Lucky To Have Clover
By Phran Novelli
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - It's one thing you won't be seeing in the meticulously manicured fairways and greens at the US Open course this week, but a lot of us have clover in our lawns. For a long time, in fact, clover was regularly part of the mix in many grass seeds for home lawns, because clover is a plant that makes its own nitrogen which helps fertilize the soil (plants like this are said to 'fix nitrogen').
Clover can be tougher than grass, it's drought-tolerant, stays green under the playful feet of children and doesn't turn yellow where doggies go. So, some people grow clover in place of grass or along with it; and lots of us have patches of clover here and there, that found their way in over time.
If you have clover and you see the little white flowers blooming this time of year, you might want to let them stay a while. The clover flowers are a good source of nectar for the honeybees we need to pollinate our gardens and orchards, so the clover in your lawn can be a nice place for bees to feed-and an excuse for you not to mow that patch for a week or so until the flowers are finished.
