Decorative red clover for lawn?

[bigboreblr]

MY wife mentioned she misses the strip of clover in the front yard. She'd watch the bunnies play around in it while she has her coffee.

Any Variety of red that will flower often while being mowed? She loves the crimson clover, but I know that wont work well. Maybe even a prolific flower short ladino would be nice. I can keep this strip mowed on high. My Gravely zero turn I think goes up to 5 inches.

While I am at it, anybody plant clover in their yards? Was using imperial white clover, there is one variety that persists for several years with frequent mowing.

I got some basic ladino laying around at home. I am planning to buy a 25lb bag of patriot clover. Seems peddington recommends that in colder climates more than durana.

Been toying around the idea of expanding the backyard plot with crimson clover for my wife too. Any insight on when and how long will crimson clover stay looking red in NY hardiness zone 5B / 6A.

 

[Bassattackr]

I would not use red, it will grow a few feet tall. If you mow frequently it will not persist.

There are many improved ladino varieties that persist longer but if it were me, I would choose White Dutch due to the lower growth level.

Otherwise the improved ladino varieties like Alice, Patriot, Durana, etc are all good options for long term clovers that can be mowed, yet favored by wildlife.

Good luck!

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I plant white Dutch in my yard. The deer eat from my yard as much as my foodplots.

 

[bigboreblr]

I got to mke a return trip to the farmers co-op, they didnt bag up fertilizer yet for the year. They got dutch white there.

Im definitely going to learn towards white in my plots from now on. $175 for 25lbs patriot shipped an ok price?

 

[Wild Thing]

I have always subscribed to "Variety" being the spice of life. I can't recall ever planting only a single variety of clover. I typically buy 3 - 5 different varieties and mix them together. If one variety suffers some from drought or something else, there are likely one or more other varieties that will still thrive.

I alway include Medium Red Clover in the mix and then add in Ladino or Jumbo Ladino, Alice White, Dutch White, Alsike, Crimson, and others. Works well for me...













We see a wide variety of wildlife utilizing these clover mixes - mostly rabbits, grouse, deer and bear.

 

[Buckly]

MY wife mentioned she misses the strip of clover in the front yard. She'd watch the bunnies play around in it while she has her coffee.

Any Variety of red that will flower often while being mowed? She loves the crimson clover, but I know that wont work well. Maybe even a prolific flower short ladino would be nice. I can keep this strip mowed on high. My Gravely zero turn I think goes up to 5 inches.

While I am at it, anybody plant clover in their yards? Was using imperial white clover, there is one variety that persists for several years with frequent mowing.

I got some basic ladino laying around at home. I am planning to buy a 25lb bag of patriot clover. Seems peddington recommends that in colder climates more than durana.

Been toying around the idea of expanding the backyard plot with crimson clover for my wife too. Any insight on when and how long will crimson clover stay looking red in NY hardiness zone 5B / 6A.

White perennial clover will adapt to lower mowing. I have Dutch White mostly all over the lawn and it will flower at 2 inches no problem. It makes up a good 75% of my lawn and then the rest weeds. LOL. Very little actual grass. As far as the Crimson, I plant in the fall and it will flower the following April into May. Usually starts out flowering here and there and peaks for about a month where I’m at in NY. Then it fades away never to return.

 

[westonwhitetail]

You can get micro clover that people plant in yards

 

[Skeeter]

This might be something to try,

New bee lawn resources from Extension

Bee lawns provide food and habitat for a wide variety of pollinators and are good for people, too. Learn how you can grow and maintain your own bee lawn with new resources from Extension.

extension.umn.edu

 

[35-acre]

I have always subscribed to "Variety" being the spice of life. I can't recall ever planting only a single variety of clover. I typically buy 3 - 5 different varieties and mix them together. If one variety suffers some from drought or something else, there are likely one or more other varieties that will still thrive.

I alway include Medium Red Clover in the mix and then add in Ladino or Jumbo Ladino, Alice White, Dutch White, Alsike, Crimson, and others. Works well for me...

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We see a wide variety of wildlife utilizing these clover mixes - mostly rabbits, grouse, deer and bear.

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Wwow! Some nice looking property!

 

[35-acre]

I have always subscribed to "Variety" being the spice of life. I can't recall ever planting only a single variety of clover. I typically buy 3 - 5 different varieties and mix them together. If one variety suffers some from drought or something else, there are likely one or more other varieties that will still thrive.

I alway include Medium Red Clover in the mix and then add in Ladino or Jumbo Ladino, Alice White, Dutch White, Alsike, Crimson, and others. Works well for me...

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We see a wide variety of wildlife utilizing these clover mixes - mostly rabbits, grouse, deer and bear.

