because it has to work so hard to get down and grow below the grass mesh? Others suggest that it can totally do this and will flourish.


To date we have mowed once this season and limed last week. That's it.


If microclover is not a good option does anyone have any other reasonable ideas that we the homeowners could manage?

Comments (20)

  • WestCoast Hopeful
    Original Author
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Here is the lawn. The areas I mostly want to spruce up are the front middle where it is more yellow and back behind the badminton net by the second sump cover where the grass is very sparse.

  • WestCoast Hopeful
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    Micro clover appears to be smaller and has less flowers. At least this is what the internet is telling me

  • Juli
    4 years ago

    It's white clover. The "microclover" is a trademarked cultivar. It's supposed to be smaller leaved and shorter growing. I'm curious as to the responses you will get on this. I think there are those that see clover and think it looks weedy. Clover has a lot of benefits for the soil, other plants, and bees of course. I think it would be fine to plant with sod, though I'm one to replace all sod. I'm just thinking of planting this as a green groundcover in my yard of trees, perennials, grasses and shrubs. I don't grow lawn grasses. I'd like to see a yard where someone has done this?

  • WestCoast Hopeful
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    This is an article from our local paper about it. But these people have full lawns of the clover not overseeding.

    https://www.google.ca/amp/s/vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/best-grass-to-beat-chafer-beetles/wcm/ab05b56c-9cfd-45ce-b504-a59a6b400141/amp/

  • WestCoast Hopeful
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    Maybe we should just overseed with a chafer resistant blend. Then it will be clover but also other varieties

  • Missi (4b IA)
    4 years ago

    We had pictures, thought I'd saved them, but no clue where. When we did it, we'd taken out the kids' play area that was pea gravel, and seeded that whole part to clover, and then raked clover in w/the regular grass. If I'd gotten the right kind, it maybe wouldn't have been such an irritant to my husband, but by the end of the 2nd year he was done w/it. The part that was just all clover and no grass was beautiful...just like..totally not micro at all, dangit. I would take the sod out, were I to do it again. Now, tho, we've taken out all the lawn up front and put it all to flowers/plants, and are working on doing the same thing in the back.

  • WestCoast Hopeful
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    Yeah we are green space fans with three kids and a dog so no plans to get rid of lawn. Just looking to improve what we have.

  • Juli
    4 years ago

    What I like about the clover is that it stays green throughout the summer. Grass seed lawns are beautiful green in spring, but then brown in the summer.

  • Missi (4b IA)
    4 years ago

    Never hurts to try-you'll either like it or you won't, you know?

  • WestCoast Hopeful
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    We have some watering restrictions in Vancouver but our lawn was green all year last year.

  • Juli
    4 years ago

    AS


    I'm further south from you. Zone 8

  • lindahambleton
    4 years ago

    I googled it and it looks very interesting. I may try it.

  • spiritflower
    4 years ago

    We tried all clover in a new lawn. The first year it was gorgeous all year, although taller and leggier than we had anticipated.. 2nd year started off great and still no weeds. Then we had a drought. No problem we thought, clover is drought resistant. Not so fast. We live in the country on well water so using that to water our lawn not feasible. So, all the clover died, all sorts of weeds moved in and it looked more than sad. Not that we hadn't researched the heck out of the clover before we went that route. What we learned later after much digging on line was that if you have all-clover and can't water during a drought that the clover plants compete with each other for the little water that is there and it will die. So, would be careful about trying an all clover lawn. But if you can keep it watered you might be ok.

  • shivece
    4 years ago

    I overseed white clover on our farm spring and fall. The biggest issue I noticed is that it seems to take multiple freeze/thaw or wet/dry cycles for the hard seed cover to break and sprout. I have never looked it up, but based on my experience, If you overseed now you may not see growth right away.

  • WestCoast Hopeful
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    @shiveceI think it is still too cold to do it here. At night we are still getting down to 1-3 degrees Celsius. I read it needs to be more like 10 over night. It is find as the place I order from needs 30 days to ship.

  • PRO
    Patricia Colwell Consulting
    4 years ago

    We lived on acreage and sowed clover instead of grass for the ease of upkeep unfortunatly all the bears loved it too.

  • pgjs
    16 days ago

    What did you end up deciding for your lawn? We're in the PNW and I'm considering a mixed grass and microclover lawn.

  • WestCoast Hopeful
    Original Author
    16 days ago

    Interesting timing! We pulled a ton from the front actually in March and just reseeded with rye and clover. It’s currently coming in. The back we reseeded with grass and it’s barely growing. We did overseed with clover two years ago and nothing grew. This year looks more promising overall

  • pgjs
    15 days ago

    Good to know. I hope this year goes better! We're starting from scratch in the backyard, which is pretty shady. I'm planning to try a miniclover and fescue mix.