Mowless Lawns

I guess there's no way to fix this, but I would like comments on what I should have done. I had a house built on a large acreage where I have no neighbors and I dont need to have a trim lawn. I have bad, rocky clay soil, and I put in red clover seed two years ago, It covered the clearing beautifully and I cut it once in August.. Next year the same. Now, the third year, the native grass has made great inroads, and it looks terrible- maybe a third of the land is grass. I should be out there mowing it right now. I am of a certain age and not able to manage a tiller. This seems to be one more mistake to add to my pioneering skills.

How much acreage are you dealing with?

Wildflowers?
There are many groundcovers that can replace grass, you can do a search on here for plants for your exact requirements
http://www.stepables.com/default.asp

Hi, I've been tied up, but I am talking about probably 3/4 acre.

Grass is hard to keep under control when it's not wanted. Maybe going a larger commercial style lawn tractor will help.

Adding some white dutch clover may help some but you will still get some tall grasses coming through.

Alas, I dont have funds for a lawn tractor, nor do I really want to mow regularly. Mowing cuts off the red clover blossoms, and it's an annual. I would like dutch clover added in, but is it likely to establish without tilling up the grass first?

Wildflowers also would need complete tilling or maybe a year under black plastic before planting. And the cost is major compared to clover.

I guess at the least I should have bought more clover seed each year to supplement the seeding.

A lot of people just spread the seed leave it to grow among the grass and leave the grass to go to seed making it a natural habitat I've seen towns do that for nature/birding areas.
As for the cost, once planted most reseed or you can collect the seeds and spread for more flowers the next year

The dutch white clover can be applied to the grass. That's how I did my yard. I simply cast the seeds by hand and waited. It may take a while to get going if you are having a dry spell but should come up without a lot of trouble. The good thing is that it's perrenial.

You can get some native wildflower seeds to mix with the clover if you wanted to. Just ask that they can be cast out and will germinate without being tilled/raked.

Thank you all for your ideas!

I think you answered your own query when you said the clover is an annual, thats why 2nd year it disappeared, Annuals grow and flower same year and die off, maybe the next year some will come through but weaker.
If you can manage financially to get the area tilled over, hire a seed spreader and sew Wild flower seeds all over the area, you can buy all different mixes from prairie mix, meadow mix, and road edge mix, all have different flowers, /colours etc, the acres of this planting I looked over was stunning, it was like going back to your childhood when we could run the fields and pick flowers for your Mum. if you have the use of computer, do a search for pictures or ask on this site if anyone has planted a large area of wild flower,
Good luck. WeeNel.

go w/ a perennial clover and sow in early spring get it established. It really doesn't need much nitrogen so it will stay pretty healthy looking. Clover is a short lived perennial so I'd overseed a bit each spring or every other. There are also some new grass seeds that need very little nitrogen, but I think you'd e talking spending a lot more $$$ to get that going. You might want to read up on microclovers which seem popular in Europe. Using an innoculator w/ the white clover seed might also be helful.

The Dutch White Clover can be sown right on top of the soil. I like to throw some out before a good rain. It is perennial and evergreen and will eventually choke the grass, its good for the soil too because it adds nitrogen, also needs no mowing. I'm hoping to turn my whole yard into clover. On the down side it is considered a weed and if you need to use weed control for dandelions or something it will kill the clover also. I've noticed after two weeks you have a bald spot, but you can reseed and it will grow over the bald spot quickly.

http://eartheasy.com/grow_lawn_alternatives.htm

Good Luck with your project !!