Clover is creeping, it is white or Dutch, it is a culture that every person has encountered due to its vast growth area. Due to its unpretentiousness and fast growth rate, perennial plants can be increasingly seen as a flowering, soft lawn.
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Botanical Description
The presence of a creeping root caused the appearance of the name of the species, which in the literature is often called white clover. The ability of the root system of clover creeping to grow rapidly, displacing other plants, leads to the formation of green clearings in vast territories. A typical variety is represented by perennials with tripartite leaves and white, fragrant inflorescences, the timely removal of which after drying allows you to observe flowering from late spring to mid autumn. Graceful and flexible shoots can develop in height up to 30 cm.
Varieties and varieties
Dutch clover is a representative of a large genus, numbering more than 300 species.
Currently, thanks to the constant work of breeding institutes, the spectacular variety has become the basis for breeding many varieties, among which it is worth highlighting:
- Rivindell is a winter-hardy variety often used for sowing pastures where cattle are to be grazed.
- Klondike is a universal representative of the species, characterized by the ability to recover quickly after a harsh winter. Fragrant clover is appreciated for its low requirements to the fertile soil layer.
- Silvester - stands out lush bushes that can grow in combination with other flowering crops, selected to create a flowering lawn.
- Pipolina is an innovative hybrid variety with miniature leaves and a dense root system. It has excellent drought and frost resistance.
- Ronny, a native of Scandinavia, is great for creating a lush carpet that can be cut very short thanks to a highly branched root system that fills all the free space.
Features of growing plants
When cultivating creeping clover, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics and requirements of the culture to certain growing conditions:
- Lighting - growing clover creeping in the wild in sunny areas, therefore, with excessive shading of the selected place may not develop.
- Soil - before sowing, it is recommended to dig the soil in advance, the composition of which clover is undemanding.
- Combination with other plants - because of aggressive root growth, clover should not be placed close to crops with a weak root system.
- Humidity - sow clover seeds should be sown in areas with a deep occurrence of groundwater due to intolerance to moisture stagnation culture.
It is interesting:red clover: healing properties
How to plant Dutch clover
Sowing material in the garden is sown in the second half of spring or in early autumn with an average daily temperature in the range from 10 to 13 ° C.
When sowing, it is recommended to follow certain rules that allow you to get a flat, neat lawn:
- The day before sowing seeds in the absence of natural rainfall, the soil is abundantly moistened.
- Seeding depth is 1-2 cm, depending on the density of the soil.
- After sowing, the soil in the area is rolled up with a roller for even future seedlings.
Advice! When calculating the seeding rate, the recommendations indicated on the package with the seeds of the selected variety should be taken into account.
Outdoor Care
It is very simple to look after a lawn from an unpretentious clover, which is easily restored after trampling.
Watering
Watering the white clover should be with prolonged drought to preserve the juiciness of greenery. However, even the lack of moisture, the culture is able to endure.
Top dressing
The representative of legumes is a natural enrichment of soil, raising a layer of humus, and does not need additional top dressing. However, if the gardener wants to get lush flowering in the second year, then you can feed crops with potash-phosphorus fertilizers.
A haircut
Clover creeping easily spreads to free territories, so it needs regular haircuts. And also timely mowing of faded peduncles stimulates repeated flowering.
Protection against diseases and pests
In thickened crops of creeping clover, snails, slugs, as well as manifestations of fungal diseases, can be noted. To avoid this, you should regularly cut the lawn.
Harvesting plants and use in traditional medicine
In folk medicine, tinctures, decoctions, and other clover-based products are used to tone and strengthen the body, as painkillers, antimicrobials, and blood thinners. For the preparation of potions, stems, leaves and inflorescences are used, which are harvested during flowering by drying.
Cons and pros of growing as grass for lawn
To finally determine the choice of plants for the future lawn, you need to weigh the pros and cons.
Among the advantages stand out:
- Unpretentiousness - care of a lawn from clover will not take much time.
- High decorative qualities - dense greens create elegant soft rugs.
- Wear resistance - the adopted clover leaves after active games of children or dogs are quickly restored.
- Soil-improving qualities - the culture enriches the soil with nitrogen.concentrating it in the roots, and not taking out with growth.
- Cheapness - the cost of clover seeds is quite low, in comparison with the sowing or planting material of other crops.
- Forage base - clover contains many nutrients needed by farm animals.
The disadvantages include the abundance of slugs with thickened crops, the slippery texture of the lawn from clover, very rapid growth, which is not always acceptable in conditions limited to other plants.
So, anyone can grow a creeping clover, who, before sowing the seeds, must weigh all the pros and cons of the appearance of the culture on his site.
