Grass isn’t inherently a bad idea for a lawn, it’s just specific to your individual climate. The main issue is that most of the grasses people plant are native to much cooler climates in Europe.
I have a grass lawn, but it’s a native Buffalo grass. It’s much more drought tolerant than clover, flowers a couple times a year, doesn’t require any maintenance, and provides a natural habitat for native wildlife.
Clover isn’t actually much better than most grasses if you are trying to support the natural biodiversity. It’s not native to north America, and thus only supports a small range of wildlife that’s adapted to it.
A Lot of America’s natural ground cover is actually low lying shrubs and flowering plants.
It’s called St Augustine grass and it’s everywhere down there since it’s supposedly very hardy, heat resistant, and salt resistant, which is important in hot, wet, and salty Florida. And I know exactly what you mean about the spikiness; it’s not soft at all.
In my region (Tennessee) the most popular intentional lawn grass is Tall Fescue, which is very soft, but it doesn’t spread laterally, so when gaps happen due to heat and such, spiky/hard crab grass fills in the gaps, and isn’t killed by broad-leaf herbicide since it’s also grass, so semi-maintained lawns quickly get taken over. The lawns with no herbicide regimen get taken over by clover instead, so you end up with a horseshoe of sorts where the completely un-maintained lawns (fescue and clover) and meticulously-maintained lawns (pure fescue) are soft, but the lawns in the middle are spiky.
Would be cool to see it make a comeback on some of the buffalo reservations. Don’t know if those places have quite the herd size to make it feasible. Amazing what some of the vast herds could do to transform the prairies back in the day.
I just and to add in here that supporting your non-native bees with clover is still worthwhile. Clovers can be a good add on if you want a traditional lawn
Clover is non-native in my area. I’ve witnessed native bumblebees visiting clover, but they show a much stronger preference for larger forbs, both native and non-native. For one, they can’t nap on clover (too small, I assume, even when allowed to grow to full size). Additionally, I haven’t seen pollinators other than honeybees and bumblebees at the clover, whereas other flowers attract dozens of various species (as well as their predators, creating a fuller ecosystem).
For sure native forbs can attract more. Its not an either or, but rather a both situation. Pollinator friendly Forbs where you can and clover within your turf lawn. I personally also have been adding self-heal (mild successfully) and creeping thyme (not that successfully) into my lawn. Its a move on all front situation in my yard
For sure, I didn’t mean to negate your comment (more of a “yes and”). However I do think it is important in these conversations to acknowledge that clover isn’t a great option for yards when it comes to supporting pollinators (native or otherwise), just a better one. That said, for folks who have to have a grass yard (for rental agreement, HOA, etc reasons), clover is a great add-in. I prefer the native self-heal myself, but it has similar purple flowers and growth pattern to the invasive creeping charlie, so clover is probably the appealing, stealthier choice of the two in many places.
Grass isn’t inherently a bad idea for a lawn, it’s just specific to your individual climate. The main issue is that most of the grasses people plant are native to much cooler climates in Europe.
I have a grass lawn, but it’s a native Buffalo grass. It’s much more drought tolerant than clover, flowers a couple times a year, doesn’t require any maintenance, and provides a natural habitat for native wildlife.
Clover isn’t actually much better than most grasses if you are trying to support the natural biodiversity. It’s not native to north America, and thus only supports a small range of wildlife that’s adapted to it.
A Lot of America’s natural ground cover is actually low lying shrubs and flowering plants.
Most people just cut the grass too short. If you can’t put foot under the cutting deck, it’s too low.
Grass has very little leaves. So they need to be longer to stay green.
Heat wave coming? Cut the grass even longer. Longer grass keeps the moisture in the ground too.
One of the things I remember when I visited Florida as a kid from the UK was how weird their grass was. It’s all spiky.
And kept trying to point this out but for some bizarre reason my parents weren’t interested.
It’s called St Augustine grass and it’s everywhere down there since it’s supposedly very hardy, heat resistant, and salt resistant, which is important in hot, wet, and salty Florida. And I know exactly what you mean about the spikiness; it’s not soft at all.
In my region (Tennessee) the most popular intentional lawn grass is Tall Fescue, which is very soft, but it doesn’t spread laterally, so when gaps happen due to heat and such, spiky/hard crab grass fills in the gaps, and isn’t killed by broad-leaf herbicide since it’s also grass, so semi-maintained lawns quickly get taken over. The lawns with no herbicide regimen get taken over by clover instead, so you end up with a horseshoe of sorts where the completely un-maintained lawns (fescue and clover) and meticulously-maintained lawns (pure fescue) are soft, but the lawns in the middle are spiky.
There are several clover species native to NA.
Most are only found in the west, but theres a few eastern ones like Trifolium kentuckiense.
But sure, the common clover in most peoples yards is likely Trifolium pratense or Trifolium repens
There are native clovers, but they aren’t what you would really classify as ground cover.
Trifolium stoloniferum probably would fit that bill. But its easily outcompeted by other plants.
That’s buffalo clover right? Isn’t that extinct, or like really close to it?
Its endangered, once thought to be extinct. Like i said, its easily out competed so it relied of large harbivores to eat/trample the competition.
Would be cool to see it make a comeback on some of the buffalo reservations. Don’t know if those places have quite the herd size to make it feasible. Amazing what some of the vast herds could do to transform the prairies back in the day.
I just and to add in here that supporting your non-native bees with clover is still worthwhile. Clovers can be a good add on if you want a traditional lawn
Clover is non-native in my area. I’ve witnessed native bumblebees visiting clover, but they show a much stronger preference for larger forbs, both native and non-native. For one, they can’t nap on clover (too small, I assume, even when allowed to grow to full size). Additionally, I haven’t seen pollinators other than honeybees and bumblebees at the clover, whereas other flowers attract dozens of various species (as well as their predators, creating a fuller ecosystem).
For sure native forbs can attract more. Its not an either or, but rather a both situation. Pollinator friendly Forbs where you can and clover within your turf lawn. I personally also have been adding self-heal (mild successfully) and creeping thyme (not that successfully) into my lawn. Its a move on all front situation in my yard
For sure, I didn’t mean to negate your comment (more of a “yes and”). However I do think it is important in these conversations to acknowledge that clover isn’t a great option for yards when it comes to supporting pollinators (native or otherwise), just a better one. That said, for folks who have to have a grass yard (for rental agreement, HOA, etc reasons), clover is a great add-in. I prefer the native self-heal myself, but it has similar purple flowers and growth pattern to the invasive creeping charlie, so clover is probably the appealing, stealthier choice of the two in many places.
There are some native clovers but otherwise yes
There are native clovers, but they aren’t really what you would utilize for ground cover.