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Do you need to reseed the bare spots in your lawn? Have you got an area that’s been cleared, leveled and now needs to be planted in grass? Why not plant clover for the bees instead of grass seed?
Clover always looks nice and lush and you don’t need to mow it as often. Heck, if you plant white clover, you don’t even need to mow it at all if you don’t want to. It doesn’t grow very tall.
Why We Should Plant Clover for the Bees
You’ve probably heard about all the problems with the bee population decreasing severely. One way to do your part in helping the bees would be to plant things they love.
Planting lots of flowers will attract bees to your garden. You could plant a mix of perennial plants and annual plants – the bees will love them!
We NEED the bees. Do you have any idea what percentage of food plants that need bees in order to pollinate them?
Some sources say around 30% while others say it could be up to 85%. Either way, we need the bees.
Food that is Pollinated by Bees
Look at this PDF put out by the USDA – if you read through it, you will see this partial list:
Vegetables:
- Artichoke
- Asparagus
- Beet
- Broccoli
- Brussels Sprouts
- Cantaloupes
- Carrot
- Cauliflower
- Celeriac
- Celery
- Cucumber
- Eggplant
- Endive
- Green Pepper
- Leek
- Lettuce
- Okra
- Onion
- Parsnip
- Pumpkin
- Radish
- Rutabaga
- Squash
- Tomato
- Turnip
- White Gourd
There are also about 30 different types of fruit on the list as well. Read through the PDF and share it with anyone you think is interested in helping the bee population.
Planting Clover for the Bees
So, for us, when it comes time to plant any type of new lawn, we like to plant clover.
When we built Graham’s shop, we had the land around it cleared and leveled. I was pretty specific in what I wanted there – Clover.
I was also specific in letting the machine guy know how I wanted the area finished off. What I needed was a level slightly sloping lawn area that wouldn’t need much maintaining from me.
He did such a great job with his machine! It was exactly what would work the best for us – easy drainage for melting snow. And easy maintenance when it came to mowing the lawn there.
After it was leveled, I walked around and threw down White Clover seed. Wonderful stuff, clover is. It smells absolutely divine when it’s in bloom. It attracts any bees that may be around.
This is a Win-Win. The clover is great for the bees and having more bees around our property means they will help with pollinating our garden fruits and vegetables.
Clover as a Cover Crop
Clover is also a wonderful green manure cover crop, so if there’s a portion of your yard you will eventually want to turn into a garden, plant clover in there to begin with.
The Clover plant takes nitrogen from the air and puts it into the soil. Read more about the benefits of sowing white clover here.
Here is that same area after planting in clover. I think it looks so pretty when it blooms! And the whole lawn is buzzing with bumblebees getting their fill.
Other possibilities for cover crops that we use ourselves is Buckwheat and Fall Rye. Granted, neither of these would work well as an alternative to lawn, but if you need to improve your soil, read our posts about them.
So, think about throwing some Clover seed around. You’ll pretty up the place, it will smell wonderful and the bees will come abuzzin’.
And you can take comfort in the fact that running a lawn mower over it (or not) every three weeks or so will be an easy chore.
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