How to Grow Micro Clover from Seed

Micro clover is a cool-season legume, so sow it when the soil is warm enough to wake the seed but not baking, around 55 to 65 degrees. In most of the country that means two good windows: spring, from a week or two after your last frost through late May, and early fall, about six weeks before your first expected frost. There is no need to start it indoors. It is a direct-sow crop that goes right where you want it, broadcast over prepared soil or raked into a thin spot in the lawn.

In the warm South, from Texas through Florida, lean on the fall window so young seedlings settle in during cooler, wetter months instead of fighting summer heat. Gardeners in the upper Midwest and New England get the strongest stands from a spring sowing once nights stay above freezing.

Clover seed is tiny, so the biggest mistake is burying it. Aim for a planting depth of about 1/4 inch, or simply press the seed into the surface so it stays in contact with moist soil and still catches light. Start with a weed-free, lightly raked bed in full sun to part shade. Clover is not fussy about soil but does best in ground that drains and sits near a neutral pH of 6 to 7.

Spread the seed at roughly 1/4 to 1/2 pound per 1,000 square feet, which is far less than it looks, since each seed is about the size of a pinhead. Mixing it with a few handfuls of dry sand helps you broadcast it evenly. After sowing, rake very lightly, press the surface with a roller or the back of a rake, and water with a gentle spray. Keep the top inch of soil consistently moist and you should see the first green sprouts in 7 to 14 days.

The best part of growing micro clover is how little it asks once it is up. Water about 1 inch a week for the first month or so to get roots down, then back off, because established clover is genuinely drought tolerant and tends to stay green through dry stretches that brown out ordinary grass.

Skip the nitrogen fertilizer entirely. Clover is a legume, so it pulls nitrogen from the air and feeds itself and its neighbors, which is the whole point of using it. If you are growing it as a lawn or in a grass blend, mow high, around 3 inches, and expect it to need cutting far less often than turf alone. Reseed any thin or bare patches in spring or fall. One firm rule: never use a broadleaf weed killer or a weed-and-feed product on an area with clover, because those are designed to kill exactly this kind of plant.

Micro clover plays well with hungry crops that appreciate the nitrogen it leaves behind, and with grasses that it can knit into a low-care lawn. - Fine fescue grasses: blend with clover for a drought-tough, self-feeding lawn that needs less mowing. - Corn: a heavy feeder that thrives following a clover cover crop turned into the bed. - Squash and pumpkins: let clover run as living mulch between hills to cool the soil and block weeds. - Tomatoes: plant them after a clover green manure has broken down to tap the stored nitrogen. - Fruit trees: an easy orchard groundcover that feeds the soil and holds moisture around the roots. One caution: keep clover away from seedbeds of slow, tiny crops like carrots, where it can quickly outcompete them.

When you grow micro clover as a cover crop or green manure, the harvest is really a cut-and-return job that hands all that stored nitrogen back to your soil. Let the stand grow thick, then cut or mow it down at or just before flowering, when the plants hold the most nitrogen. Turn the clippings and top growth into the top few inches of soil with a fork or tiller, or simply leave them in place as a mat of living mulch.

Do this about two to three weeks before you plant the next crop in that spot, which gives the green material time to break down and release its nutrients. For a clover lawn there is no harvest in the usual sense. You just mow as needed, and each cutting feeds the soil as the clippings decompose.

Micro clover earns its keep mainly below the mower and out in the beds. As a lawn or a blend with fine fescue, it forms a soft, low, hard-wearing carpet that stays green with less water and little feeding, and because its small leaves bloom less than common clover, it keeps flowering, and the bees that visit, to a minimum where kids and pets play.

As a cover crop or green manure, it builds nitrogen and structure in tired soil over a season. In the vegetable garden and orchard it works as a living mulch, holding moisture, cooling roots, and crowding out weeds between rows and under fruit trees. Let a patch flower at the edge of the garden and it becomes a steady source of nectar for honeybees and native pollinators.

• Bees in the blooms: if stings worry you near play areas, mow before the flowers open to keep the clover leafy and low.
• Clover creeping into beds and borders: install an edging strip or a mowed buffer, since it spreads by above-ground runners.
• Slow, patchy establishment: tiny seedlings lose out to weeds and drought, so sow into clean soil and keep the surface moist for the first two to three weeks.
• Thinning in deep shade or soggy ground: clover wants at least a half day of sun and soil that drains, so rethink spots that stay dark or wet.