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Do you have any other photos of your property? This is more or less my objective but I don't know how far back to cut trees to get decent openings overhead to allow for seed growth of things like clover, etc. (of course that depends on canopy height, etc.).

 

[Wild Thing]

Do you have any other photos of your property? This is more or less my objective but I don't know how far back to cut trees to get decent openings overhead to allow for seed growth of things like clover, etc. (of course that depends on canopy height, etc.).

There are quite a few photos in this thread which I posted a few years ago...

Another "Creating a Food Plot" thread:

You may also note in many of the photos I have posted on other threads is that I plant a 10-12 foot strip of clovers around the outside edge of all of my food plots. If I didn't plant any clover anywhere else such as with my brassicas or cover crops, these strips would still provide more than enough clover for all the wildlife on my property. The primary reason I do this however, is that the outside edges off food plots are generally robbed of sunlight, water, etc, from trees and other growth around the outside of the plots. Clovers can handle these shortages just fine but my annual crops would suffer on the edges if I planted right up the to edge of the plot.







When I am planting my cereal grains in August I will also drill some rye into these clover strips for a little added forage. It doesn't hurt the clover at all.



In the spring (mid-late May here) I can spray these clover strips with a light dose (3/4 qt/acre) of glyphosate which will terminate the rye and also kill any other unwanted grasses or broadleaf which may be competing with my clovers. I can maintain these clovers strips for many years with this one annual spraying.

 

[35-acre]

Wow! That is really an awesome property based on the work you did. Not having the equipment makes this very costly for me. The pics you shared previously in this thread has me thinking that you had a bunch of wider woods trails with clover which inspired me to start looking at my next phase. I was going to try to emulate what I had envisioned was a property with clover trails like these (your pic):


I started reaching out to foresters, even using your above pics as examples of what I am trying to achieve (with below image and text). However, in my area, with only having 35 acres and having been logged 8 years ago it seems that I don't have much of an appealing opportunity for logging. Especially considering that I have specific plans to try to build these types of trails. If they were cut back 20 feet wide, I can see about 300 trees coming out just by a visual estimate (no marking/counting each). After speaking to the foresters, they steered me back in the direction of the logger who cut for me 8 years ago. You new pics have given me even more inspiration! Thanks

 

[Wild Thing]

Wow! That is really an awesome property based on the work you did. Not having the equipment makes this very costly for me. The pics you shared previously in this thread has me thinking that you had a bunch of wider woods trails with clover which inspired me to start looking at my next phase. I was going to try to emulate what I had envisioned was a property with clover trails like these (your pic):
View attachment 42350

I started reaching out to foresters, even using your above pics as examples of what I am trying to achieve (with below image and text). However, in my area, with only having 35 acres and having been logged 8 years ago it seems that I don't have much of an appealing opportunity for logging. Especially considering that I have specific plans to try to build these types of trails. If they were cut back 20 feet wide, I can see about 300 trees coming out just by a visual estimate (no marking/counting each). After speaking to the foresters, they steered me back in the direction of the logger who cut for me 8 years ago. You new pics have given me even more inspiration! Thanks

View attachment 42351

Thanks 35-Acre. Travel corridors which have been seeded to cereal grains and clovers are all over my property. I have at least 4.5 miles of them on my 160 acres. Almost all of them were created after timber sales while the loggers still had a bull dozer here. I just flagged the skidder trails they had made while logging and asked them to go through them with the dozer and push out the stumps and kind of level them for me. In some spots I asked them to widen them out but for the most part they are just following along in their skid trails in the direction I wanted them to go. The last logger spent several hours grading them out and didn't even charge me for it. In other cases I had a dozer come in later and do it. You would be surprised how much work a dozer can get done in an hour or two.

Afterwards I went through with my farm tractor and picked out the wood and rocks and then ran over the new trails with a disc and finally a drag. Seeding them was a piece of cake at that point.

Here are just some of those travel corridors:

This spot was a turn around for the logging trucks. I just had them clean it up a little and I took it from there.





















These are very easy to create at the conclusion of a timber harvest.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I have actually done some published research with microclovers. They are just dutch white clover that was maintained at a lower height. Eventually, they just grow out of it and adjust to their new height.

I would just plant white clover and be done with it. It typically cannot tolerate much for traffic, so if you have kids or a dog, it likely won't be a perennial and will need to be constantly over-seeded.

 

[35-acre]

Thanks 35-Acre. Travel corridors which have been seeded to cereal grains and clovers are all over my property. I have at least 4.5 miles of them on my 160 acres. Almost all of them were created after timber sales while the loggers still had a bull dozer here. I just flagged the skidder trails they had made while logging and asked them to go through them with the dozer and push out the stumps and kind of level them for me. In some spots I asked them to widen them out but for the most part they are just following along in their skid trails in the direction I wanted them to go. The last logger spent several hours grading them out and didn't even charge me for it. In other cases I had a dozer come in later and do it. You would be surprised how much work a dozer can get done in an hour or two.

