INDEPENDENCE, Ore. – Not too many years ago, clovers were seen as lucky. American yards, mowed by actual fathers, left them be. Children could then lie on the ground, and search for clovers with four leaves. These happily deformed prizes were then placed in books as tokens of luck. Through the spring and summer, clover lawns flowered between cuttings, with low maintenance needs and vigorous green colors.
Today, chemical-treated lawns look like golf courses, and are a monoculture of grass, often cut by lawn crews. There are no flowers. There is no variety. It is all one look, the ideal being a professional golf course.
Enter a new breed of yard seeds with old-style plants, for old-school yards. One new product, Miniclover, is a smaller sized clover that will encourage Americans to rethink the utility and beauty of what lawns were, and what they can be.
“Today, clover is making a comeback,” said Troy Hake, president and owner of Outsidepride.com, a website and online nursery offering drought-tolerant grasses and clover seeds, including Miniclover. The mail order company, located near Salem, specializes in low maintenance, sustainable yards.
The idea is not that current lawns need to be replaced. Instead, the Miniclover is added in, and helps redefine the lawn to a new look.
“Miniclover (trifolium repens), is one-third to half the size of white Dutch clover, only growing 4-6 inches and producing a thick, carpet-like look that blends well with turf,” said Hake, in a release. “Less expensive than grass seed, it’s a natural solution for self-sustaining, low-maintenance lawns that helps eliminate the need for fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and weekly mowing.”