Clover and birds foot trefoil in the lawn

Should I introduce clover and birdsfoot trefoil into my lawn?

I've never been a fan of the perfect lawn, just because I like the natural look. I also like bees and butterflies and other such things.

However, I must also consider practicality. Would I be creating a maintenance nightmare for myself if I introduced things to the lawn?

Any thoughts?

 

I don't know about trefoil Clueless, but clover will run riot given the chance.

 

Clover is a nightmare.
Starts off at the start as a small patch but spreads rapidly. Ive treated my lawn properly for the first time this year to try and keep it in check.

G

 

clover helps to get nitrogen into your lawn, times ago all lawn mixes in Germany had clover in them, probably for that purpose
I have all sorts of things in the lawn and love it (the bees too)
purple and white and yellow specks of tiny flowers...
Can't really say they make any problems

The whole issue is more or less a matter of taste - if you want an immaculate carpetlike expanse of green or more diversity

 

Sounds like what I had in mind. Have you got any photos of it? Or species list?

 

Hi Clueless,sorry for late answer:
all plants have grown without my doing...
creeping buttercup, dovesfoot geranium, ajuga reptans, red and white clover
birdsfoot trefoil grows at my neighbours but hasn't taken a foothold here:-(
the red clover needs a bit more height to blossom, but the others don't mind relatively frequent mowing
sometimes I let grow patches higher just for the looks, if you don't let them stand longer than 1 month or 2, they will look quite ok even straight after mowing, otherwise it needs a 1 week or more to get really green again
PIC of height approx 10cm

red clover needs approx 15cm, this is more usefull for patches only

ajuga reptans (i think) on neighbours lawn, quite low, looks more colourfull in real

closeup of dovesfoot geranium (at least that's what I think it is)

 

Thanks LW, its definitely in my plan to do something like that, even if only in patches. The birdsfoot trefoil in my area has produced its tiny black pods now, so I might go out and collect a few maybe at the weekend, and see what happens.

 

the more seeds the better (like with most things that you want to sow right on the spot)

 

well, cluesless has to wait until its dry then (next year mayby?)

 

Yes, thats the stuff im trying to eradicate from my lawn.

 

When I was a kid, we didn't have a garden, so my earliest experience of lawns were in public spaces, where there was invariably all sorts of other things apart from grass growing.

The only bits that were just grass were the bowling greens and cricket pitches, which were fun to run across full sprint just for the reaction you'd get from the olds, but apart from that held no value. I also remember as a kid being impressed by all the different shapes and colours of the weeds in the grass. Birds foot trefoil (although I didn't know its name then) impressed me the most for its vivid yellow colour with crimson red bits on at the height of summer. The clovers were just great for their shape, and both for the fact that there always seemed to be a lot of activity near them with the bumble bees buzzing about. Of course I also had the BMX and skateboard phase, and skateboards don't work well on grass, but still I never stopped being impressed by it all.

In the slightly longer grass, that's where you get the best grass hoppers, and if there are flowers among it, as there usually are, then you get the widest range of moths and butterflies and all manner of unidentified things.

I can't recreate it all in my back garden, but it would be good to get a little bit of it

 

If you do want more 'weeds' in the lawn, it's a good idea to reduce the fertility as much as possible over time i.e. no fertiliser and remove all the cuttings. Seeds will also germinate better in (small) bare patches rather than amongst dense grass.

Personally, I much prefer grass with a diverse range of species in it (both flowers and different grasses). In areas which aren't needed as 'lawn', I try to let the grass grow longer and flower as much as possible. With short paths mown through as needed, this is far more attractive and interesting than a uniform green sward.