Grass or Clover Recommendation.

[shooterdon]

I live in Northern Michigan and have about an acre I need to establish some kind of cover on. It is too far from my house to water. The soil is sand and acidic. I can add lime, potash etc but would prefer not to add a couple of inches of topsoil unless I must.

I called a hydro seed company about two weeks ago and they are not interested in doing the job.

I do not need a "lawn" but would like something that can be mowed to about a 3" height that is drought resistant. I do not care if it goes dormant as long as it does not die...(going dormant is a plus as I hate mowing LOL).

Any thoughts?

 

[Ford850]

I like turf type tall fescue grass. I use it for my lawn as well as trails, lanes, orchard, and camp areas. I mow my lawn at 3-1/4", and hit those other areas at the same time as needed. Some summers it goes completely dormant and I don't mow for a month, but most years we get just enough heavy rains to pull it out of dormancy and I cut every week or two. I buy the 3 to 5 variety blend at Rural King, etc.
In poor soil areas I have white clover that fills the bare spots mixed in with the grass.

 

[Diggin It]

Clover is good for bees, not sure how drought tolerant it is. Grows, blooms, doesn't get real tall. Maybe some other kind of wildflower?

 

[deezler]

My wife wanted a heavy clover mix in our new lawn after we carved a homesite out of the woods. I didn't really know any better and said sure, so we threw a small sack of clover into the spreader with the tractor-supply grass seed blend. Well the clover went kinda nuts and dominated... at first. Then a prolonged drought came and killed almost all of it. It looked absolutely horrible, bunch of wilted dead clover laying on the ground. Now 5 years later it's almost all grass with just a touch of clover; perfect.

Don, I would probably just wait until the early fall (ground still needs to be warm) when you see a rainy stretch of weather coming up, and bomb it with generic, heavy sun-tolerant grass seed. It'll grow.

 

[bmaverick]

I live in Northern Michigan and have about an acre I need to establish some kind of cover on. It is too far from my house to water. The soil is sand and acidic. I can add lime, potash etc but would prefer not to add a couple of inches of topsoil unless I must.

I called a hydro seed company about two weeks ago and they are not interested in doing the job.

I do not need a "lawn" but would like something that can be mowed to about a 3" height that is drought resistant. I do not care if it goes dormant as long as it does not die...(going dormant is a plus as I hate mowing LOL).

Any thoughts?

My vote is CLOVER.

- Adds color
- increases the nutrients to the soil
- Keeps the honey bee population from dying off
- Yes, you can cut it at 3 inches or even higher with no problems.

Being in the UP-MI, often the mid-west rains head that way.

 

[shooterdon]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tired Dutch White Clover last fall and this spring. It took in some areas like my shooting lane and one of the food plots...but did not do well at all in the area I need as "grass". Maybe I needed more lime? When I overseeded the area, I used a landscape rake to scratch up the gerund. I have about half the area in grass so I hate the thought of tilling it all up and starting over but that may be what I need to do. I sold my tiller but I have access to my neighbors if that is what I need to do.

Clover is not cheap at $50/10lb but it seemed a decent choice at the time.

The tall fescue sounds like it might work...so maybe a mix of it and clover?