[3759allen]

after a little advice.

we've sown our new lawn from seed about a year ago, it's gone through good and bad cycles of different things growing at different rates. does seem to be looking pretty good now, with just a few sparse bits.

i mowed as close to the soil as possible a few times to get rid of the weeds, this seems to have worked well. the only that has cropped up now is clover.

someone said to me that if you leave the lawn clippings on the ground to be worked into the ground it will reduce the amount of clover. has anyone heard of this?

i'm thinking it may be an idea to keep mowing little and often until it gets too cold, leaving the clippings down between mowing and over winter.

any views or recommendations grateful.

[moose]

According to Bob Flowerdew leaving the clippings acts as manure and enriches the lawn which I would have thought encourages the clover.

[3759allen]

this is exactly what i thought but he said a professor at a local horticultural college (think he was working on the site and got talking you know how it is) was adamant that the clippings enrich the soil with a balance of nutrients that clover doesn't like and the lawn does.

the person i spoke to said he tried it and it worked, but this could just be a coincidence making the wives tall seem true.

i'm thinking it won't do any harm so may well give it a go, maybe try and remove as much clover at the base until i get bored to help things.

just wondered if anyone had heard of this method before really.

[JimB]

.
It may work on playing fields etc leaving the clippings but on domestic lawns you are better removing them  each time you mow.

And you should not scalp the lawn especially during the summer and dry periods.

Finally use a lawn weed killer, Verdone is the easiest to use in my opinion, though you most likely have to use it more than once on clover!

Cheers!

[Christine]

And if you use Verdone, don't compost the clippings. It has an ingredient that will affect your crops as did the old contaminated manure.

[Kristen]

i mowed as close to the soil as possible a few times to get rid of the weeds, this seems to have worked well. the only that has cropped up now is clover.

Cutting very low will make the grass unhappy   The general rule-of-thumb is not to cut more than 1/3rd off the height of the grass.  I presume you aren't supposed to then immediately cut it again, taking 1/3rd more off!

I too would use a selective lawn weedkiller, like Verdone, choosing one that is particularly effective on clover.