The Clover Option

I've been researching how to properly smother my front yard this fall and I came upon another low input lawn option - white clover.

Lately I've been going back and forth in my mind on the front yard...

Yes! I want to expand the overall area of our no mow.
No! I'm not sure how that's going to look along the road and the driveway.

I was having a hard time coming up with a more manicured option. I can't do the old Kentucky bluegrass stand bye because I really really don't want to water anything.

This might be my holy grail. Link here.
And another.

With this blend I could have some manicured cover along the road & drive and it could tolerate the heat and draughty summer conditions. I currently have small, spotty patches of this stuff in the yard and I've notices that native pollinators (like bees) gravitate towards it, so that's an extra benefit.

Then - in the back of my mind - there's still the back yard...waiting for help. Last month I took my mom out back to an area with a distinct contrast between garlic mustard presence and absence (where I had pulled it out, and where I hadn't). I tried to get it in a photo but its a bit hard to see. Taking out the mustard lets the natives do what they will. Here its mostly Virginia creeper, raspberry, enchanter's nightshade and some elderberry. Behind it you can see the garlic mustard (invasive) that has gone to seed (so its yellow).



When that stuff is around, the natives don't do as well because of competition. In some areas garlic mustard can be the ONLY thing growing. When you only have one species of plant, its like only having one type of vegetable to buy at the grocery store. And when that vegetable is non-native, its likely something the natives can't eat anyway, even though there may be lots of it. So garlic mustard basically decreases or eliminates available food for a number of native species.

Hopefully, as the years go by, and I continue to annually eliminate garlic mustard and buckthorn I'll have a release of native species that have gone dormant due to competition. Just last week I ID'ed American germander in the back corner of the yard.

PPP

Peter barking at the neighbor's wiener dog. Do you see the red-devil eyes on that thing? It gets out every other week and goes looking for a fight.