RDG: More clover patches
New Zealand Clovers from American Meadows...
We noticed at the beginning of Spring there were sections of the RDG (lawn) lawn needed some TLC. Having tried different grass seeds in the past with limited reward, we decided to see if planting clover would give us more success.
Our first post about “clover-nating” the lawn concerned how we prepped the soil and sowed the seed. Today’s post will focus more on how we chose to deal with the few “difficult” sections of the RDG. We used the same approach as described in the previous post, but used clover seeds from the two vendors (Rocky Mountain BioAg and American Meadows) in bare patches right next to one another. The conditions (water, sun, etc.) should be very similar.
The idea is not to pit one source against the other, but to see if we can get anything to come up at all. It will be interesting to see what happens!!!
This project will span a year and be written up in a series of articles:
- Spring 2023 (May/June): prep and sow difficult sections;
- Summer 2023: progress updates;
- Fall 2023 (Sept/Oct): state of the clover lawn; and
- Spring 2024 (April/May): did the clover come back???
American Meadows
We wrote about RMBA in detail in our last post so that info will not be repeated here. American Meadows (AM) is the source of the other clover we selected. We picked AM because, like RMBA, their philosophy toward growing things—nurture and cultivate real change that shapes our world—are in alignment with ours.
We decided on the white New Zealand (Trifolium repens) version of microclover seeds from American Meadows. It is an improved clover which is:
- drought-tolerant,
- cold hardy, and
- when established can handle foot traffic better than other clovers.
All things the RDG lawn needs!
Teeny tiny seeds that should pack a big punch.
The look of the AM pellets were similar to those from RMBA and info on the AM site confirmed that theirs are also nitro-coated with 34% limestone and inoculated. The coating ensures that each seed has access to high levels of live rhizobium in order to maximize the development of nitrogen-producing nodules.
RDG “problem sections”
After getting confirmation that our prep and sowing techniques got the clover going, we tackled the more problematic sections of the garden a week later. Those sections are difficult because they:
- are shaded by trees of differing heights,
- do not get as much of the rain because of the tree canopy, and
- receive a moderate amount of foot traffic.
We have had no luck trying to get grass to grow in many of these sections.
Bare, but hopeful.
The footpath is another part of the RainyDayGarden we really needed to patch up. Our expectation hope is that the clover will grow around the stepping stones to tidy up the somewhat raggedy-looking walkway. We sowed the RMBA clover seeds below the stepping stones and the AM seeds above the stepping stones (as seen in the photo).
This is what’s called, in horticultural terms, a hot mess.
We’ll post the update after a month and another one at the end of Fall. We can’t wait to see how things turn out!!!
Links to items mentioned:
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