Product review: White Dutch Clover Seed

 Early last spring I purchased 5 pound bag of White Dutch Clover on Amazon.  I have been very pleased with it. The germination rate of the clover I received was excellent during the fist some.  I had a little bit of it left over and replanted the left over seed this spring and they came in beautifully as well.

I took pictures (posted at the end of the review)  with the progress of my clover lawn.
Photo #1: clover lawn after 5 days
Photo #2: clover lawn after 15 days
Photo #3 & #4: clover after 23 days, clover after 23 days close-up
Photo #5 clover after 30 days
Photo #6 clover after 45 days -> appearance of flowers, this is my final photo

I have a lot of lawn and due to back problems limited ability to care for it as well as I should to keep it nice and green. Following a construction project late last fall a large area of my lawn became a patch of clay. After reading about eco lawns I decided to try to reseed the bold patch with clover rather than grass. I selected white Dutch clover because it is low growing (it reaches 4 inches when it matures) and was rated well for the North East region where I live.

I liked that Clover is a perennial and will propagate on its own. I like that Clover helps grass grow. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria that form nodules on the roots of the clover fix nitrogen from the air and increases the nitrogen in the lawn helping the grass to grow. What was important to me that clover grows vigorously even in poor soil, which is exactly what I have.

I read that the ideal time to plant is mid-April before grass starts growing quickly and provides competition for water. It can be planted later in the season as well, by then watering frequently becomes crucial for clover lawn establishment. I planted my clover in the third week of April, seeding some over the new grass that just started growing, some in the clay left by the construction, and some over patches that had dead grass.

Some information I found indicates that you need both clover AND grass to make a "clover lawn" as they are complementary in their ecological functioning and one supports the other. By planting my clover in several ways I will be able to see if I also need to add grass seed to the clover lawn.

The instructions said not to spread them by hand, so I came up with the following solution. I used a large spice bottle (the kind you get at Costco) and opened the side with the round holes and used it as a shaker to spread the seeds.

I watered daily (if there was no rain). The instructions said you only need to do it for 7 to 10 days, but I am watering to insure good growth.

One section of my lawn which included clover is mowed regularly once a week. The clover did not survive many weeks of mowing. It came back a couple of times, but eventually died out completely. A section that has not been mowed still has healthy looking clover.

In the fall the regular mowing ended and I am happy to report that the clover came back in the section which was regularly mowed and where it stopped growing during the summer!

The clover wintered fairly well and I saw plenty of re-growth this spring.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★