Carol Dee
Garden Master
The weeds have overtaken the yard at home. The areas n white clover,I love. They do not grow very tall and need less mowing! @Beekissed I love the clover walkways you have. A pretty and tidy garden.
Thoughts on white clover paths?
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Beekissed
Garden Master
That was the first year I used the clover and it grew taller than any white clover I'd ever seen...had to run the mower through it a couple of times that season. But, oh, the honeybees everywhere! And not a weed in sight. Now, if you don't get good coverage and plant thickly on the clover, any spots not inhabited by the clover will sprout a weed and that's usually along the sides of the clover paths, but, mercifully they are few and are mowed down when you mow the clover.
LOVE WDC in my lawn and overseed a little more each year....it can have up to 22% digestible protein for chickens, depending upon the season and even depending on the time of day.
My chickens graze those clover patches like a cow grazes a field and they seem to prefer it in the evening, so I'm thinking that is when the sugar content is the most high.
LOVE WDC in my lawn and overseed a little more each year....it can have up to 22% digestible protein for chickens, depending upon the season and even depending on the time of day.
My chickens graze those clover patches like a cow grazes a field and they seem to prefer it in the evening, so I'm thinking that is when the sugar content is the most high.
Beekissed
Garden Master
My rows were crooked!
That year was kind of funny because I had tilled up the garden at the end of the season the previous year and planted this clover, good and thick. The next spring I just tilled pathways into it. People driving by and seeing it would stop me in town and ask what I had growing that lush and green in my garden already....the clover was so high it looked like raised beds and the rows looked like pathways. 
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journey11
Garden Master
That is awesome to even see a picture of it done. Thanks, @Beekissed ! I bet since the garden soil is more fertile and friable it made it grow taller.
How wide do you recommend the clover rows and the garden rows should be?
I let it go to flower in my yard for the bees, but that is really interesting to hear that it has up to 22% protein. I never thought about that, but I guess it would be similar to alfalfa for hay quality. My chickens eat it too, among other weeds. I hold off on refilling their feeder for part of the day to encourage them to eat more greens.
How wide do you recommend the clover rows and the garden rows should be?
I let it go to flower in my yard for the bees, but that is really interesting to hear that it has up to 22% protein. I never thought about that, but I guess it would be similar to alfalfa for hay quality. My chickens eat it too, among other weeds. I hold off on refilling their feeder for part of the day to encourage them to eat more greens.
Beekissed
Garden Master
I tried to make the paths only wide enough to get my push mower through it and the rows wide enough to hold any root systems I would be planting...usually 2 ft. wide will do it if you have good soil and I had good soil at that home. If you need to hill, you might till a little wider in order to have some soil to gather into your mound, hill, or raised bed, then reseed the edges to clover to fill in the space between the path and mulch~or just mulch that space too.
That's how I do my chickens as well...they eat on foraged food all day and get fed each evening around 5 pm. Usually they will eat some feed and then go right out and top off their crops with the evening graze and the rising night bugs before going to the roost. Intentionally planting a richer forage and planning areas of good bug and worm habitat sure does save on feed all year until winter time comes~and it's all food they are designed to eat and digest, so I think this affords them better health all the way 'round.
That's how I do my chickens as well...they eat on foraged food all day and get fed each evening around 5 pm. Usually they will eat some feed and then go right out and top off their crops with the evening graze and the rising night bugs before going to the roost. Intentionally planting a richer forage and planning areas of good bug and worm habitat sure does save on feed all year until winter time comes~and it's all food they are designed to eat and digest, so I think this affords them better health all the way 'round.