Afterwards I went through with my farm tractor and picked out the wood and rocks and then ran over the new trails with a disc and finally a drag. Seeding them was a piece of cake at that point.

Here are just some of those travel corridors:

This spot was a turn around for the logging trucks. I just had them clean it up a little and I took it from there.

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These are very easy to create at the conclusion of a timber harvest.

That is exactly what I am trying to do!!!!!
Thanks so much for the extra pics. That helps me see the growth adjacent to the trails to give me an idea of how much to mark for a logger.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I may try this I have a little 3000 sq ft "yard" below my driveway that says a bit wet at the one end and the grass doesn't do well there...might try to plant in the fall....if nothing else there would be more clover around!

 

[bigboreblr]

I do something similar on a snowmbile trail on my hunting lease. I have growing clover in 25-40ft wide trails going north / south. Keep in mind liming and fertilizing the trails will make the trees grow better. A pole saw helps, but itll last only so long, then the trees want to grow tall.

Im looking at your property, those southern trails with the Y intersections, Id thin out right there the East and west sides of the trail and the crotch of trees on the south.

Personally, Im hesitant to use rye due to the limited light in the trail. I prefer to use oats.

Also, with the limited light, taking care of leaf debris is more important. Might want to invest in a leaf blower. Or make the trails good enough to mow with a lawn tractor. Made some real nice clover plots at my old home with just a lawn tractor.

 

[35-acre]

I do something similar on a snowmbile trail on my hunting lease. I have growing clover in 25-40ft wide trails going north / south. Keep in mind liming and fertilizing the trails will make the trees grow better. A pole saw helps, but itll last only so long, then the trees want to grow tall.

Im looking at your property, those southern trails with the Y intersections, Id thin out right there the East and west sides of the trail and the crotch of trees on the south.

Personally, Im hesitant to use rye due to the limited light in the trail. I prefer to use oats.

Also, with the limited light, taking care of leaf debris is more important. Might want to invest in a leaf blower. Or make the trails good enough to mow with a lawn tractor. Made some real nice clover plots at my old home with just a lawn tractor.

Thanks for the advice on the trimming and width. That's the kind of info I'm looking for.

I'm a clover and oats guy myself too (I actually prefer to just broadcast T&M-style rolled horse oats - the feed as it's super cheap for a 50lb bag). I top dress my field with oats a couple times each year and the deer keep it mowed really well. This year I'm adding chicory and re-seeding clover to the plot again just to help it along. What I've noticed with the oats is that they tend to need more sun than less or it will start to grow and then fall over.

 

[bigboreblr]

I seeded the flooded out spots in my yard, and a few spots I pushed back the brush edges. Took the adivce on here. ladino, dutch white, last year's clover mixup with some red in it, and threw in some alphalfa.

35 Acre,

Over in the catskills, you get a logger hard pressed to come at all unless it's 5 acres of work. Im no timber expert, but I'd have them come a widen out you paths. Your primary interest in the property is the hunting. You might be able to make a deal with a local firewood guy for some of the trees. If camps are around you, you might be able to chunk some trees and sell them as pick up yourself for a few bucks type of thing.

Never hurts to ask either.

 

[35-acre]

I seeded the flooded out spots in my yard, and a few spots I pushed back the brush edges. Took the adivce on here. ladino, dutch white, last year's clover mixup with some red in it, and threw in some alphalfa.

35 Acre,

Over in the catskills, you get a logger hard pressed to come at all unless it's 5 acres of work. Im no timber expert, but I'd have them come a widen out you paths. Your primary interest in the property is the hunting. You might be able to make a deal with a local firewood guy for some of the trees. If camps are around you, you might be able to chunk some trees and sell them as pick up yourself for a few bucks type of thing.

Never hurts to ask either.

Thanks.


I ended up talking to a couple of foresters and loggers. As expected the size of my job is prohibitive for many. I also talked to my lease owner (I actually lease other land too) and he mentioned talking to the original logger. his thought was that the original logger might be interested (more because he would have an idea of how well he left the place). So I gave the original guy a call. Sure enough, he called me back while being on family vacation in Florida. He's interested and remembered that all we did was a management cut; "there is plenty of good hardwoods in there". So I'm going to mark things with flagging tape this weekend and then call him up to meet him for a walk-through at some point soon. I would love it if they can get in there cut, knock down any ruts from the skidder soo. That would give me time to get some liming and planting done this year.

I don't think that I need them to pull stumps because I don't have a tractor anyway. I use my ATV with a 4 foot harrow drag rake behind it. So I can go around them and still plant oats and clover. Deer don't care if there is a stump or not.