Proponents of organic lawn care are pushing to bring clover back to wide use as a lawn plant, mixed with more conventional turf grasses. They point to clover's benefits, which include its ability to withstand drought, thrive in poor soil and supply nitrogen to other plants.

White Dutch clover used to be common in lawns. But once petrochemical-based weed killers were introduced after World War II, that started to change, said Paul Tukey, founder of the nonprofit organization SafeLawns.org and author of "The Organic Lawn Care Manual" (Storey). The synthetic products got rid of the weeds, but they also killed the clover.

Clover came to be looked down on as a weed, something that marred a lawn's uniformity and put children at risk by attracting bees. Now, however, interest is growing in more natural lawn care.

Clover has much to recommend it as a lawn plant, said Melinda Myers, a horticulturist and author of several lawn guides. Its biggest benefit is its ability to fix nitrogen, which means clover is its own little fertilizer factory. Clover takes nitrogen from the air, converts it to a form plants can use and eventually releases it to the surrounding soil.

In fact, clover is nature's way of healing soil that's nitrogen-deficient, Myers said. That's why it tends to move into areas with poor soil, often to the homeowner's chagrin.

That nitrogen-fixing ability can go a long way toward eliminating the need to fertilize, Tukey said. Say you had a lawn that was 5 percent clover. If you left your grass clippings on the lawn after you mowed, the clover and the clippings together would supply all the nitrogen your lawn needed once the lawn was established, he contended.

Clover also has deep roots that help it tolerate dry conditions, so it stays green long after grass has turned brown. If it's mixed in fairly evenly with grass, Myers said, it can keep a lawn looking good even at the height of summer, without the need to water.

Another of clover's attributes is something of a mixed blessing: its flowers' attractiveness to bees.

Bees, especially honeybees, are important pollinators of many food crops. Clover supports imperiled bee populations, and it also helps vegetable gardeners by bringing bees to their yards, Tukey said. But some people fear bees, he said, and a small part of the population is severely allergic to their stings.

However, he noted that clover blooms heavily for only a couple of weeks a year, and the flowers can be kept in check with frequent mowing.

Clover has other drawbacks. Probably the biggest is its tendency to spread and form patches, especially in poor soil. Clover also doesn't hold up as well to heavy foot traffic as grass. Myers said it might not be the best choice for a play area such as the ground under a swing set, although it should be fine in the rest of the lawn.

Clover's leaf form is different from grass too. A lawn with a mix of grass and clover has a more varied texture and tends to look bumpier than an all-grass lawn. "It's not necessarily the easiest thing to have a game of soccer on," Myers said.

However, that bumpiness has diminished with the development of micro-clover, a type of white clover that has been bred to grow smaller and mix in better with grass.

Micro-clover produces smaller leaves and grows closer to the ground, said Rick Myers, sales manager for DLF-USA, the U.S. branch of the company that developed the plant.

Myers said he has had a micro-clover/grass mix in his own lawn for about four years. "If you were 10 feet away from my lawn … you can't even see any micro-clover in it," he said.

Clover connection

White Dutch clover seeds are widely available, especially from stores that supply seed to farmers. Micro-clover seeds are a little harder to find, but you can buy a micro-clover/grass mix from Good Nature (whygoodnature.com or 330-836-9800).