Wednesday 19th August 2020
Ah clover. This humble 3 (or sometimes 4!) leafed miracle worker is one of our favourite and most hard-working plants in the valley!
We plant clover as part of our herbal grass leys for many reasons. It helps improve soil health and also provides additional nutrients for our cows.
Organic standards mean we can’t use a chemical nitrogen fertilizer even if we wanted to. Clover is considered a nitrogen fixing plant, meaning that it will pull nitrogen from the air and channel it into the soil through their root systems so that our crops and grass can use it to grow.
Clover also has a long root that can grow deep into the soil, pulling nutrients from deep in the soil that other plants can’t reach.
By growing clover, our soil gets a lovely injection of extra nutrients and our cows get a tasty addition to their grass salads.
So, the next time you’re searching for a lucky 4 leaf clover, remember just how clever that clover really is!
Planting clover is just one of the ways we put nature first. Want to find out more? Click here to go to our Put Nature First hub!
s it tidy. so poor a lawn expert said go synthetic 🙁
After researching options I seeded with clover and loved it. So lush but my neighbours called it the field. Now a few years on the grass in coming through strongly, I guess due to the clover feeding the soil. I ding a long cut a few times a year keeps it tidy.
Fascinating! Perhaps you should sell clover seeds to get us started.
Sadly, a lot of people think a weed free lawn is to be proud of but the opposite is true & I hope the message spreads that leaving the mowing for a week or so and allowing wild flowers and weeds to grow is something we should , not only low, but be proud of. Education in the harmful effects of weedkiller usage in imperative, I believe.
Love clover. Anyhing to help our earth organically is great.
Thanks for this information
I have an abundance of clover growing in my garden, it’s prolific on the lawn and the bee’s love it. Friends say I should dig it out as it looks scruffy, I don’t agree, it’s staying put!!! It glistens when the rain falls, a very pretty and nutritious little gem!!!
Well I never knew that. It always reminds me of watercress, Fresh looking and moist. Spent many happy hours looking for a four leaf, as a child. Good memories.
My front “grass” is wild flowers in summer, rattle to keep the grass weak and red clover for nitrogen. I am planning to try mowing it on the highest cut once a month this season (instead of after seeding) to stop the seeds everyone gets!
Great way to look at the benefits of clover. I have a mix of grass, moss, clover, dandelions and buttercups as weeds! I do need to get them all in balance! The bees seem to love it as well as the leather jackets!
My garden is mostly clover and I was looking to get it changed to grass as that what I always thought you should have, no longer it is staying as clover.
Our No Dig allotment in Bristol produces all it’s own compost, no chemical fertilizers are ever added.
We’ve sown broad bean seeds to solely to produce organic matter, in between the rows we’ll be adding red clover for more compostable material.
Hi I have clover paths in my garden.it was originally a wild flower meadow but the clover took over after a few years .I re-disigned the garden with 2 bed of prairie plants and the paths were still mainly clover but some wild flowers as well. I pulled most of the wild flowers out so its mostly clover now. In the summer it was full of bees on the flowers. Then in the autumn i cut it and let it lie there. I didn’t realise till now it would enrich the soil so well done me
I can remember as a child in the 1940s when all the fields and woods were full of wild flowers but then the chemical companies came over and changed so much – shame.
Now fortunately we have a growing number of intelligent people making an effort to educate the younger generation. Well done.
The clover in my patch is alive with bees in the summer. No bare feet for me!
Nitrogen from nature and not in a plastic sack using huge amounts of energy to produce. a no brainer.
We’ve just created a wild patch in our garden and have laid down clover seeds in the hope that it will attract the bees.
I always grow crimson and white clover on my allotment in London. It is not only good for the soil and veggies but looks pretty too.
Agnieszka
In my London suburban garden, instead of a grass monoculture, I love allowing clover to grow in my lawns as it stays green even in very dry summers and the flowers are much loved by bees.
Christine
Thanks Yeo Valley, I never knew that! Keep up the good work. Lyn
On my parents’ farm in North Wales my Dad used to plant clover in fallow fields so that the following year he would have good crop yields. All the farmers in the area used to do the same. We didn’t call it Organic then it was just standard practice. We could only let the cattle into those fields for a little while as they would overeat the clover ( they loved it, it was a pleasure watching their behaviour when they were allowed into those fields ).
Good article. Many thanks.
Thank you for reminding me not to pull out the abundant clover that seems to find a home in all my pots!!
Sometimes, even though we have a deep bedded knowledge, it takes a reminder to bring that knowledge back to the front of the mind.
I think growing clover ion my garden might just help it improve my plants.