Clover as a ground cover - Ask Extension
Can I use clover as a ground cover instead of having a grass lawn?
If so, are there shade tolerant species that are also drought tolerant once estabi...
Knowledgebase
Clover as a ground cover #925791
Asked March 10, 2026, 3:22 PM EDT
Can I use clover as a ground cover instead of having a grass lawn?
If so, are there shade tolerant species that are also drought tolerant once estabishe
Charles County Maryland
Expert Response
We do not recommend having a pure-clover lawn, but mixing microclover (a dwarf variant of Dutch White Clover, the type usually found in lawns) with tall fescue is feasible. The linked page has information about this, and connects to a PDF that goes into more detail about how to establish a mixed lawn.
There are several problems with using only clover, aside from the fact that it's a non-native plant that doesn't support many pollinators (particularly specialist insects like many native bees are); clover is not evergreen, so areas where a swath of clover goes dormant in autumn will be bare and open to weed colonization and/or erosion until it regrows around mid-spring. While many other groundcovers are also not evergreen, they tend to have more old leaf debris left behind as a natural mulch (or mulch can be used between plants) that can serve as erosion suppression. Clover is also not shade-tolerant.
There are many options for lawn alternative plantings, the candidate species list of which will be narrowed-down quite a bit if some areas need to tolerate foot traffic, since turfgrass is one of the best groundcovers for handling regular use. If you need to walk to certain areas of the yard regularly, consider putting in a mulched path (or hardscaping like stepping stones or a more even stone path) among any groundcovers that don't tolerate being stepped-on well.
If deer or rabbits regularly eat plants in the yard, that will restrict your options further, but some sample plant lists for certain basic conditions (sun vs. shade, average drainage vs. moist vs. dry) can be found in our Groundcovers web page. If you prefer a grass-like look, you could use a sedge (in particular, Pennsylvania Sedge, though there may be other sedges suitable to dry shade) as a native species or Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon) as a non-native species. Both can look lawn-like if given a few years to fill in for a more continuous coverage, and would not need routine mowing.
We've seen Lyre-leaf Sage (Salvia lyrata) spread from seed and be fairly resilient to foot traffic, including under a small tree. In the wild, it tends to grow in gritty/sandy soils that don't stay damp, so it has some drought tolerance as well.
Miri
There are several problems with using only clover, aside from the fact that it's a non-native plant that doesn't support many pollinators (particularly specialist insects like many native bees are); clover is not evergreen, so areas where a swath of clover goes dormant in autumn will be bare and open to weed colonization and/or erosion until it regrows around mid-spring. While many other groundcovers are also not evergreen, they tend to have more old leaf debris left behind as a natural mulch (or mulch can be used between plants) that can serve as erosion suppression. Clover is also not shade-tolerant.
There are many options for lawn alternative plantings, the candidate species list of which will be narrowed-down quite a bit if some areas need to tolerate foot traffic, since turfgrass is one of the best groundcovers for handling regular use. If you need to walk to certain areas of the yard regularly, consider putting in a mulched path (or hardscaping like stepping stones or a more even stone path) among any groundcovers that don't tolerate being stepped-on well.
If deer or rabbits regularly eat plants in the yard, that will restrict your options further, but some sample plant lists for certain basic conditions (sun vs. shade, average drainage vs. moist vs. dry) can be found in our Groundcovers web page. If you prefer a grass-like look, you could use a sedge (in particular, Pennsylvania Sedge, though there may be other sedges suitable to dry shade) as a native species or Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon) as a non-native species. Both can look lawn-like if given a few years to fill in for a more continuous coverage, and would not need routine mowing.
We've seen Lyre-leaf Sage (Salvia lyrata) spread from seed and be fairly resilient to foot traffic, including under a small tree. In the wild, it tends to grow in gritty/sandy soils that don't stay damp, so it has some drought tolerance as well.
Miri
