How-to Guide
Microclover: Adding a Self-Fertilizing Clover to Your Lawn
The short answer
Microclover is a small-leaved, low-growing selection of white clover (Trifolium repens) bred to blend into a lawn instead of clumping the way common white clover does. Its selling point is nitrogen: as a legume it fixes nitrogen from the air, feeding the surrounding grass through clippings and root turnover, and University of Maryland Extension notes it may let you cut one nitrogen fertilizer application per year.
The proven recipe is a mix, not a monoculture: University of Maryland trials found microclover at 5 to 10 percent of the seed mix blended well with tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass, while it completely dominated fine fescues. Water daily for the first 7 to 10 days after seeding, and know its limits — it does not tolerate high heat and drought well and requires periodic reseeding to persist.
What Microclover Is
Microclover is white clover selected for tiny leaves, low height, and even distribution through turf. Mixed at an appropriate rate, it spreads through the lawn without forming the coarse clumps of common white clover and without excessively out-competing the grass (University of Maryland Extension).
Because it is a legume, it converts atmospheric nitrogen into a form plants can use, effectively making the lawn partly self-fertilizing and supporting greener grass with less added fertilizer.
How to Seed It
- 1Pair it with the right grass — Mix with turf-type tall fescue or Kentucky bluegrass. In Maryland trials, 5 and 10 percent microclover both mixed well with these grasses; avoid pairing with chewings or hard fescue, which microclover overwhelmed.
- 2Broadcast evenly — Sow by hand in small areas or with a broadcast spreader for even distribution over larger lawns; seed can be blended with the grass seed.
- 3Water daily until sprouted — Keep the soil surface moist by watering every day for the first 7 to 10 days until the microclover germinates.
Care and Trade-Offs
- Fertilizer: the clover's nitrogen fixation may replace about one nitrogen application per year (University of Maryland Extension).
- Persistence: microclover thins out over time and requires reseeding to persist in the lawn.
- Climate: it does not tolerate high heat and drought, so expect summer thinning in hot regions.
- Flowers: it blooms less than common white clover but still flowers some, which attracts bees — a plus for pollinators, a consideration for barefoot areas.
✔ Treat microclover as a low-rate blend-in (about 5 percent of the mix), not a replacement lawn. At higher proportions or with fine fescues it takes over.
Sources
Reviewed 2026-07-18. We cite university Extension, government, and established horticultural sources — and never invent pesticide rates or dangerous treatments.
- University of Maryland Extension — Lawns and Microclover — Trial results (5% and 10% mixes blend well with tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass; dominates chewings and hard fescue), nitrogen contribution possibly replacing one N application per year, reseeding needed for persistence, poor tolerance of high heat and drought
- Penn State University — Questions about Microclover (Reduce Runoff BMP project) — Microclover behavior in mixes, mixing better than common white clover without clumping or excessive competition, and establishment watering guidance